Tag Archives: neoliberalism

10/14/21

It All Comes Back To Anahí

We touched on how, in “the Crazy Woman and the Tale of the Crime”, by Ricardo Piglia, Anahí represents the Argentinian society as a whole; however, we never really dove deep into it. Therefore, I want to expand on the little hints and big clues that demonstrate Anahí as symbolism of the post-neoliberalism social structure. For example, Anahí kissed the fat man’s feet in exchange for “a thousand pesos” (558). If Anahí represented Argentinian society and in the process, Argentina as a whole, then the fat man represents American neoliberalism. Thus, it symbolizes the kind of relationship between the two countries during such a time. Therefore, the bar, the New Deal, represents all the different countries in the world that America has tamed, with money, to further its liberalistic policies.

In order to truly understand this short story, one must read between the lines. Yet, reading between the lines has an entirely different meaning in this text as Renzi had to read between the delirious lines of Anahí in order to understand what she was trying to say. Just like how Argentina had to rely on literature to maintain free speech / history and how we had to delve deeper into this rabbit hole to figure out why this Anahí is so significant. 

The relationship between Anahí and Evita Peron further illiterates on Anahí being a symbol for Argentina. Notice how Anahí “was a queen and was a friend of Evita Peron”(561). The past tense is important because it implies that Anahí was friends with Evita at some point. However, in Evita’s biography there is no mention of Anahí anywhere; because it would only make sense if she was never real in the first place and a symbolic representation for Argentina. Anahí being a queen also suggests that Argentina was way better off before America intervened.

This literature acted as the “fourth estate” for Argentina when all other forms of resistance or criticism has failed.  I believe this makes it so that if this form of fictional literature as critique were to be silenced, then it would cause mass suspicion and ultimately cause more harm than good to neoliberalism. 

10/13/21

Gates cannot keep away violence

While Claudia Piñeiro’s Thursday’s Widows, sets itself up as a mystery thriller when one of the affluent wives, Teresa, discovers the death of her husband along with his two friends floating dead in their pool, the story unfolds to be a social commentary about how even the most “untouchable” communities are strictly dependant on the economic system that brought them up in the first place. In this case, the “tragedy” the characters were subjected to was the failure of neoliberal capitalism in Argentina. There is almost a sense of apathy for the deaths of these prominent men because as Tano put it, their success or “well-being was based on the ill-being of others.” The scenes where the camera pans up to reveal a ghetto right behind the walls and where Ronnie is watching the news of protests and crowds fighting for rations, juxtaposes the opulent and nonchalant lives of the wealthy, but also foreshadows their inevitable downfall.

Although the rich do segregate themselves from the rest of society, they are not immune to violence especially when the men start losing their jobs and prominence. Consumption is a facade of their class status and signals the idealistic lifestyle that neoliberalism purports. However, the facade that it’s normal for people to have power over and exploit others can quickly turn to depression, domestic abuse, and ultimately suicide on an individual scale because it’s clearly unsustainable in terms of economic growth and improving standards of living for all. While detective fiction stories usually restore some sense of order when the crime has been solved, Argentina in the early 21st century is still far from it. Additionally, the act of the men committing suicide was also a crime because they committed insurance fraud by framing their death as an accident. It can be interpreted that justice has been restored because their death symbolizes the failure of neoliberalism, but given the aforementioned context of the purpose of their death and the prevailing conflict in Argentinian society, it is unclear whether the story ends on a hopeful note.

09/21/21

Satire, Sarcasm, Sea of Poverty

This piece by Naranjo (a short story) contained many, many literary devices that lent to its effectiveness as what is ultimately an educational short story with a huge moral tilt. I believe the “genre” (if we are using that term) would be a satire, as it makes fun of the monetary agencies such as the IMF and EEC, as well as Costa Rica’s own delusional leaders. Naranjo effectively uses sarcasm to make her points, lending to the satirical tone, as in the lines about levying a tax on air: “ten colones per breath would be a small price to pay.” (151)

Above all, the literary device that I picked up on was metaphor. It was administered in small doses, such as, “sea of poverty,” (150). But metaphor manifests itself in a much bigger way, too, from the concept of Miss Underdeveloped, to the “fat cows” representing international lending. In honesty, I had a bit of difficulty understanding what the idea of Miss Underdeveloped represented, and I’m hoping that a colleague can help me out with this!! (Perhaps in the comments).

The back-and-forth between such metaphor and reality (between the conceptual and the specific) throughout the story had the effect of making me stop and think in the middle of the text, especially because it was done so abruptly between modes (see page 152: the “lean cows” seem to come out of nowhere)! For me, this definitely broke up the flow of the reading and was a bit frustrating, but perhaps this was the intention – to make the reader stop and be an active participant in decoding the metaphor so as to understand it better. I am wondering if the inclusion of such rich metaphor so seamlessly/casually in the text makes this piece an example of magical realism, or whether it’s just metaphor?