The Historical Novel and El último caso de Rodolfo Walsh by Elsa Drucaroff

Abstract

The interweaving of a detective plot and several texts by Rodolfo Walsh, that Elsa Drucaroff defines as a historical novel in El último caso de Rodolfo Walsh (2010), is her proposition to rethink the recent history of Argentina and the role of those who participated in the extremes of the ideological confrontation of the 1970’s. This paper examines Drucaroff’s work as a novelist and her historical analysis of the forces in action at that time. The focus is on the level of political consciousness of the characters as well as the measure in which the text adds to the debate as a public discourse relevant to the tragic events in question. Even though Walsh’s writings in this novel serve to confirm the analytical approach to history by Drucaroff as a leftist intellectual, it is in the fictional passages and characters that we are able to identify a proposal free from the associations that come with the use of the iconic writer.