Protagonismo villero: la nueva fisonomía de una Buenos Aires marginal en la segunda mitad del siglo XX

This article examines literary representations of squatter settlements or shantytowns (villas) in Buenos Aires city. The villa, which used to be a transitory stop for immigrants arriving at the city for a better life, is currently a permanent settlement. The place is a center of attention/attraction because of the growing spectacularization in the media of violence, poverty and social marginality. The comparison of a novel from the fifties with recent texts shows a notable change in the importance given to the aesthetic form at the expense of its social content and denounciation. During the fifties the villa represented a social projection to the future, but in recent interpretations it is described aesthetically and contemplatively