Buenos Aires. Fantastyka vs. metafizyka
Buenos Aires. Fantasy vs. Metaphysics

Summary/Abstract: A presentation of the assorted dimensions of the fantastic qualities of Buenos Aires: firstly, this is an invented city whose ontical locus is the word (assuming that the town had been created by the toponym “Buenos Aires” the text analyses etymologies, transcription variants, and attempts at changing the name); secondly, the town is architecturally monotonous (the city’s Hippodameian plan and symbolic centre, the Recoleta cemetery), and thus has produced the best fantasy literature; thirdly, Buenos is the realisation of a fantastic Enlightenment project by D. F. Sarmiento. The author depicts the city as a labyrinth, indicating two contexts of deciphering it: town planning (the town envisaged as a gigantic chessboard, a labyrinth of graves) and symbolic (a labyrinth of letters), showing that we are dealing with an ironic (postmodern?) variant which holds little promise of arriving at the sacral centre.

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