Poetics of reality

Abstract

This essay shows the close links between the journalistic chronicle and literature. Although it also exposes the great distance between reality and fiction and why journalists cannot invent their stories but can turn facts into poetry, into narrative prose. The analysis is based on experiences, workshops and readings by two great Argentine chroniclers and Latin American referents: Leila Guerriero and Martín Caparrós. In their books Zona de obras (Guerriero) and Lacrónica (Caparrós) they expose the chronicle as the moment of the other and its characteristics from deep reporting, detailed observation and the writing of a lot of edition. It is a vindication of this long-term journalistic genre and the defense of writing over the image and compressed consumption through social media.