(After utopia. Cultural controversy and political debate through the editorial texts of Abelardo Castillo in the magazine El Ornitorrinco (1977-1986))

Abstract

This article proposes an approach to the editorial texts published by Abelardo Castillo in the magazine El Ornitorrinco. Founded in 1977, the project was suggested as an expression of cultural resistance during the dictatorship initiated in 1976. During this period, Castillo’s editorial texts sustained a constant literary and political reflection imbricating these two practices in the same discursive space. After 1983, his texts entered the controversial debate around the definition and limits of the democratic order. In sum, it is possible to point out constant writing productivity in which the reflection on literature is simultaneously composed of the public debate. Transcending this paradox, Castillo defined an ethical and aesthetic praxis that materializes in his interventions published in the magazines.