Return to what became beginning: literary genres and politics in “Simbiosis”, by Rodolfo Walsh

Abstract

“Symbiosis”, originally apperared in 1956, is the initial step of the Rodolfo Walsh’s detective stories series which, extended until 1962, shows Daniel Hernández and police inspector Laurenzi as its main characters. But “Symbiosis” also represents a moment of ruptures in Walsh’s career, ruptures which can be observed if his previous work is considered, and contribute to define the singular position the writer seeks to adopt in his contemporary literary field. The story constitutes a particular attempt of nationalized detective short fiction, which simultaneously assumes and questions the classic canon of the genre, as the adoption of fantastic literature features allows explanations of the crime linked to popular knowledge, discovered by Laurenzi as a small village police inspector. Correlatively, the equivocal resolution of the case, debated between two generic parameters, one rational, the other supernatural, as well as the question on culpability that the story leaves open, make meaningful resonances of te text’s historical context, still disregarded by the critics, and particularly referred to the debates on political guilts and innocences which, since 1955, caused the militar overthrow of the peronist government.