Habla, mutismo, y régimen de expresión en La vorágine

Abstract

In La vorágine (The Vortex, 1924), Colombian author José Eustasio Rivera stages a war of writings between the two poetic principles belonging to the regime of expression studied by Jacques Rancière: the principle of necessity and the principle of indifference. They both manifest themselves in the dichotomy of speech/muteness as a leitmotiv that structures Rivera's novel; its protagonist's madness can be interpreted as the incapacity to reconcile them. The jungle devouring the main character at the end, which stands for his encounter with the Real, ultimately represents art merging with life and it heralds the arrival of the Avant-garde.