Representations of the crowd at the intersection of politics and literature: outlines of a popular aesthetic and an anti-popular aesthetic

Abstract

This article explores different ways of representing crowds and their implications in aesthetic and political

dimensions. While its focus extends beyond Peronism, it inherently considers the perception and construction of

the multitude that manifested on October 17, 1945. Initially, it analyzes fundamental narratives such as Edgar

Allan Poe's "The Man of the Crowd" and Esteban Echeverría's "The Slaughterhouse.

" Building on this

foundation, it contrasts works like Domingo Sarmiento's Facundo and José Hernández's Martín Fierro with Lucio

V. Mansilla's An Excursion to the Ranquel Indians, suggesting that the latter presents significant novelties in the

configuration of popular otherness. The article also addresses the representation of the Peronist crowd through

various testimonies from the period, including those provided by Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz and Leopoldo Marechal,

noting that the public discourse of the time reveals continuous tensions between the popular and the

anti-popular. Simultaneously, it posits that the differences between popular aesthetics—which promotes

interaction with otherness and multiplicity—and anti-popular aesthetics—which denies and homogenizes it—are

fundamental to understanding these tensions. Finally, it mentions some lines of continuity in contemporary

literary production and emphasizes that all aesthetics carry political implications.