From Monday 28th October to Friday 1st November, the University celebrated ‘Argentina Week 2019’ with a diverse series of events and talks, delivered with the support of the Argentine Embassy in London, London’s Instituto Cervantes, the Latin American Centre, the Sub-faculty of Spanish, and St Catherine’s College.
The week’s events kicked off with an insightful and well-attended talk on the Argentine cartonera from Dr Analía Gerbaudo, which drew particular attention to its influence on a global scale. Alongside teaching literary theory at the Universidad Nacional de Litoral in Argentina, Gerbaudo is the chief editor of online literary journal El Taco en la Brea, and directs the publishing house Vera cartonera. Through her talk, we were introduced to the cartonera form, which emerged following the economic and political crisis of the early 2000s in Argentina. With a cover made from recycled cardboard, these handmade books could be produced and sold at a minimal cost, increasing access to literature and diversifying the general audience for literary works.
Before beginning the session, Gerbaudo laid out a range of striking cartoneras on the table of the Latin American Centre Seminar Room, characterised by their elaborately decorated covers rich in colour, paint and collage. Our understanding of the cartonera’s physical form was deepened as we were shown a video of a cartonera being made, allowing an insight into the collaborative nature of the manufacturing process. Later in the talk, Gerbaudo discussed the significance of this physical aspect: while, in traditional publishing, the cover of a text is generally not viewed as one of its more significant characteristics, the aesthetic of the cartonera is of incredible value and importance, and is certainly not inferior to its content.
As diverse thematically as they are physically, Gerbaudo drew our attention to the many different genres embraced by the cartonera form. While some are written as children’s fiction, others contain recipes, and many focus on the issue of collective historical memory with a distinctive political dimension, which – Gerbaudo highlighted – is often expressed through the clever manipulation of idioms and colloquial language. Diversity was also discussed with regard to the relationship between cartoneras and music, with Gerbaudo’s short video of a ‘cumbia’ performance providing a fascinating insight into how literature can weave together with popular culture.
Gerbaudo’s work with the cartonera in schools was a further point of great interest during the session, as we were introduced to her inspiring efforts to increase access to literature amongst young people. Gerbaudo explained how using workshops, in which students themselves can produce their own cartoneras, has helped to combat their sense of isolation from literature, and is turning the book into an increasingly familiar object in their social and cultural lives.
On Wednesday 30 October, many gathered in the Taylor Institute to hear author and journalist Mariana Enriquez in conversation with Ben Bollig from the Spanish Sub-faculty. Teaching journalism at Argentina’s Universidad Nacional de La Plata and working as a subeditor for the Buenos Aires newspaper Página/12, Mariana has also published extensively as a fiction author. Her works include Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (Anagrama, 2016), or Things We Lost in the Fire, which has, so far, been translated into 22 languages and has won both the Ciutat de Barcelona prize and the 3rd National Prize for Short Stories in Argentina.
In an insightful series of questions and answers, Enriquez described the beginnings of her literary career, and how she began to write after seeing little representation of herself and her peers in contemporary fiction, and wished to use her own voice to fill this space. When asked about the evolution of her career over time, Enriquez discussed her contrasting experiences within the realms of journalism and fiction, and the impact that both have had on her as a writer. While Enriquez remarked that she believes journalism to have a responsibility to the reader and a requirement to be objective, she referenced the comparative irresponsibility of fiction, conversely stating that many of her fictional works primarily aim to disconcert. We also learned how journalism has had a significant impact on Enriquez’s mindset surrounding the act of writing, and how transferring some of the regiment and demand of her journalistic career to the fictional realm has greatly aided her productivity within this sphere.
Responding to later questions regarding the political dimension of her work, Enriquez remarked that she finds this aspect of writing a rather unconscious one. While not necessarily setting out to write with a particular political slant or focus, Enriquez’s deep-rooted interest in politics naturally shines through her fiction and her descriptions of modern Argentine life. Also discussing the fascinating process of writing gothic literature, Enriquez notably recounted how many readers are surprised that she can ‘imagine’ the atrocities that she depicts within her works. Enriquez insisted, however, that she invents nothing in relation to such horrors, but simply sheds light on much-forgotten incidents of true crime in narrative form, raising compelling questions on the influence of the medium we use in relation to how we receive and absorb information.
The week’s events did not stop there, however, with Dr Geraldine Lublin from the University of Swansea, Dr Ignacio Aguiló from the University of Manchester, and Dr Guadalupe Gerardi from the University of Oxford coming together for a panel discussion on ‘The Meaning of Argentina’ on Tuesday 29 October. Two days later, it was the turn of Dr Erika Martínez from the Universidad de Granada to visit the Taylor Institute, discussing contemporary Argentine poetry with her talk “Insolentes: Spleen, cualquierización y expropiaciones en la poesía argentina del cambio de siglo.” But, on Friday 1 November, it was St Catherine’s College that hosted the final event of the week, with a screening of Santiago Mitre and Juan Onofri’s film Los posibles in the JCR Lecture Theatre. With all events free and open to all, the week proved to be a great success, as many gathered to learn, explore, and, above all, enjoy the wealth of value and insight provided by our many fascinating guests.