The Importation of Theories in the Field of Literary Studies (Argentina, 1987-1986): Between Clandestinity and Institutionalization

ANALÍA GERBAUDO

París

Workshop; The Transnational and Transmedial Circulation of Literature; 2018

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Institut d?études avancées, Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Sciences Politiques, University of Oxford

This article analyzesthe process of importation of theories in the field of literary studies inArgentina during the last dictatorship and the first years of the democratictransition (1976-1986). It describes how during the years of State terrorism,the clandestine practices of conceptual appropriation contributed to theconsolidation of the autonomy of the field of literary studies, andspecifically how agents at the head of these clandestine groups elaboratedtheir own research agendas, beyond the reach of pressure from the state, thusaccumulating cultural and symbolic capital which they subsequently transferredto the institutions which they entered during the democratic restoration. Theanalysis is based on two case studies: those of Beatriz Sarlo and JosefinaLudmer.The first pinpoints laysout the methodological decisions made in this study. Given the lack of archivaldocumentation of these clandestine practices, the study is based on interviewswith the principal agents of the field with the aim of understanding not onlywhat was imported, but also the circumstances in which this process took shape.For the period of the democratic transition, this work makes use of university coursesyllabi signed off by Sarlo and Ludmer, their classes, publications, andtranslations.This is followed by abrief reconstruction of the intellectual trajectory of Beatriz Sarlo andJosefina Ludmer.Thirdly, the articledescribes the importation of theory instigated by Sarlo and Ludmer during thedictatorship in order to analyze their effects on institutional practices inthe subsequent period.This paper concludeswith reflections on the role played by agents? fantasies of nano-interventionon the dynamics of the field: faced by state-imposed limitations, bothpolitical and economic in nature, the organization of formations intersected byactivism guaranteed the continuity of intellectual practices, beyond theirprecarious institutional insertion.