Entre o acaso-fragmento: Alejandra Costamagna e seus caleidoscópicos reais

Abstract

The work Últimos fuegos (2005), written by the Chilean writer Alejandra Costamagna, consists of sixteen short narratives that establish links among them. Such connections occur due to the constant reiteration of elements (characters, objects, situations and excerpts) among each narrative. In order to understand this peculiar discursive composition, we adopted two metaphors: the first corresponds to the analogy between the work and a kaleidoscope; a possible comparison due to the repetitive "randomness" of these elements / "parts" that build up different stories / "images ". This intertwining among the narratives also raises questions in relation to the literary genre to which the work belongs, since it is paradoxically composed of short narratives / stories that mix together generating a larger narrative/ novel. To understand this point we use a second metaphor, corresponding to the relationship between this discursive arrangement and the movements of approaching and distancing of the lens of a camera, which allow two types of framework: one through the zoom out through which we see a set of narratives (novel) that interweave into "parts", and another one through the zoom in in which we are given a closer view of each particular narrative (story). With these two metaphors - the kaleidoscope and the movement of approaching and distancing of a lens - our analysis researches the discursive organization of Últimos fuegos and the way it presents an imago mundi that communicates a conception of a "fragmented" and "ramdom” reality. In this sense, this investigation has no the intention of restricting nor categorizing the work as belonging to one or another literary genre, and therefore, we conclude by resorting to the concept of hybridization, which allows us to think of Últimos Fuegos from an unrestricted and non-totalizing way.