"A Picayune Fragment of the Possible Total"Stone Allegories in Saroyan's Life-Writing

  1. Mauricio Damián Aguilera Linde 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Granada
    info

    Universidad de Granada

    Granada, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04njjy449

Revista:
Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

ISSN: 1137-6368 2386-4834

Año de publicación: 2024

Número: 69

Páginas: 175-192

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.26754/OJS_MISC/MJ.20248864 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Otras publicaciones en: Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

Resumen

La escritura autobiográfica de William Saroyan comprende una serie de experimentos que comienzan en 1952 y continúan hasta los setenta. A través de una lectura de su filosofía, este artículo explora la idea posromántica de que la vida solo puede ser concebida como un fragmento del Absoluto, y de que cualquier intento de dotarla de sentido es un proyecto inconcluso. Aplicando la teoría del fragmento que caracteriza la epistemología romántica según Lacoue-Labarthe y Nancy (1978), me propongo examinar este discurso autobiográfico como el intento fallido de dotar de un patrón estable a la identidad de un sujeto definido por la fractura y el azar. La preocupación de Saroyan por la fragmentariedad encuentra su mejor expresión en el hallazgo fortuito de un guijarro o una roca, una imagen ambivalente que opera como el símbolo transcendentalista de la unidad con el Absoluto o como una alegoría en el sentido vislumbrado por Walter Benjamin, esto es, un objeto que posibilita interrogar la historia como catástrofe. En consonancia con el sobrenombre de Armenia como el país de las piedras, solo cabe interpretar el fragmento como un testigo de la tragedia y la diseminación, temas inevitablemente asociados con la conciencia diaspórica del escritor.

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