University of Pennsylvania Press Hispanic Review

How to Read Copi: A Historiography of the Margins
Author(s): Matthew Edwards

Source: Hispanic Review, Vol. 81, No. 1 (WINTER 2013), pp. 63-82
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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How to Read Copi: A Historiography
of the Margins
Matthew Edwards
University of Missouri, Kansas City
ABSTRACT Copi was many things. Among them, he was known as

Raúl Damonte Taborda, and was an Argentine novelist, dramaturge, actor,
director, and cartoonist, who called Paris home. His life and times present
a story marked by his own marginality, but also by his simultaneous prota-
gonism in multiple and diverse social, political, and artistic environments.
The following study looks critically at how to approach such a past and uses
Copi's own view of subjectivity as a historical model that embraces the
confusion, contradiction, and chaos that characterized his life. Remember-
ing Copi in this way proposes that the memory of marginal subjectivity be
addressed and narrated from the margins of dominant epistemologies and
independently from the clarity and cohesion associated with traditional his-
toriography.
In 1988, César Aira gave a series of four lectures at the Universidad de

Buenos Aires that called to the fore the life and artistic production of Argen-
tine author, dramaturge, actor and cartoonist, Copl. Collectively titled,
"Cómo leer a Copi," they offered insights into Copi's family history, his
permanent exodus from Argentina in 1962, and his life in Paris until his
death in 1987 as a way of entering and appreciating the symbolic quality and
depth of a body of work largely overlooked by the nation's intellectuals.
Many thanks to José Quiroga; your critical guidance and friendship have been and continue to be
invaluable. Thank you also to Karen Stolley and Margaret Boyle for helping refine this text. Last
of all, thank you to Solange González Catalán, whose patient ear allowed me to appreciate the
difficulty of speaking about Copl.
Hispanic Review (winter 2013) - ^ 63

Copyright © 2013 University of Pennsylvania Press. All rights re
64 Hispanic review : winter 2013
As a lecture series, "Cómo leer a Copi" was a resounding success. In it,

Aira revealed himself to be the authority on Copi, and throughout his lec-
tures he splendidly instructed his public with innovative textual analysis and
thoughtful anecdotes on how to read and understand Copi's work. However,
it quickly became clear that Aira's pedagogical intentions went well beyond
literary criticism. As the title itself suggests, "Cómo leer a Copi" identifies
Copi's life and times as requiring a certain amount of guidance to under-
stand, and implies that Aira's task is none other than that of demonstrating
how to achieve such intellectual enlightenment. While presumptuous, this
approach to Aira's lectures, at the very least, highlights several noteworthy
points. First of all, Aira's decision to instruct his public establishes a social
hierarchy where accumulating knowledge about Copi warrants authority. In
this respect, it is not surprising that Aira automatically assumes his place
atop this social pyramid, leaving his public, in the same motion, at the bot-
tom. However, what is of interest in the context of this discussion is the fact
that the public has come to listen to Aira's comments on Copl. This in itself
suggests that they too are interested in this topic and are, in some way or
another, invested in learning about the unfamiliar - Copi in this case - as
well as capable of doing so.1 In fact, their interest in learning about Copi is
so strong that it justifies, and withstands, not just one but four lectures on
the subject. In this case, Copi's life story and his artistic production separate
him from Aira's public and retrospectively assign to him, and to his life story
and artistic production, a certain amount of authority that equals or even
surpasses that of Aira's.2
i. Aira's lectures on Copi demonstrate a formalized interest in the representation of marginal

subjectivity in the context of Argentina's postdictatorship and provide a natural foundation for
understanding future research on the subject, particularly with respect to the history of homosexu-
ality in Argentina (see Osvaldo Bazán; Jorge Salessi) and its treatment up to and during their
most recent military government (1976-1983), (see Gabriel Giorgi; Flavio Rapisardi and Alejandro
Modarelli). His discussion of Copi can also be regarded as an entry point into the relationship
between performance, nationalism and exile in this same context (see Diana Taylor; Francine
Masiello).
2. To an extent, the relationship explained between Aira and his public corresponds to Beatriz
Sarlo's hypothesis in Tiempo pasado. Here, Sarlo traces what she deems to be a recent shift in the
way marginal subjects are treated in postdictatorship Argentina. Marginal subjects have quickly
become the center of intellectual and juridical investigation. The marginal being is now excep-
tional, she attests, because "se distinguen por una anomalía (el loco, el criminal, la ilusa, la posesa,
la bruja), porque presentan una refutación a las imposiciones del poder material o simbólico"
(17-18). It is only in this sense that she recognizes the validity of the marginal subject; that is to
say, it is only recognized through its own objectification and as the subject of intellectual research.
Edwards : how to read copi - 65
While Copi's authority evidently lies within his marginal status, what dis-
tinguishes Aira is his ability to reproduce and reveal information so as to
prove Copi's unique social positioning. However, in order to assume a posi-
tion of authority and meet - or even exceed - the expectations of his public,
Aira must first acquaint himself with Copi's work and life story. He must
first be able to speak about Copi and about his life and times. He must be
able to create and keep possession of a narrative copy of Copi, in order to
later occupy an authorial position. Authority here proves to be inseparable
not only from the historical details Aira is bringing to the present, but also
from the narrative discourse that allows him to do so. Here, speaking about
Copi is just as important as knowing who, or what, Copi was.
However, copying Copi proves to be a difficult task. From the onset, Aira
comments on the difficulty of speaking about such a story. In the preface to
the textual version of his lectures, titled Copi,3 Aira elaborates his difficulties:
"[0]pté," he explains, "por presentarla [la obra de Copi], en sucesión más o
menos cronológica, contando y describiendo sus novelas y piezas teatrales,
algunas con todo detalle. Los comentarios, improvisados y digresivos, seg-
uían sólo ese hilo. Los resúmenes han sido suprimidos aquí; los saltos en el
texto indican su desaparición. El régimen, con todo, es el de la lectura con-
tinua" (n.p.). The main objective of Aira's lectures is literally to speak about
Copi in the most continuous way possible. Whereas a slow, paused reading
would imply difficulty and complexity, continuity is synonymous here with
comprehension. For Aira, a continuous reading is possible by structuring his
tale around the publication of several of Copi's texts. The naturally static
character of these specific moments in time allows for Aira to avoid pausing,
slowing down, or even stopping his discussion and risking what he implies
to be the possible onset of confusion. Narrative continuity and the move-
ment from one moment to the next are considered as positive attributes and
essential to understanding Copi's story. Aira maps his life clearly onto
notions of chronological time in hopes of transmitting an intelligible message
In this gesture, Sarlo negates the voice of the political margins and at once questions the place
of - and for - the contemporary intellectual.
3. It should be noted that the title of both book and lecture reflect the same play between reading
and subjectivity. In the lecture we are learning "how to read Copi," where reading is in direct
reference to interpretation and understanding. In the book, in order to access Aira's discussion of
Copi, we must literally read the book titled Copl. The clever detail taken in this symbolic transfer-
ence insists on the relevance of the themes.
66 c°- Hispanic review : winter 2013
that allows for Copi to be understood as author, as artist, and as a social

subject.
However, representing Copi's story chronologically has significant conse-
quences. First and foremost, the stability Aira finds in following Copťs life
from one publication date to the next assigns order where no order should
be. Reading Copi chronologically implies filtering his story in order to favor
understanding. In a sense, Aira's desire to make Copi comprehensible ulti-
mately sacrifices the initial purpose of his lectures. As his title suggests, how
to read Copi requires engaging difference: as such, it insists on a different
social order, a different epistemological system altogether and, as a result, a
different copy.
Although Aira's lectures succeed in disseminating Copťs name and integ-
rating his work into discussions on an international level, they fall short of
answering the questions that appear to have inspired them: How does one
read Copi? How does one engage marginal subjectivity historically? In what
follows, we will attempt to understand Aira's need for stability, and at the
same time, appreciate the importance of chaos in representing Copi in his-
torical terms.
Reading Copi , Remembering Marginality
Aira's lectures make it clear that speaking about Copi is not a simple task.
The title he gives his lectures insists that Copi's life involves much more than
a list of accolades. Aira would seem to agree that even before we engage
Copi's past, what it means to literally be Copi is sufficiently complex so as to
confuse any attempt at narrative stability. First of all, the mere mention of
his name, "Copi," complicates representation itself with the symbolic quali-
ties of the apodo , or nickname, given to him as a child by his grandmother,
Salvadora Medina Onrubia. Immediately, we lose touch with the given name,
Rául Damonte Taborda, and with the stable place in time offered to him by
birth registries, certificates, and census data. Instead we are faced with a dif-
ferent naming system that defies familial relations and disrupts any possible
legacy established through the maternal and paternal last names. The apodo
becomes instantly emblematic of Copi's separation from traditional patriar-
chal institutions of social identification as it favors anecdotal narratives as
the basis for social integration and representation. His name, Copi, marks
him, as well as his place in time, via a social registry capable of appreciating
Edwards : how to read copi - ^ 67
the unique instability of the marginal subject, of the name that defines him
differently, and of the symbolic relationship between the two.
The phonetic similarities between the word itself, "copi," and both the
Spanish copiar , and French copier , both meaning "to copy," continue to push
away from traditional attempts to fix the subject in time and space. Copi, as
a name, inspires a mimetic game that questions social representation and
identification by highlighting the significant distance that separates similar
pairs. The name Copi suggests that social representation is characterized by
a slight but ever so important instability created in moving from the original
to its symbolic "copy," the name. While meaning is ever-present, the strug-
gle, and the game, lies in accepting the imperfect union between any one
symbol and the object it attempts to represent. To refer to Copi as an exile ,
an innovative cartoonist , dramaturge , and novelist , or even as a homosexual
implies engaging in this same playful name-game, where Copťs distance
from the norm complicates traditional symbolic means of representation.
As his name suggests, difference defines Copi and seems to explain very
well the need to regard his social interaction as being outside traditional
models. However, understanding Copi also involves appreciating the intrica-
cies and details of his immediate family. His father, Raúl Damonte Taborda,
for example, was a radical journalist and politician who was openly critical
of dominant national discourses. Author of Ayer fue san Perón , 12 años de
humillación argentina , he was renowned for his harsh critiques not only of
fascism and Argentina's dominant regime of the time, but for his heated
exchanges with Perón himself.4 His mother, Georgina, on the other hand,
was the youngest daughter of Natalio Botana, the founder of Crítica , the
well-known daily newspaper published in Buenos Aires from 1913 to 1963.
Copťs maternal grandmother and wife of Natalio, Salvadora Onrubias, was
also politically and artistically inclined as both a declared feminist and a
successful dramaturge.5 The outspoken political involvement of Copťs fam-
ily eventually forced them into exile with the advent of Peronism, demon-
strating that familial legacy, in Copťs case, goes beyond the presence - or
4. Included in Damonte Taborda's book-length essay is a series of newspaper editorials that docu-
ment these exchanges with Perón.
5. Copi s relationship with his unique family is further detailed in his uncle's memoirs ( Memorias ,
by Helvio Botana) and, according to David Wetsel, was used as a model for major sections of
French writer and activist Guy Hocquenghem's celebrated novel on AIDS, Eve (118).
68 - Hispanic review : winter 2013
absence - of paternal and maternal last names. Here, Copi's family marks
him ideologically, geographically, and culturally as an exile.
While ideological dissidence characterized his family and the social rela-
tionships they engaged in, social and political difference ultimately ignited
Copi's artistic career, at which point he too began to formally interpret social
relations. Upon his return to Buenos Aires from Paris in 1955, Copi came
into contact with Juan Carlos Colombres, journalist, cartoonist, editor, and
creator of the revolutionary graphic humor magazine Tía Vicenta. Soon
thereafter, Copi began publishing comic strips as a member of a large cast of
contributors including then-unknown cartoonist Quino, as well as songwrit-
ers and musicians like Maria Elena Walsh, who as a whole worked to intro-
duce a transgressive form of graphic humor into Argentina's contemporary
landscape. Here, Copi quickly discovered and took advantage of the political
and aesthetic liberties that defined Tía Vicenta in order to create a space
among a collage of other cartoons and sharp textual commentary from which
to introduce his own sketches. In its pages, Copi drew men, women, chil-
dren, and animals and spoke of their inevitable encounter with dominant
discourses. Whether it be the image of a grown man who discovers that he
too is confined by the same glass enclosure that reduces his model schooner
to a bottled collectible ( Tía Vicenta 2.29), or Argentina's national icon, the
cow, posing symbolically in military garb for a photo shoot (2.30), Copi's
cartoons question from the onset the hidden dynamics of social relations. In
them, the dominant male finds himself literally encapsulated by his own cul-
tural place in time, and the female cow illustrates, in a gender-conscious
move, that authority itself is as variant and indeterminate as - and ultimately
decided by - the clothes on one's back. In them, Copi seems to question the
impact dominant discourses have on representation itself. Over and above
his own personal experience, the subject is presented in these initial cartoons
as being openly critical of hegemonic forms of representation.
It was here too, in the pages of Tía Vicenta , where Copi gave birth to what
would later come to define him as an internationally recognized cartoonist.
Here, we find his first sketches of a middle-aged woman with straight,
shoulder-length hair, a large nose, and beady eyes, who forced the viewing
public to contemplate implicit issues of gender, economic, and political
power relations.6 Whether this character is seen in a selfless, servile role milk-
6. In La historia de Tía Vicenta, Russo collects some of these first images (47, 144-47).
ing a cow only to present the animal, and not herself, with the beverage
(2.32), or as victim of the violence of an angry child who wishes to repossess
an estranged pacifier (2.36), this character is found dismantling traditional
social hierarchies. In both cases, the normative power structure that on the
one hand situates man (and woman) over beast, and on the other, parent
over child, become points of departure into understanding power relations
as a social dynamic founded upon the mere act of interpretation. In these
cartoons, Copi comically exaggerates how we understand the social relations
and reveals the hidden strengths of the marginal subject.
This character appears in multiple scenarios in the pages of Tía Vicenta
between 1955 and 1962, and she is undoubtedly at her most powerful when
sitting on a chair (2.28). Here, she is able to manipulate, deform, and poke
fun at traditional power relations in one fell swoop. It is on her chair, for
example, where she sits comfortably revealing to an anxious male suitor that
her face is but a reflection of the carnival-style mask used to encourage mys-
tery and disbelief, and at the same time subvert hegemony. While her part-
ner's awe-struck gesture questions such deceit, Copťs protagonist proudly
smiles, affirming herself in a unique act that embraces her teetering stance as
both beauty and the beast. Mimicking Mikhail Bakhtin's carnival, where
laughter is capable of reinventing and inverting social order, the chair
becomes a throne and crowns Copťs seated protagonist King of her own
social identity. However, Copťs protagonist avoids the repetition and rebirth
implicit within the carnivalesque tradition when it becomes clear that it is
the chair, and nothing else, that assigns authority. For Copi, the chair quickly
becomes the symbolic pedestal upon which social and political institutions
set their ideals, aspirations and requisite limitations. Redirecting attention
from the dominant sociopolitical subject - the male suitor in this case - to
the liberties associated with positions of privilege - the taunting smile per-
mitted by the chair, of course - becomes an allegorical push to critically
regard location, in both time and space, as central in identifying power rela-
tions and subject formation.
It is not a coincidence, then, that in 1962 Copi decides to leave Buenos
Aires and the institutionalized repression associated with the Ongania
administration, to establish himself permanently in Paris. While Tía Vicenta
continued with its humoristic mission until its closure in 1965, Copťs female
protagonist and the stories she told gained international acclaim upon their
debut in 1964 in Parish political magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. Copťs
protagonist presented herself "como la Sara Bernhardt de la historieta, la
70 f°- Hispanic review : winter 2013
filosofa de la burguesía. Pero por sobre todas las cosas e [ra] la observadora
de un mundo cada vez más convulsivo, cada vez más decadente" (Freire).
Together, Copi and his female protagonist found their place in print, on a
chair and alongside contributions by Roland Barthes and Jean-Luc Godard
as well as the daily news.7 For them, exile was not synonymous with marginal
social standing, but instead, became representative of a unique place within
national, French popular culture.
By 1966, Copi had become a well-respected cartoonist, and along with a
weekly column in Le Nouvel Observateur he had published two collections of
his drawings: L'humour secret (1965) and Les poulets n'ont pas des chaise
(19 66). By this time, Copi had also integrated himself into Paris's thriving
world of performing arts, where international playwrights like Bertolt Brecht
found fame in the wake of existentialism's Theater of the Absurd (Bradby
and Delgado 4). Here, Copi thrived as a cartoonist, artist, and exile as he
found himself immersed in a creative atmosphere where international exper-
imentation was favoured over and above the national French theatrical tradi-
tion. As he came into contact with other Latin American artists, he also
became associated with several prominent Paris-based theater troupes: the
first, Pánico, consisting of Jorge Lavelli, Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodoro-
wsky and Roland Topor; and the second, Jerome Savary's Grand Magic
Circus.8
In Paris, Copi's fame had the appearance of being both automatic and
simultaneous. In a matter of years he had managed to integrate himself into
Parisian culture by means of his cartoon and dramatic performances. His
first theatrical piece in Paris, for example, was an abstract sketch that exem-
plified his impact in both aesthetic forms. It was a five-minute performance
titled Saint Genevieve dans sa baignoire , or "Saint Genevieve in Her Bathtub,"
directed by fellow Argentine expatriate, Jorge Lavelli, starring Copi as his
7. Throughout his career as a cartoonist, Copi published his drawings in numerous Parisian
magazines. As a cartoonist he never dedicated himself fully to one specific publication, but instead
published simultaneously in several: Copi began publishing in 1964 in Le Nouvel Observateury in
1972 in Hara-Kiri and Charlie Hebdo , in 1979 in Libération , and in 1984 in Gai Pied. His comics
have been compiled in at least five editions: L'humour secret (1965), Les poulet n'ont pas des chaises
(1966), Le dernier salon où Von cause (1973), Et moi, pourquoi j'ai pas une banane? (1975)» Le monde
fantastique de gay (1986).
8. Copi's place within Teatro Pánico is a point around which information varies. While those
who study Copi's life and work recognize his presence as an actor within this theater group
(Canavese, Vallaza), many who have directed their attention to the group and its influence within
Europe and Latin America either overlook him, or do not consider him a member.
most famous cartoon character, his seated woman. In it, Copi found himself,
for the first time, on stage as both author and protagonist. However, Copi
would never be just on stage. In Saint Genevieve dans sa baignoire , Copi sat
naked in a bathtub, with only hints of talcum powder covering his body
(Martel 90). It was a shocking image that forcefully linked spectatorship with
subject formation, and placed both Copi and his first cartoons at its center.
With it, the expectations of the viewing public are thrown to the wind when
Copi assumes the symbolic charge of Paris's patron Saint Genevieve, and his
naked body becomes synonymous with a regional heritage of female martyr-
dom of which he is historically not a part. As Copi questions the essence of
the production's very title, his public is forced to find meaning in the seem-
ingly incongruent relationship between the protagonist and the promised
subject matter. In a cathartic move that suggests its own sanctity, Copi's
naked body instantly brings to the fore the impact of such unrelated sym-
bolic markers as it lightheartedly refuses and questions the unconditional
confidence in a name-game founded on cultural history.
Here, the symbolic rigidity of the title, Saint Genevieve dans sa baignoire ,
becomes incompatible with the free nature of the images presented on Copi's
(social) stage. For him, the written word represented a limit to the meaning
of his art. Images, on the contrary, produced a narrative structure that was
open to interpretation. The images Copi created in both his cartoons and his
dramatic productions revealed meaning in a way that rejected stable sym-
bolic relationships. In his theater in particular, Copi continually placed
importance on the actor and the visual image he created - many times the
actor or protagonist was Copi himself - in a move to undermine the tradi-
tional authorial role of, for example, the stage directions and even the struc-
tural dynamics of the dialogue present in dramatic texts.9 By placing creative
9. Copi's work as a whole is generally regarded as minimalist. In it "Copi logra todo con una
impresionante economía de medios: así como los trazos de sus caricaturas son sencillísimos (el
ojo es un punto; el pelo, cinco líneas no demasiado rectas; la nariz, un semicírculo), en sus obras
son escasas, cuando no inexistentes, las acotaciones y las exigencias de escenografía, de ilumina-
ción, de utilería; mucho menos sugiere a los actores cómo interpretar sus textos, ni propone al
director cómo llevarlos a escena. Se diría que sus obras teatrales se basan exclusivamente en la
fuerza de las palabras, que, aunque no desprecian la teatralidad, muchas veces la trascienden y
pueden leerse como relatos en primera persona, o a varias voces: es por medio de los parlamentos
como nos enteramos de lo que ha sucedido, de lo que va sucediendo, y sólo las palabras que salen
de los personajes nos ofrecen la información necesaria sobre ellos" (Zapata 12). However, without
stage directions, the words are the only things that remain stable. In this sense Copi gives creative
freedom and emphasis to what is presented on stage. It is the focus placed on the visual presenta-
tion of his theater that complicates its critical evaluation (Wetsel 119).
72 ° - HISPANIC REVIEW ! winter 2013
emphasis on the visual aspects of his theater and particularly those elements
that are essentially left out of its script, Copi's work became an intriguing
spectacle as each representation varied from the next.10 Much like the ques-
tions that arise from Copi's own personal experience with social representa-
tion, both his cartoons and his theater inquire about what influences and
impacts subject formation.
Imag(in)ing Narratives: Copi and an Impossible Historical Theatrics
The visual image of Copi's theatrical productions overpowered the public as

well as his own text with a social narrative that questioned traditional forms
of representation. This is particularly true for Copi's first published play and
one of his most controversial works, Loretta Strong (1974) -11 The play pre-
10. In Copi: sexo y teatralidad (2003), Marcos Rosenzvaig recognizes Copi's theater to be drawn as
if they were themselves comics. In his theater, Rosenzvaig comments, "[n]o hay descanso, todo es
un continuo separado entre cuadro y cuadro, entre dibujo y dibujo. Copi dibuja con los actores,
y esta manera de concebir el teatro lo hace ser creador de un lenguaje" (17). According to Rosenz-
vaig, Copi is able to use this unique, personalized language to unite his cartoons with his theater
and novelistic production. Nonetheless, Rosenzvaig's comments on how Copi's cartoons manifest
themselves throughout the entirety of his work helps explain to what extent Copi decentralizes
the traditional focus placed upon the word as both referent and social symbol: "Él logró trasvolar
sus imágenes como dibujante para hacer de la letra un dibujo, una imagen vertiginosa. La historia
de un cómic se resuelve en pocos cuadros, en pocos cuadros se cuenta una historia. No está
interesado por aclarar el pasado de sus personajes ni de dónde vienen. Copi entiende el teatro
como lo que es: la desmesura" (21).
11. It must be noted that the Spanish translation or Loretta Strong being used here is done by Luis
Zapata and uses Mexican idioms. Different from the majority of Copi's work, published in Span-
ish by Barcelona's Anagrama, this version of Loretta Strong is part of the recent translation boom
of Copi's texts by independent presses based in Argentina (Adriana Hidalgo, El Interpretador)
and Mexico (Milagro). It should be noted that Anagrama has begun once again to translate Copi
with its edition of Obras I (2010), where they offer the first translation of Copi's Rio de la Plata.
In any case, Copi himself made a decided effort not to participate in any translations of his work,
suggesting that the variety of linguistic interpretations be added to the multiple interpretations of
his texts. During the translation to Spanish of Copi's L'uruguayen (París: Christian Bourgois,
1972), Jorge Herralde, editor and founder of Anagrama, remembers Copi's particular lack of inter-
est. Herralde recalls the moment: "A la salida, Copi con un peludísimo abrigo blanco hasta los
pies, nos fuimos a un bar para comentar la jugada: ningún problema, dijo, podíamos editar el
libro, él no tenía tiempo (ni ganas, supongo) de revisar la traducción (ni ésta ni ninguna de las
otras que fui publicando)" (38). Copi's reaction in this case is in itself significant as it suggests
that for him writing in French is a purposeful endeavor and essential to his artistic creation. In
fact, Copi begins El uruguayo in first person (that is, as Copi himself), and assures his interlocutor
that he is aware of how strange his writing - in French - may seem (90). However, as Copi tells
his reader, the goal of this text "es más por ser leído por usted que por lo que le voy a contar"
miered May 30, 1974 at the Theatre Gaìté-Montparnasse in Paris, and in it

Copi told of a woman who left a distraught planet Earth in search of an
alternative that would be her home and allow her to harvest gold. The piece
is a delirious monologue that lasts the duration of Loretta's odyssey, and
presents the one-sided nature of a continuous telephone conversation with
numerous people, animals, and aliens, both on and off her spaceship. As this
work comes to life, Copi's Loretta Strong establishes a divide between text
and visual performance by exaggerating the actor's incapacity to represent,
or even simply identify the actions that would naturally accompany the writ-
ten word located in any theatrical libretto. Here nothing comes naturally:
not for the actor, not for the public, and ultimately not for the words that
search for a tangible referent with which to anchor the performance. Ulti-
mately, words are not enough to tell Copťs pseudobiblical tale. When Adam
and Eve are set aside, so too are the traditional story lines that give coherence
to such foundational fictions. What becomes clear with Loretta Strong is that
a different set of expectations is needed in order to decipher what is pre-
sented on stage.
The play begins by questioning the performance of gender. For Copi,
nothing, not even gender, should be taken for granted. In an interview with
José Tcherkaski, Copi explains how his friend and director, Jorge Lavelli, was
faced with the critical decision of choosing the actor who would represent
Loretta Strong: "Jorge quería hacerlo [Loretta Strong] con una actriz, así que
me abrí y lo hice yo solo" (Tcherkaski 79). The response to Lavellťs misinter-
pretation of what or who Loretta Strong represented took for granted what
Copi recognized to be the complexities behind social difference.12 According
to Copi, Loretta Strong was a woman. However, being a woman, for Copi,
was merely a detail to be performed. The end result was shocking: Copi
appeared on stage in a canary yellow suit and proceeded to undress and
present the entirety of his monologue stark naked, with every part of his
body painted green, except for his penis, which was painted a bright red
(89). For Copi, the critical element does not lie in the language used, as lise Logie suggests in her
article that reads El uruguayo as a work that rejects any national Argentine identity (421). Instead,
both in this short story and through his artistic creation, Copi's critical perspective lies primarily
in the act of perception: what is perceived by the public, as opposed to the intended message of
the author. Much like in Loretta Strongs meaning becomes secondary to the performance itself.
12. This fragment of the interview suggests that Copi himself directed the first showing of Loretta
Strong. However, Zapata in his Spanish translation, as well as Copi's own brother Jorge Damonte,
both cite Javier Botana as director (117).
74 ° - Hispanic review : winter 2013
(Martel 90). Contrary to how Lavelli imagined the role, Copi's representation
of Strong decidedly negated the naturally female protagonism and not only
replaced it with a man - himself - but with a man dressed as a chicken who
would later transform into something, or someone, indefinable. The title
role, Loretta Strong, was no longer just a name that reverted to a specific
gender role. Loretta Strong instead became Copi's theatrical interpretation
of gender itself - something that in this play, as in many others, is stretched
literally out of this world . In other words, being a woman in any traditional
sense was left on paper and to the staleness of traditional narration. For Copi,
it was the image of the present that allowed for innovation and for gender to
be much more than merely meeting the expectations of heterosexual dis-
courses. On-stage a woman could have a red penis and could be painted
green. On-stage and off-text, the woman could be essentially anything. Pre-
established (social) performances have no place in Copi's theater. Here,
expectations are thrown to the wind.
In the play, social interaction becomes purely imaginary. The text itself
begins with its one and only stage - or social - direction: " Loretta Strong y
Steve Morton. Loretta Strong mata a Steve Morton " (Copi, "Loretta Strong"
89). Here, Copi/Loretta is ordered by apparently higher, textual powers to
violently prepare the social theater. The forceful omission of their male coun-
terpart becomes much more significant, as it brings with it the elimination
of any other metatextual - read metasocial - indications. Both Strong and
Copi are now able to face their current missions - a spacial mission for
Loretta, a textual one for Copi - and the future it holds according to their
own terms: together they must safely rebuild the human race without the
help of any man. As a result, neither Adam and Eve nor Mother Earth and
Father Time are stories capable of capturing the "beginning of time" narra-
tive established in the play where the protagonist is both man and woman,
mother and father, and neither at the same time.13 Instead, what is left for
his protagonist - and the audience - is a nuanced version of the Big Bang
13. Copi/Loretta's voyage through space in search of gold also parallels Columbus's 15th century
voyage to the Americas. Copi's theatrical take parodies this classic narrative by placing the creation
of a cultural empire at the mercy of chaos and incoherent banter, but also, and more importantly
here, by questioning the place of gender in such hegemonic endeavors. Here, the dominant male
conquistador is significantly absent, and in its place is Copi/Loretta as the new androgynous pro-
tagonist of discovery. While this is a suggestive move, as we will see, conquest, social domination,
and gold are of no use to Copi on stage. Once again, Copi's narrative critically engages dominant
discourses by demonstrating the distance that separates the one from the other.
Theory where Copi/Loretta explodes outwards, leaving nothing behind.

Here, the future of mankind becomes uncertain as it is left to rest upon the
fruitful loins of a woman who is a man, who is a chicken, who is Copl. In
Loretta Strong , the question is not whether procreation is possible - as we will
see, for Copi anything goes. The question becomes instead, is procreation
representable? Can Copi/Loretta comply physically and visually with the
demands of the story being told without anything or anyone to guide them?
Is the reality staged just too much for Copťs script? Or vice versa, is the
script of such marginal acts just impossible to represent textually?
On stage, action takes a back seat to Strong's unsettling telephone mono-
logue. Instead of trying to fulfill the demands of any story line that events
presented on stage may suggest, Copi turns his attention to representation
itself. In her one-sided telephone conversation, Strong comments on, ques-
tions, and debates everything from the explosion of the earth into pieces to
masturbation with a group of rats that she herself apparently births. While
the protagonist openly expresses her thoughts, any possible response is left
blank and is replaced by yet another question, comment, or problem to be
solved. The insistence upon the absent interlocutor confuses the meaning of
everything that is being said. Copťs play is at once a monologue and a dia-
logue. But why decide between the two when the distinction between the
genres - between genders - is of no use? Instead, Copi makes a point of exag-
gerating just how unavoidable such a crossroads and such intertextuality is
when it comes to communication itself. For example, Loretta constantly asks
for confirmation that someone is at the other end of the telephone line:
- ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno?

- ¡Habla una terrícola!
- ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno?
- ¿Quién es usted?
- ¿Un hombre mono de la Estrella Polar?
- ¿Me quiere ver la cara de pendeja? (90)
In the absence of any visual or oral response, the public's imagination is

forced to decipher the voice she eagerly awaits. In this case, images of Charl-
ton Heston in The Planet of the Apes (1968), or the original French version
La planète des singes (1963) by Pierre Boulle, are called to mind. In both cases,
Copi relies on his public to complete what his play leaves untouched. Here
the public is forced to reconstruct the historical context by making reference
76 Hispanic review : winter 2013
to documentation that is just unavailable to Copi/Loretta. On stage, the

world has just exploded. Off stage, the text itself has turned into a dialogue
with the public's imagination.
In this respect, the ironic monologue that Loretta Strong engages her pub-
lic with - both the original audience in Paris's Theatre Gaîté-Montparnasse
as well as her (imaginary) telephone interlocutors - creates a critical relation-
ship with the text from which it comes. The monologue simply inspires
images that are not fulfilled visually. In one particular instance Strong insists
that she has been blown up:
- ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno?
- ¡Perdí el control!
- ¿Linda? ¿Linda?
- ¡Linda, estoy explotando!
- ¡Ay, carajo, tengo que volverme a pegar solita! (102)
What seems to be a crucial moment turns out - in Copi's theatrical real-

ity - to be one of Loretta Strongs many dramatic fallacies. Unable to bring
such an event to its real end, Loretta is soon distracted by a sudden silence
at the other end of the telephone (103). This suggests that her having
exploded is secondary to the presence/absence of her interlocutor. It also
alludes to the false nature of such an explosion even occurring.14 If it had
occurred, how would she be able to use her telephone? As with many other
scenes, Copi cannot represent his protagonist's explosion theatrically.
Instead, as both protagonist and author, Copi decides to simply prance
around the stage as if having nothing to do with the script at all.15
14. Rosenzvaig explains this phenomenon in Copi's work - and especially in this text - by calling
attention to its childish nature. Rosenzvaig believes Loretta Strong to be the most infantile of
Copi's plays. In it, he insists "[l]os niños juegan a matar como las niñas a ser madres. Una mesa
puede ser una cápsula espacial; un teléfono, un sacacorchos y un revolver de plástico, una metral-
leta intergaláctica. Todo está permitido en el mundo de los niños. El futuro remoto brinda con el
pasado remoto; la frontera es la infancia
de comunicarse. El vértigo es absoluto: entre el coito y el parto transcurre

hace penetrar por la heladera y pare al minuto un murciélago de oro. Pe
mientras que lo que sucede es distinto. Ahí radica lo interesante de la obra"
15. In one of the first performances of Loretta Strongy Copi does just thi
Drôle de baraque in Paris on October 19, 1977, Copi is seen wandering t
(although not completely nude), in a dress and wearing high heels. Th
completely empty, consisting of only three wooden walls and a brick faça
monologue he ventures into a crowd that watches intently. This repres
thanks to a posting on YouTube by Copi's friend, Lionel Soukaz (see Lorett
It is not until just past the halfway mark of the performance that Copi
addresses the disjuncture between Loretta Strong' s delirious theatrics and the
public's realized expectations. Up until now - and truthfully continuing right
on to the end - incoherent and stark contradictions have populated this play.
However, it must be considered that the performance itself is given meaning
via a confusingly simple plot line: that of Loretta Strong escaping from Earth
in order to save herself and harvest gold on a distant planet. In this regard,
each delirious question, comment or exclamation becomes a method of com-
plicating why Copi is on stage. By the time we reach the halfway mark we
are no longer certain that Copi's place is on stage at all. At this point, the
words take theatrical life in such a fashion as to momentarily nullify the
otherwise very distinct division established between Loretta/Copi/actor(ess)
and the/their public. Here, Copi as author calls upon the theater's traditional
formal aspects and creates a metalanguage that questions any separation
between the realities performed on and off stage:
- ¡Ya no se ve!
- ¡Voy a cambiar de canal!
- ¿Bueno, bueno, bueno, Linda?
- ¿Qué dice?
- ¡Está loca esa mujer!
- ¿Qué intermedio?
- ¡No hay intermedio! (108)
In this passage, Strong seems to take on multiple voices in an attempt to

guide her audience through the performance.16 As Strong yells, "You don't
see anything / I'm changing to another programme" ( Plays J, 118), she insinu-
ates the audience's possible discomfort with what is happening on-stage. Not
only is this voice appropriated by the protagonist, but it is powerful enough
to warrant an immediate response. In doing so, Strong doubles herself into
16. It should be noted that the English version translates this passage as follows: "You can't see it
anymore / I'm changing the programme! Hello, hello, hello, Linda? / What did you say? / She's
mad! / What intermission? / There isn't an intermission!" ( Plays J, 118). In this interpretation of
Copi's text, the Spanish canal (or channel, referring to a television channel) becomes the British
programme. Although also referring to the television program of the Spanish version, the use of
program also alludes to the theatrical metalanguage to which I refer above and is also suggested
in the mention of an "intermission" - the theatrical break often associated with the time between
acts.
78 ť°- Hispanic review : winter 2013
the public and asks what "she" (the public in French - la publique - is femi-
nine) just said. Her response, however, is not as understanding as this
thoughtful inquiry might suggest. After calling her public crazy for expecting
an intermission, she outright denies the possibility of any break or pause in
the continuity of her own delirium. Although quite in sync with Strong's
monologue itself, this exchange takes on properties that other moments of
the text do not. By taking it upon herself to voice the public's possible uncer-
tainties in the first person and essentially threaten to leave the stage alto-
gether, Strong erases the limits that separate theatrics from reality and
performance from social interaction. At once, the public is put on stage and
Strong is taken off. The limits between Copi's unrepresentable script and the
reality lived by each member of the audience are no longer valid: confusion
reigns.
Copi continues to integrate his public into the play's reality by insisting
upon the protagonist as part of the public. This can be particularly noted as
the play comes to an end. At this point, Strong's mission to find a suitable
planet to harvest gold has seemingly come to a halt without resolution. As
her universe explodes around her, Strong frantically attempts to rejoin her
earthly friend Linda, with whom she has been carrying on a broken telephone
conversation throughout the duration of the performance. In the midst of
Strong's struggle to maintain direct contact with Linda, the discussion -
albeit one-sided (we must not forget that Copi has created all these images
within his protagonist's monologue) - becomes one that revolves around
their own spectatorship. At this point, Strong and Linda seem to enter into
a typical discussion that would in any other case occur in the theater's lobby,
during the play's intermission:
- ¡Tome las pepitas de oro y váyase sola a comprar sus helados, yo me quedo
aquí a leer el programa!
- ¡Ay, cállese, y váyase sola!
- ¡Señorita, un helado!
- ¿Dónde estará?
- ¡Es sorda!
- ¿Me oye?
- ¡No grite así!
- ¡Señorita un helado!
- ¿Bueno, bueno, bueno, bueno?
Edwards : how to read copi - °* 79
- ¡No sé, Linda, no sé!
- ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno?
- ¡Voy a entrar de nuevo! (114)
In this fragment, Strong's monologue/dialogue with Linda once again effec-

tively merges what is off stage (her friend Linda, as well as the viewing pub-
lic), with what is on stage (Strong and Copi himself). For Copi, it is the actor
on stage, and not the public, who needs a break or an intermission from the
reality she performs. In this sense, not only does theater resemble reality, but
reality becomes theater. At this point, reality and theater perform indistin-
guishably within each other and together become a tale that is impossible to
completely capture on paper.
What Copi leaves us with is a delirious reality where anything is possible.
But it is here, in the midst of what seems incoherent, that Copi achieves his
critical goal. For in his on-stage reality, words are made into impossible
actions, interactions, and representations. After Copi integrates the viewing
public into such a contradiction, this delirium quickly becomes confused
with the seemingly intelligible nature of reality. In Loretta Strong there is no
difference between what is understood and what is not. On the contrary,
each and every possibility becomes equally questionable to the onlooker
while at the same time becoming equally impossible to document. Proving
to be detached from representation itself - be it theatrical or social - the
original script gives way to the physical image of an actor who relies on the
imagination of an observing public. The physical body and its representation,
therefore, are no longer confirmed by the text. Instead, they are dependent
upon and, more importantly, contradicted by the visual image. What is left
is nothing other than an empty word and an image of Copi's body that is
able to give meaning in the absence of any normative fixture. Unlike the text
that baffles those who hear it, the image of Copi, in Copi's work, creates
meaning through its intersection with other things, actions and events. Con-
sider once again the title of this play: Loretta Strong. It is only by looking at
Loretta Strong that we are able to understand that the she is a woman, a
man, a bird, a theatrical character, and her own author all at the same time.
It is with such a creation that Copi is able to demonstrate the void that lies
at the crossroads between the visual image and the written word. By invent-
ing Loretta Strong, Copi insists on a critical means of expressing different
social actions and interactions through their own cross-dressed image-
8o Hispanic review : winter 2013
ination. In Loretta Strongy Copi exaggerates the incapacity of his monologue

in voicing the encounter between the on- and off-stage realities. Here, words
are just not enough to capture the chaos of social interaction between mar-
ginalized subjects. How do we read marginal tales then? How do we read
Copi? The answer we are given is not located in traditional expectations.
Instead, Copi locates the tales that tell of marginal interaction, and the mar-
ginal historiography capable of expressing them, in his own naked body.
Some Concluding Thoughts on Marginal Historiography
For Copi, speaking about (his own) marginal subjectivity inspires multiple
story lines and multiple scripts, and at the same time denies narrativity alto-
gether. In Loretta Strongy for example, Copi's protagonist tells the story of a
man, who is a woman, who is fleeing social interaction by extending such a
scripted drama into the public arena. Here, fiction and reality merge as Copi
attempts to represent the incomprehensible and chaotic events that define
Loretta Strong as loner, exile, and even as extraordinarily sexual. In fact,
together Copi and Loretta Strong can do and be everything, but they can
represent nothing. As such, they require a narrative capable of documenting
their every contradiction. But rather than provide a stabilizing narrative,
Copi anchors his tale outside the limits of textuality and amidst the multiple
interpretations their image inspires.
In this play, the words that guide social interaction on stage and dictate
and foresee its outcome lose all purpose when they are forced to tell the story
of the destruction of planet Earth and of the unclear communications of
someone stranded, and literally cast out(ward) from traditional social inter-
actions. The narrative guidelines presented textually function now as a coun-
terpoint to exemplify how marginal subjects negotiate and live within and
without normative limits. On stage, Loretta Strong and Copi do not dwell
upon their incapacity to embody and represent their textual story, but rather
they revel in the chance to represent their own version and propagate its
incongruencies. Their body, Copi's body, diverts from the script and inspires
a new narrative line and a different way of reading into the same story.
Copi's Loretta Strong insists on narrative innovation in order to tell its
marginal tale. With it, the order, structure and comprehensibility that char-
acterize traditional storytelling become an obvious limit to the subjects pres-
ent within its narration. For Copi, representing marginality goes hand in
Edwards : how to read copi - 05 8i
hand with narrating discontinuity, confusion, and chaos. Here, Copi reco
nizes the narrative innovation necessary to tell marginal tales and to un
stand different social relations. As both playwright and protagonis
becomes an authority on how to document and represent social differen
The narrative conflict that separates Loretta Strongs written text from
represented images on stage now provides a way of reading into and und
standing the story of Copi's own marginality. Reading Copi, and underst
ing his life and times, like Loretta Strong , insists on looking beyond the
and beyond the often unquestioned symbolic relationships implicit in re
sentation itself.
When César Aira decided to speak of Copi in 1988, he deemed it necess

to learn this process. He considered the story of Copi's life and artistic p
duction as exemplary, as it recognizes the limitations of narrative struc
and appreciates the value inherent in speaking about the past and ab
marginal stories in an innovative way. Reading Copi, then, becomes m
more than a push for stability and an attempt to clarify the misunders
Reading Copi literally becomes a lesson in marginal historiography.
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How to Read Copi: A Historiography of the Margins

Author(s): Matthew Edwards

University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and

University of Missouri, Kansas City

ABSTRACT Copi was many things. Among them, he was known as

In 1988, César Aira gave a series of four lectures at the Universidad de

Hispanic Review (winter 2013) - ^ 63

As a lecture series, "Cómo leer a Copi" was a resounding success. In it,

i. Aira's lectures on Copi demonstrate a formalized interest in the representation of marginal

that allows for Copi to be understood as author, as artist, and as a social

Reading Copi , Remembering Marginality

Imag(in)ing Narratives: Copi and an Impossible Historical Theatrics

The visual image of Copi's theatrical productions overpowered the public as

miered May 30, 1974 at the Theatre Gaìté-Montparnasse in Paris, and in it

Theory where Copi/Loretta explodes outwards, leaving nothing behind.

- ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno? ¿Bueno?

In the absence of any visual or oral response, the public's imagination is

to documentation that is just unavailable to Copi/Loretta. On stage, the

What seems to be a crucial moment turns out - in Copi's theatrical real-

de comunicarse. El vértigo es absoluto: entre el coito y el parto transcurre

In this passage, Strong seems to take on multiple voices in an attempt to

- ¡No sé, Linda, no sé!

In this fragment, Strong's monologue/dialogue with Linda once again effec-

ination. In Loretta Strongy Copi exaggerates the incapacity of his monologue

Some Concluding Thoughts on Marginal Historiography

When César Aira decided to speak of Copi in 1988, he deemed it necess

Bazán, Osvaldo. Historia de la homosexualidad en la Arge

Vila-Matas. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1978. 77-139.

Luis Zapata. Mexico, DF: El Milagro, 2004. 85-117.

Damonte Taborda, Raúl. Ayer fue san Perón , 12 años de

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