Enrarecer el pasado

ciencia, poder y racismo en La telepatía nacional de Roque Larraquy

Abstract

Roque Larraquy's works can be read as a trilogy whose common denominator is the inextricable knot between science and power. Without ever being didactic, Larraquy's fictions navigate the realm of the "weird" to immerse the reader in sinister worlds whose purpose, perhaps, is to generate a sense of estrangement by weaving together seemingly dissimilar elements. Thanks to certain anachronisms, this approach allows for an unusual, ironic, and ruthless reexamination of "national history" without the author becoming trapped in the obviousness of mere rewriting.  In La telepatía nacional, perhaps his most panoramic novel, the story revolves around the failed attempt to build an ethnographic-themed amusement park and its consequences: white Argentina (represented by Mr. Amado Dam) comes into contact with a community of ‘uncommunicated’ Indigenous people through telepathic connection. However, rather than leading to meaningful and profound changes in the relationship between these two worlds, this encounter ultimately reinforces hegemonic epistemology and cannibalizes the "other" culture.