FAMILIY SECRETS.CASA DE CAMPO BY JOSÉ DONOSO, LA TRAICIÓN DE RITA HAYWORTH BY MANUEL PUIG, EXCESOS BY MAURICIO WACQUEZ AND SOME SHORT STORIES FROM LA FURIA BY SILVINA OCAMPO

This article proposes a revision of the work of four authors – Casa de Campo by José Donoso, La traición de Rita Hayworth by Manuel Puig, Excesos by Maurico Wacquez, and story “El goce y la penitencia” by Silvina Ocampo– to analyze the idea of the family secret. The worlds portrayed in these writings show family systems crossed by secrets, which articulate both the coexistence between their members and also the plot of the narratives. In this sense, the family secret is not only understood as a topic that determines the story, but also as an articulating center of writing. The comparative perspective at these works by two Chilean and two Argentine authors, published between the years 1960 and the end of the 1970s, reveals the secret in terms of theme and structure of the stories, thus proposing a certain look at the logic of the literary writing itself.