“Nudos blancos”. On the relationship myth-cultural memory in La ciudad ausente (1992) by Ricardo Piglia

Abstract

From a reflection located in the Semiotics of Culture of Yuri Lotman and in dialogue with some considerations on myth criticism and its literary translation, this paper looks to explore the potency of the metaphor of “nudo blanco” [white knot] proposed by the novel La ciudad ausente (1992) by Ricardo Piglia, in order to think about the complex relationship between myth and cultural memory. Inquiring the way in which the dialogue between myth and literature could be read, we explore how that relationship shows a more inclusive mechanism, which refers to the dynamics itself of a cultural system. Thus, the hypothesis in our study is that certain cultural texts translate each other (myth as literary substrate and literature as a vehicle of myth), allowing to account for this dynamism through metaphors that, far from being a mere literary ornament, enable to capture the mode of functioning of a cultural system.