Textual travels and memory displacements in Santo Oficio de la memoria by Mempo Giardinelli

The Latin-American discourse present in the literature is always being reconstructed. The historical narrative participates in this reconstruction through formations that show a concern for cultural identity. Mempo Giardinelli's novel Santo Oficio de la memoria visits the 20th century history of Argentina to inquire about the hybrid identity formations of migrant and displaced subjects through textual strategies that also go beyond their borders. In this article I offer a reading of Giardinelli's novel from three perspectives: the openings of the idea of square square nation and its textualization (Achugar, Volpi); the debate between memory and history as ways of visiting the past (Benjamin, Ricoeur) and the recurrence to other texts to account for textual journeys (Deleuze). These three perspectives show a "foreign character" in Giardinelli's narrative.