The demand of novel. Limitations on reception of Rodolfo Walsh in the late sixties

Abstract

In 1967, the publication of Un kilo de oro -which contains four stories in stylistic continuity with the six of Los oficios terrestres (1965)- causes a reclaim of a novel, directed from cultural journalism to the author, until then just recognized by his mastery of the mystery nouvelle in the first book, Variaciones en rojo (1953), and relatively by Operación masacre (1957) catalogued outside the novel as non-fiction. In reviews and interviews between 1965 and 1967, the argentine cultural field receives Walsh`s literature as shutter of the novel, applying to the author the image of uncertain or spoiled novelist, highlighting exclusively (or ignoring, according to ideological priority) his testimonial work. We inquire those limitations of reception as a critical problem where are formulated the prejudgments of literary institution, like a contrast threshold to discover the novel projected by Walsh in different supports and forms that exceed parameters of his time.