FOR a number of Argentine authors the genre of detective fiction offers an effective vehicle through which to address concerns raised by the military dictatorship of 1976-83 and its legacy. Detective fiction concerns itself specifically with questions of violence and power, of accommodation and resistance, of relationships between victims and victimizers, and with definitions of crime and criminality. Further, if, as Avellaneda states, "[e]ntender con exactitud que es cada cosa, que es lo permitido y que lo prohibido, fue quizas la tarea (a menudo subconsciente) mas importante de la cultura argentina en el ultimo cuarto de siglo" (18), then all authors in this period must function as detectives. Particularly for those who participated in the production of a culture of resistance the correct interpretation of the clues left by Argentine officialdom could have life-and-death consequences. This article will utilize Jose Pablo Feinmann's novel Ultimos dias de la victima as a case study of the ways in which the detective genre is subverted, turned against itself and ultimately recreated in order to address the historical particularities of Argentina in the late twentieth century. Although I will argue that the particular manifestation of detective fiction discussed here represents a new interpretation of the genre, detective fiction in Argentina has a history which dates to the late 19th century. From the decade of the 1940s onward stellar literary figures such as Jorge Luis Borges have lent their names and editorial influence to the publication of both original works of detective fiction and the translation of works originally published in other countries, primarily Great Britain and the United States. The collection "El septimo circulo" directed by Borges in the forties consisted of translations of classic British and North American tales. Ricardo Piglia's collection "La serie negra," again consisting principally of translations, began publication in 1968 and ended in 1976, under increasing pressures from the military government. Piglia credits the publication of these two series, as well as a continuing fascination with film noir in Argentina with sparking interest in the genre in a contemporary group of authors, including Soriano, Feinmann, Martini, Giardinelli, and Saer among others (Piglia 3).
