El Noir en los tiempos de Google: Ficción y realidad en Betibú de Claudia Piñeiro

Abstract

Argentinian writer Claudia Piñeiro frames her literary works within the new crime novel tradition to depict both Argentina and a globalized world through a reflection on contemporary problems. In Betibú (2011), the author ponders about the intersections between the journalistic report and fiction (New Journalism), the media both printed and digital, and its chaotic relation with political power. In this essay I will analyze that contrary to the noir -in which the pessimistic and disillusioned perspective of the represented society does not have a solution-, in Betibú the author unites the suspense of the enigma/mystery of the classical detective novel, the virulence of the assassin of the noir, and the social criticism of the hardboiled novel, to the possibility of commitment and cooperation despite an initial uncertainty. This is accomplished by resorting to 21^st-Century media tools while calling into question the precepts of fiction and reality.