Tentativas del viajero contemporáneo: Oliverio Coelho y sus “Apuntes en viaje”

Abstract

The series of columns published by Oliverio Coelho, the Argentine writer, in the newspaper Perfil constitute a corpus that could be included as a part of the tradition of travel literature. From this perspective, it is possible to analyze how Coelho rethinks different topics and conventions in order to build up a heterogeneous textuality, interrelated with other genres such as sociological essay, autobiographical diary and literary reflection. Throughout his work, the representation of emblematic cities for Latin American travelers are rephrased, as well as certain procedures to represent those and other places, such as anecdotal narration or exotic description. Coelho’s columns discuss the issue of travel literature in a contemporary world, where the transformation of geopolitical frontiers and narrative traditions implies a new configuration of the traveler writer, with particular features and rhetoric.