Abstract
This article interprets Posse's novel as an interrogation of notions of progress associated with the European project of modernity and the Argentine programme of post-independence nation formation. References to Mann, Rilke, and Rimbaud elucidate Posse's portrayal of death and disease as barriers to the realization of social improvement, and his vision of modernity's repressive strategies. In addition, the paper examines Posse's treatment of the civilization/barbarism dichotomy through the lens of Kusch's work. The barbarism of the gaucho undermines the liberal vision of the nation. The article concludes that the novel renders the idea of modernity as progress problematic.
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