Abstract

VANDEN BERGHE, Kristine  and  LICATA, Nicolas. Another Poet in New York. Gilberto Owen in Los ingrávidos (2011) by Valeria Luiselli. Lit. mex [online]. 2020, vol.31, n.1, pp.155-178.  Epub Aug 24, 2020. ISSN 2448-8216.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.litmex.31.1.2020.1150.

In the first novel written by Valeria Luiselli, Los ingrávidos (2011, translation into English: Faces in the crowd), the prominence of Gilberto Owen as a character indicates that Luiselli wishes to give a renewed visibility to this Mexican artist and, at the same time, to create a self-image that legitimates her activity as a writer. Disarticulated content, continuous intertextuality and recurring metaliterary reflection, various of the commonalities which link up Luiselli’s poetic practice with that of Owen suggest that she vindicates a literary relationship that situates her in a family of Mexican avant-garde writers. This affiliation is even more explicit in the novel, because Luiselli turns Owen into a literary character (not without exaggerating some of the poet’s traits that are often associated with the figure of the artist, such as alcoholism or relational failure) and introduces him as her own double.

Keywords : Gilberto Owen; Valeria Luiselli; Self-fiction; Avant-garde Literature.