Avatares del personaje artificial en la novela argentina de los 90

Abstract

Based on an idea from Museo de la Novela de la Eterna, by Macedonio Fernández, this paper studies the metaliterary reflection in three Argentine novels of the 90�s (two of them by César Aira; one by Osvaldo Soriano). In these novels, the «artificial character» plays a principal role. By analysing the features of the creator and of the creature, as well as the relation between the «artificial creature» and the «artifice of the creation», it becomes obvious that the «artificial character» (automaton, robot or clone) is tied in these texts to the «crises of the credible», so present in an important number of contemporary narratives, which (apparently) only can find their meaning in the revelation of the narrative activity itself.