Contextos socioeconómico y editorial de emergencia de Roberto Arlt

Abstract

The work proposes a reconstruction of the epistemological state at the beginning of the 20th century regarding the concept of literature. The consolidation of the book market in the region, alongside the strengthening of the bourgeois class, shapes, at this moment, the notion of "the literary" that operates even today. We recover the notions of "commodity”, “market”, “labour”, and "taste" from a Marxist perspective, to understand how class relations and production conditions contribute to the phenomenon of modern literature. Along the same lines, we highlight a series of historical milestones that position Argentina at the centre of the Spanish-speaking book industry. In this way, we outline the context for the emergence of the author figure of Roberto Arlt. We explore how these conditions and concerns permeate the fictional and journalistic work of the author, how they are thematized, and how an aesthetic program is traced that conscious of the industrial and, paradoxically, artisanal character of literary work. Arlt is not a minor author in this case. Not only due to his impact on the Argentine literary tradition, both in the novel and in the chronicle and theatre, but also because his prolific authorial figure and immense production the Aguafuertesprovide a constant reflection and testimony of the formation of the "professional writer” figure.