Between Reason and Madness Hallucinated Detectives in the Narrative of Juan José Saer and Ricardo Piglia

This paper analyses intertextuality between two novels, Juan José Saer’s La pesquisa and Ricardo Piglia’s Blanco nocturno, in the context of detective fiction, that both writers explore in their narrative. The paper is divided in four parts: “Cruces introductorios” is an introductory form to produce connections between the most important authors of the last quarter of 20th-century Argentine; in “Primeros rastros” communicating vases are set between both poetics in detective genre; in “Subgéneros policiales” some important aspects of La pesquisa and Blanco nocturno are analysed while some differences are identified: the first work belongs to enigma novel and the last work connects with hard boiled; finally, the paper analyses Detective Morvan and Detective Croce aiming at identifying opposite pairs: intelligence and dementia, reason and madness, civilisation and barbarism. Thus, these concepts are establishing new relationships between Saer and Piglia based on their approaches to detective genre and their criticism to capitalist system.