El cuerpo se acostumbra a todo. Mirada, tacto e histrionismo en Una excursión a los indios ranqueles

Abstract

This article examines the relevance that, in different aspects, Lucio V. Mansilla’s body acquires in Una excursión a los indios ranqueles (1870). For this purpose, firstly, we emphasize how in that text two senses are articulated –sight and touch– regarding the mobility of Mansilla’s body. In this regard, we propose that in Una excursion ... it can be noted a literary modulation of what, apropos of Francis Bacon’s painting, Gilles Deleuze denominated “haptic look” and, furthermore, an attempt to try, at times, a kind of writing of touch. Then, we highlight certain scenes starring Mansilla to propose that in Una excursión the military is relieved by the buffoonish. Mansilla’s histrionics –his willingness to make comedy– results another expression of the knotting between body and look (in this case, the look of the others, of the public).