Denial of Expectations and Sense of History in El Padre Mío by Diamela Eltit

Abstract

This paper examines the testimonial speeches in El Padre Mío (1989) registered by Diamela Eltit taking into account two interrelated phenomena: the partial dissolution of the horizon of expectations during the reception of referential genres and the genealogical dimension that lies in the subjective nature of the enunciation. Under this light, both the reception of the speeches and the sense of history that frames them experience a kind of discontinuity peculiar to their idiosyncratic features.