MUSEU DO ROMANCE DA ETERNA

MACEDONIO FERNÁNDEZ AND THE WRITING OF ABSENCE

Abstract

This article investigates the power of the “writing of absence” in the novel Museu do Romance da Eterna (2010), by the Argentine writer Macedonio Fernández. It is based on the hypothesis that Macedonian writing, in its character of permanent self-reflexivity, challenges the narrative form and its constitutive elements, deconstructing the romance genre and creating new aesthetic possibilities. Drawing on Bernardo (2010), the metafictional aspect of the text is explored, with an analysis that considers the material features of Fernández’s writing, such as paratexts and the frequent interruptions imposed by the author on the novel’s flow. In this context, the readers – constantly summoned – actively participate in the production of meaning of the text, and the negation of the realistic romance genre is reinforced by the self-conscious aspect of the narrative: the readers are always reminded that they are engaged with fiction. The perception of Macedonio as a dissident writer, or authentic Bartleby, in his character of permanent refusal of writing, is commented on in the text-essay of Vila-Matas (2021). Macedonio, however, unlike the characters of Vila-Matas, denies writing, but does so by writing, which highlights the ambivalent aspect of his text. The result, as argued, is of a monument to literary art.