Other modulations of the Self: Diarios de la edad del pavo, by Fabián Casas

Abstract

Using the notions of autofiction theory, as well as other approaches, from poststructuralism to intimate diary theory, this essay proposes to examine the significant aspects of the intimate diary of Argentinian writer Fabián Casas (Buenos Aires, 1965), which covers from 1992 to 1997 and describes how a literary calling is followed, constantly threatened by the little things in every day life; the registering of the writing process of his first works, and the development of himself as an «autor», under the concept presented by Michel Foucault. Even though many of the topics of this book could be classified in a satisfactory way, the most important part from this Diarios de la edad del pavo, is the number and the quality of the reflections on the action of writing present in the diary itself. In strictly literary and paraliterary terms, this essay will demonstrate that those variations of the same “I” that Casas has used in his poetry and narrative are the contributions from his diary, coming together with the robust literary system of Latinamerican journal d’ écrivain, and coming very close to La tentación del fracaso, by Julio Ramón Ribeyro, or Los diarios de Emilio Renzi, by his fellow countryman Ricardo Piglia.