The Defamiliarized Past in Félix Bruzzone’s Comical Autofictions

Abstract

This chapter argues that the tensions between fact and fiction in Félix Bruzzone’s literature have experienced a radical transformation over recent years, from his 2008 collection of stories in 76 to the publication of Las chanchas in 2014. This transformation is based on the progressive abandonment of references to Bruzzone’s life and the fact that he is the son of disappeared parents in favour of a more ambiguous and adventurous type of autofiction. His literature can thus be read as a defence of humour and imagination when “playing” with the darkest episodes of the past. In addition, the chapter examines the “multidirectional memory” (Rothberg) that characterizes his work and it suggests that the omnipresence of animals in his narratives gives them an “affirmative (bio)political” (Esposito) status.