Raúl Larra

One aspect of Larra's work of biographical literary criticism is often referenced in a negative way in later studies of Roberto Arlt: the presupposition that a relatively straightforward connection can (and should) be made between the writer and his or her fictional creations. Larra's basic assumption is that Arlt's protagonists are reflections of the author himself, and he insists on this point repeatedly.

I went into this book, then, with the idea that it was a pretty antiquated piece of literary criticism. It is; it's also a landmark in the reception of Arlt, and is worth reading due to the influence it had on later readings of the Argentine novelist and playwright. It played a rather large role in the mythologization of the figure of Arlt, and the canonization of his works. And it's easy to see why: it weaves together Arlt's writings and his life story, situating them in the literary history of Argentina, in an entertaining and compelling way. It continues to be easy to both pick out Larra's critical blind spots, and identify the ideological underpinnings of the positions he takes with respect to Arlt and the value of his literature. In a way, it's almost as if the latter of those weaknesses has become one of the book's strengths 65 years after its publication: Larra was a longtime member of the Communist Party, and you can read his biography of Arlt as a move to appropriate the deceased author for the radical left; in other words, alongside the biographical aspects of his readings, he also reads Arlt's works as a sustained critique of capitalist society in times of economic volatility and crisis. Arlt's later readers will be much more favorable to this line of thinking, and it's worth returning to Larra to get a feel for how the Argentine critical tradition began elaborating an understanding of the critical nature of Arlt's literature.… (mehr)