Ludopatí­a y estrategias narratológicas: el caso Barrios en <i>Responso</i> de Juan José Saer

Abstract

By focusing on Responso (1964), a novel written at an early stage and often considered minor in Juan José Saer’s work, the article shows the writer’s subtlety at describing the psychological traits of the pathological gambler, Barrios. The anthropological basis of gambling are presented (Caillois) before approaching compulsive gambling from a clinical point of view (Valleur and Bucher). A narratological analysis follows that aims to prove that several symptoms of compulsive gambling are reflected in a rhythmic writing marked by the game-based association of “difference and repetition” (Saer, La narración-objeto), and in which some stylistic devices, such as ellipses and analepses, stand out, turning literary form into a sort of mirror of pathological gambling.