Telling Truth in Fiction: The Precarious Aesthetic of Valeria Luiselli’s Documentary Fiction Lost Children Archive

Abstract

ABSTRACT Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive is a documentary fiction that innovatively explores the possibilities and limitations of the novel genre and engenders a precarious aesthetic through its unconventional narrative structure. Drawing on the theoretical framework of precarious texts, as advanced by eminent German cultural critic Sieglinde Lemke, this paper argues that Luiselli’s fiction, with its eclectic blend of intertextual references, avant-garde narrative strategies, and incorporation of archival materials, offers a richly nuanced and pluralistic representation of undocumented children at the US-Mexico border. By utilizing child focalization, magic realism, and unreliable narration, in conjunction with the assimilation of archival materials such as posters, reports, and photographs, the author reenacts the novel’s story with a second narrator to elicit a precarious gaze, empowering an alternative mode of understanding the complexity of the migration crisis. Rather than resorting to overt political messaging, Luiselli implores readers to engage with the novel’s structure and contemplate its representational modes, provoking a creative response that transcends feelings of pity and indignation. By subtly foregrounding the political impasse surrounding the uneven distribution of precariousness, the narrative creates a complex blend of fact and fiction to generate a reflexive understanding that can potentially challenge readers’ ethical and epistemological dispositions.