Estructuras desbordantes en Silvina Ocampo. Invenciones del recuerdo como poema largo

The subject matter of this work is the long poem entitled Invenciones del recuerdo, written by Silvina Ocampo (1903-1993) between 1960 and 1988, a period of time which covers the majority of the developmental stages of this author’s literary career. The hypothesis that this study intends to prove is that Invenciones del recuerdo, by using the form of the long poem, a literary form of the Latin American Modernity, exceeds its own material limits in order to occupy other texts. Through its extensibility, comparable to a river that overflows its banks, Silvina Ocampo’s long poem establishes a dialogue with several short stories and poems written by her with the purpose of revealing essential concerns and characteristics of her writing. This statement is proven with a three-part investigation. The first part addresses the problem of the literary genres and its relation with the form of the long poem. The second one contextualizes Silvina Ocampo’s literary work that is its place and reception within the literary history of Argentina. The third one applies the combined observations of the first two parts to an analysis of Invenciones del recuerdo. The main goal of this thesis is to give a proper place to Silvina Ocampo within Latin American literary history, a place which eluded her due to the prominence of other writers who surrounded her such as Victoria Ocampo, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Jorge Luis Borges. Moreover, this thesis recognizes Silvina Ocampo’s proposal and practice of a unique and individual aesthetic which is unlike that with which she has been associated