ART AS UTOPIAN HORIZON OF FEELING IN LA ANUNCIACIÓN

Abstract

In La Anunciación (2007) by María Negroni, a survivor of the Dirty War in Argentina narrates her quest to reconstitute herself as a subject, in exile, thirty years later. Thus, the novel inserts itself in the series of narratives about the memories of the last dictatorship in Argentina. However, at the same time, departing from referentiality, the novel creates obstacles for a mimetic reading. This paper argues that this is achieved through the discussion about art that mainly focuses on the character of Emma, the painter, and on the pictorial tradition of the Annunciation. Nonetheless, this departure from referentiality is by no means complete as the narrative keeps a dialectical relationship with history and memory. Accordingly, this article suggests that the novel puts forward a utopian idea of art that enters in dialogue with the utopian ideals of the revolutionary movements of the 1970s.