This dissertation studies the treatment of fantastic or magical objects in the short stories of Silvina Ocampo (1903-1993), member of the Sur literary group in Argentina which included some of the most influential writers of the twentieth century such as her friend and contemporary Jorge Luis Borges. I study how Ocampo's narrative technique uses objects to interrupt the protagonists' sometimes mundane lives as they reveal a hidden desire. These everyday, seemingly trivial, objects are also often the source of the fantastic element present in Ocampo's exemplary short stories. The first chapter places Ocampo in a literary context, highlighting her role in the Sur group. I study texts in which objects are directly related to the creative process of writing and link them to specific works by Borges, one of her salient influences. The second chapter provides textual analysis of the presence of fantastic objects in Ocampo's work: those that make their way into the textual space through dreams as well as others that trigger or undergo a metamorphosis. Articles of clothing play an important symbolic role in Ocampo's narrative as shown in the third chapter where the use of garments as a symbolic-fantastic element is analyzed. Before starting her literary career Ocampo studied painting under Giorgio de Chirico and Fernand Léger in Paris. The fourth chapter examines Ocampo's relationship with visual art, including the representation of paintings, photographs and other images in her work. Since desire may be viewed as a longing for something that has been lost and comes into being only through its absence, my conclusions address how Ocampo's protagonists frequently wrestle with hidden desires and how fantastic objects are associated with unsettling outcomes.

The topic of this master thesis is a description of female characters in short stories by Silvina Ocampo. The main goal is a study about how Silvina Ocampo works with female characters present in her stories and whether they share any similar characteristics. The stories were selected from the books: La furia, Las invitadas, Los días de la noche. The thesis analyzes typology of female characters and their relationships with other characters. Fantastical elements such as the theme of doppelganger and transformation are also part of the analysis. Key words: Silvina Ocampo, short stories, fantastic fiction stories, female characters, cruelty

(in English): The aim of this work is to analyse selected short stories of the Argentinian writer Silvina Ocampo, which combines the element of violence, cruelty and crime. The work is focused on the original elements of fantastic, which are often referred to as "fantastic everyday life" and puts it in connection with the motive of violence and the presence of crime. In the introduction, it summarizes the author's work and outlines the concept of modern fantasy and its difference from the traditional form. It briefly introduces the concepts of violence and cruelty from the perspective of literature, philosophy and psychology. The short stories selected for analysis are based on the short story sets Viaje olvidado, Autobiografía de Irene, La furia and Las invitadas. A detailed analysis of short stories aims to examine the motive for violence in relation to fantasy and childhood elements. It examines child characters, perpetrators and victims of violence, which takes place in a fantastic setting. In the end, it compares the tools of fantasy construction such as metamorphosis, duality or elements of irony.

The subject matter of this work is the long poem entitled Invenciones del recuerdo, written by Silvina Ocampo (1903-1993) between 1960 and 1988, a period of time which covers the majority of the developmental stages of this author’s literary career. The hypothesis that this study intends to prove is that Invenciones del recuerdo, by using the form of the long poem, a literary form of the Latin American Modernity, exceeds its own material limits in order to occupy other texts. Through its extensibility, comparable to a river that overflows its banks, Silvina Ocampo’s long poem establishes a dialogue with several short stories and poems written by her with the purpose of revealing essential concerns and characteristics of her writing. This statement is proven with a three-part investigation. The first part addresses the problem of the literary genres and its relation with the form of the long poem. The second one contextualizes Silvina Ocampo’s literary work that is its place and reception within the literary history of Argentina. The third one applies the combined observations of the first two parts to an analysis of Invenciones del recuerdo. The main goal of this thesis is to give a proper place to Silvina Ocampo within Latin American literary history, a place which eluded her due to the prominence of other writers who surrounded her such as Victoria Ocampo, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Jorge Luis Borges. Moreover, this thesis recognizes Silvina Ocampo’s proposal and practice of a unique and individual aesthetic which is unlike that with which she has been associated.

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