The editions of Operación masacre by Rodolfo Walsh through its paratexts (1957-1973)

Abstract

This article analyzes the paratexts of the first four editions of the Argentine novel
Operation Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh (1957, 1964, 1969 and 1973). I maintain that, at the
beginning of its writing, in 1956, the text had the form of a journalistic report. Consequently,
when it appeared as a printed book, it became a literary text with important paratextual changes
in its editions. To study this stage of formation, I propose to conceptualize Operación Masacre
as a “Documentary Novel.” Likewise, I characterize the “previous paratexts” of 1956, those that
represent, in Genette’s words, the “pre-publication” of the book in various local magazines and
in publication prospectuses. Chronologically, I address the paratexts of the first edition, dated
1957, written as a journalistic denunciation with evidence and testimonies, which makes use
of literary resources, although subordinated to a mainly journalistic function. I examine some
changes in paratexts in the second edition (1964), and then in the third edition of 1969, in which
the text begins its process as a Documentary Novel within the framework of the validation of
testimony in the Latin American intellectual field until reaching the publication of 1973, being
the definitive version that we currently know.