In the Shadow of Mao by Bruno Bosteels

Of all mistakes, that of good faith is no doubt the most unforgivable. - Jacques Lacan, Écrits

In order to return to "Homenaje a Roberto Arlt," or, better yet, in order to show that in reality we have never left its setting, I wonder why this story-like so many of the author's-has such a strong theatrical character. After the Maoist legacy, this question leads us to what is, without a doubt, the most Brechtian aspect of Piglia's work. In Assumed Name, the author not only quotes a line from Brecht that he will subsequently re-use as an epigraph for Money to Burn: "What is robbing a bank compared with founding it? "63 But it is also remarkable to see how easily various parts of Assumed Name, without major changes, could be put on the stage. We know, after all, that its author has also made adaptations for film and opera, respectively, of Money to Burn and The Absent City, not to mention the screenplays, like Foolish Heart, for Héctor Babenco. It is evident, then, that there is something intimate that ties Piglia's work to the world of theater and the audiovisual spectacle-in particular, I would say, through the technique of melodrama.