ABSTRACT
One of the first steps taken by demythologizing writers was to carefully observe and question certain aspects of people’s daily routine that were not initially considered problematic. While the liberationist narrative described the causes of the coup and the abuses perpetrated by the military, demythologizing novels usually narrate and meditate upon the consequences of the institutional crisis, with a special concentration on life in exile. One of the key differences between the social realism produced immediately after the coup and the demythologizing novel is that while the former gave a major role to the mimetic representation of circumstances, the latter turns historical events into a mere backdrop, which has an only an indirect influence in shaping things to come. Interestingly, Poli Delano avoids mentioning the Armed Forces because—like many other authors in the demythologizing cycle—he is trying to suggest that to some degree civil citizens were not always victims, but victimizers as well.
