Society and "La Bolsa" in the Argentine Novel

Abstract

The rise of the realistic-naturalistic novel in Argentina was coupled to the mushroom-like growth of Buenos Aires. By 1880 Zola's influence had begun to spread over most of Spanish America, and at that time Buenos Aires was finally acquiring the characteristics of a metropolis, many of which were undesirable but constituted excellent material for the writer who had studied I'Assomoir. In the preface to La gran aldea, published in 1884 after first appearing in installments, Lucio Vicente L6pez sets the tone of his novel by announcing Yo admiro el robusto y valiente genio literario de Emilio Zola.' The significance of this work, the first important Argentine novel excepting the melodramatic Amalia, lies in the presentation of a Buenos Aires that undergoes the transition from gran aldea to big city. In contrasting the post-Rosas years with the turbulent 1880's L6pez shows above all how Buenos Aires has changed, but for the worse. Through characters like Dr. Trevexo and his humanistic friends that once held tertulias in bookstores we hear the novelist's lament for the bygone golden days when Buenos Aires was the Atenas del Plata, which gave way to an era with a concept of life based on materialistic supremacy. Dr. Trevexo actually belongs to what Alberto Zum Felde calls una clase patricia, con cierta sedimentaci6n patrimonial y tradici6n letrada,2 which the Uruguayan critic and historian prefers to the now dominant bourgeoisie that utilizes all values to further purely materialistic interests.