Space and Referentiality in Dámaso Larrañaga 's Fábulas Americanas

Abstract

The spatial turn has meant a return to the problem of the referent for literary criticism, as exemplified in Bertrand Westphal's theorizing about fictional worlds. In this context, we set ourselves to the task of analyzing the links between places, spaces and ethics in the Fábulas Americanas written by Uruguayan poet Dámaso Larrañaga. First, we will review tension in Lavardén's ode "Al Paraná", focusing on two axes (utility-ornament, universal-local). We consider his work to be representative of both dialectics in rioplatense neoclassical poetry. Then, we will read three of Larrañaga's fables in order to show the link between the axiological and the spatial referent, which constitute the didactic axis in his Fábulas Americanas. We will argue that Spanish-speaking neoclassical poets in Latin America used fiction to give meaning to places that were "new" to their literary tradition. Referentiality in the poems radically alters the classicist paradigm, as it starts to focus on a process of universalization of local values before spaces can truly be grasped as empty or as a uniform tabula rasa in the service of economic production.