Abstract

Luis Gusmán is undoubtedly one of the most representative authors of his generation, his 1973 work “El frasquito” (translated in Italy as “Il gemello”) marked a watershed, comparable to “El fiord” by Osvaldo Lamborghini or “Nanina” by Germán García. Gusmán is still today, in Argentina, a key figure for understanding the potential of that elusive, ghostly and perhaps now anachronistic object, which is the avant-garde.In his essay “La literatura amotinada “(2018), he revisits a concept (or rather a critical intuition) by Libertella, that of a mutinous literature, rebellious against the directives, conventions, and complacencies of the literary market: a strange, indigestible writing that not only transgresses what is established but also denies the very legitimacy of the Law that sets the boundaries of that establishment. In this interview, we asked Luis Gusmán both about that primal force of revolt, of mutiny, and about the ways in which this attitude contributes to rewriting a literary tradition and guiding the author’s own literary project. The recurring names of Héctor Libertella, Leónidas Lamborghini, Ricardo Piglia, Alberto Laiseca, and Jorge Luis Borges lead the way in this conversation.