THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION

Abstract

Most critical studies on the novel Las Hortensias, published by the Uruguayan writer Felisberto Hernández in 1949, emphasizes its resumption of elements present in narratives of the nineteenth century, linking it to Romanticism. Taking as a starting point the study of Sucre (2003) that notes the commercial aspect of the relationships established between the characters in the narrative, this paper seeks to point the dialogue of the text with some manifestations of mass culture of the early twentieth century, especially film and wax museums, drawing attention to the uniqueness of Hernández novel. From this observation, what at first might seem just a story about the eccentricities of an isolated individual, in the end of the novel, when a major exhibition of dolls is performed, with great public success, also reveals itself as a narrative about the mass culture and its effects on consumers. The dialogue of the novel with film and wax museums also reveals an aspect little emphasized by critics: the parodic character of the narrative, that questions the traditional oppositions between nature and artifice, authenticity and simulation. From this perspective, the role of the dolls and their “superiority” over humans acquire a new meaning.