James Joyce’s Ulysses in Ricardo Piglia’s Respiración artificial

Authors

  • Cristina Elgue-Martini

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37389/abei.v16i0.3563

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the presence of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) in Respiración artificial, the first novel by the Argentinean writer Ricardo Piglia (1941- ). Published in 1980, Respiración is a fictional representation of a near and tragic past, the last Military Dictatorship in Argentina, but it is also a literary re-assessment of earlier stages in the history of the nation, as well as a metatextual comment on western culture and on Argentine literature. James Joyce’s Ulysses is present in Piglia’s novel mainly through its main character, Emilio Renzi, who belongs to a literary genealogy that can be traced back to Stephen Dedalus and even Stephen Daedalus, the protagonist of Stephen Hero. The analysis will focus on the many allusions and
quotations of Ulysses in Piglia’s novel with the purpose of showing how they are resignified by Piglia in a different sociocultural context.

Keywords: Ulysses; Respiración artificial; Stephen Dedalus; Emilio Renzi; historiographic metafiction.

Author Biography

  • Cristina Elgue-Martini

    Cristina Elgue-Martini is Full Professor at the Faculty of Languages -National University of Córdoba, Argentina. She holds a Ph.D. degree from Laval University, Canada. Her main areas of research are Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Anglophone and Latin American Contemporary Narrative and Women’s Studies. She has participated with her research teams as associated partner of the ACUME (Approaching Cultural Memory) project and ACUME II (Interfacing Science, Literature and the Humanities) project of the European Community. She was president of the Argentinean Association of Comparative Literature between 2001 and 2003 and is the current vice-president of the Argentinean Association of American Studies. She is also the current editor of the Journal of Comparative Cultures and Literatures of the Faculty of Languages. She is author and editor of numerous publications, and has been invited by Argentine, Latin American, Canadian and Europen
    Universities to lecture in her fields of interests. She was dean of her Faculty from 2000 to 2008. She is a member of the Pen Club, Buenos Aires, and among other academic awards, she has been granted the Palmes Académiques by the French Government.

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Published

2014-11-17

Issue

Vol. 16 (2014): ABEI Journal 16

Section

Voices from South America

How to Cite

Elgue-Martini, C. (2014). James Joyce’s Ulysses in Ricardo Piglia’s Respiración artificial. ABEI Journal, 16, 123-130. https://doi.org/10.37389/abei.v16i0.3563