Los Pichiciegos de Fogwill : les hommes-taupes des Malouines

Abstract

This paper offers an original reading of Los Pichiciegos by Argentinian writer Rodolfo Fogwill through the theme of the enclave. Los Pichiciegos has often been read contextually, as a metaphor of the Argentinian military dictatorship (1976-1983). Without ignoring the context altogether, this study aims at focusing on the narrative strategies at work in the novel, which sheds a new light on the conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom during the Falklands War by undermining the classical military dichotomies such as allies vs enemies or traitors vs patriots. For instance, the presence of a metaleptic dialogue between one of the characters and the implied author—embedded like an enclave within the discourse—brings about a confusion between the genre of the eyewitness account and that of fiction. Thus the question of the genre of Los Pichiciegos mirrors the problematical identity of the characters.