“Un muerto vivo”: Poe and Argentina

Abstract

“‘Un muerto vivo’: Poe and Argentina,” by Emron Esplin, examines Poe’s literary relevance in Argentina, including his influence on Leopoldo Lugones, Horacio Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, and Julio Cortázar. Poe’s influence on and affinities with these major figures, who represent disparate and competing poetics, demonstrate his long-lasting presence in a place he never visited and never wrote about. In the place-oriented terminology of geographer Edward Relph, Poe’s Argentine advocates have moved him from a position of oblivious “outsideness” to one of “existential insideness.” In short, while Argentina appears to be a non-place for Poe, this site adopts, proliferates, responds to, and tweaks Poe like few others do.