El Martín Fierro como causa justa

Abstract

This article explores the functions of José Hernández's poem within the literary institution, considering the tensions that the author himself experiences with the work. Hernández problematizes central issues of literature: realism, fiction, and representation. Within this framework, the article focuses mainly on two topics. The first is the idea of “untranslatable” (B. Cassin), who wants to investigate how the language of Martín Fierro works as a place of opacity and resistance to literary practices (at the same time that it is included in the institution). To do this, I study some cases of "translation" of the poem and the explanation of the problems involved. The second topic focuses on the idea of "archive" and "canon" and reflects on how Martín Fierro behaves in a literature like Argentina's, which is rewritten and early adopted as a classic. The hypothesis of the article maintains that Hernández's poem, in its numerous rewrites, not only behaved as a precursor but that the work generated a master story through a story of rebellion and negotiation. That story directs a good part of those later productions that rewrote the classic.