A Fourth-Rate Collector: A Critical Analysis of the Character of Lupus in "El centrofoward murió al amanecer" by Agustín Cuzzani

Abstract

The collector obsesses over objects, over their most relevant information, over the extravagance of his cataloging system. Although there may be a great variety of ways of collecting (and certainly of objects to collect), the common denominator of this activity is its confrontation with absence and the desire that makes collections always incomplete. At the same time, the very characteristic of the collectible object limits its use, generating a magical aura around it that, when desecrated, loses its properties. This paper is a critical analysis of the character of Lupus in the play El centrofoward murió al amanecer written by Agustín Cuzzani in 1955. In particular, the analysis engages with the work of Walter Benjamin and contemporary thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben and Beatriz Sarlo.