The Affects of Memory. Family, Memory and Nation in the Contemporary Bolivian novel

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis of the novel Los afectos (2015) by Rodrigo Hasbún that sheds light on new forms of giving meaning to reality in the contemporary Bolivian novel. Based on a hypothesis that identifies the narrative strategies that the novel uses to fictionalize the family memory and national history, I argue that Los afectos explores new forms of connections between aesthetics and politics. Although Hasbún's novel draws attention for its polyphonic structure and plurality of modes of enunciation from which the different narrators position themselves, this innovative proposal is limited by narrative mechanisms that impose forms of control over fictionalized memory, closing any possibility to imagine new relationships between history, memory and narration. The novel, however, leaves open the possibility that, thinking from an affective point of view, more democratic ways of building shared memories may emerge.