INTRODUCING ARGENTINA - Argentina - page 29

widely exhibited and is the
most lauded Argentinian artist
of his generation.

writing, Argentinian
literature has blossomed
in the 20th century. Early
talents include Uruguay-
born Horacio Quiroga
(1878-1937), whose
collections of short fables
made him one of the
precursors of magical
realism, while Roberto
Arlt (1900-1942) is
famous for his surreal,
violent stories of alienation and
despair. Manuel Puig (1932-90)
was another influential author
who used pop art techniques
such as montage to startling
effect. His key novels include
El Beso de la Mujer Araña (1976),
which brought him global fame
after it was made into a movie
and a Broadway
musical. Another
Argentinian writer
whose fame was
bolstered by a silver-
screen adaptation
was Julio Cortázar
(1914-84): his story
Las Babas del Diablo
(1959) was the source
for Michelangelo
Antonioni's movie
Blow-up (1966).
Julio Cortázar's
brilliantly structured short
stories, along with his experi-
mental novels, have made him
one of the most enduringly
popular of all Argentinian
writers, although he spent most
of his life in self-imposed exile,
disgusted at the right-wing
and authoritarian drift of his
homeland. Another politically
committed writer was Rodolfo
Walsh (1927-77). Regarded as
one of the finest and most
well-known Latin American
journalists, he was shot on the
orders of the Argentinian
military dictatorship in 1977.
During the second half of the
20th century, the production
and publication of women's
writing proliferated in
Argentina. Heiress Victoria
Ocampo (1890-1979) played a
leading role in the intellectual
life of Buenos Aires during the
1920s and 1930s, working as

Independent Voices:
1810-1880
Postcolonial Argentina was,
for most of the 19th century,
a divided country where the
pens of writers and intellec-
tuals were pitted against the
swords of provincial caudillos
in a battle for the support of
the population. In the view
of writers such as Esteban
Echeverría (1805-80) and
Domingo Sarmiento (1811-88),
the conflict was between
European-style civilization
(democracy and secularism)
and home-grown
bar barism (dictator-
ship and the law of
the jungle).
Echeverría's and
Sarmiento's bête
noire was the dictator
Juan Manuel de
Rosas, whom both
writers attack in their
best-known works,
El Matadero (1871)
and Facundo
(1845) respectively.

Puig's El Beso de la Mujer Araña on stage

a critic and publishing the
magazine Sur , which provided
a platform for local writers as
well as translating European
writers for Argentinian readers.
Protofeminist ideas are evident
in the erotically charged
writings of poet Alfonsina
Storni (1892-1938) and in
the anti-patriarchal political
works of Latin American
playwright and novelist
Griselda Gambaro (b.1928).
Other noted contemporary
authors include Tomás Eloy
Martínez (1934-2010), César
Aira (b.1949), and Ricardo Piglia
(b.1941). No modern writers,
however, have come close to
matching the reputation of
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986),
the undisputed master of
20th-century Argentinian
letters and one of the most
influential writers to emerge
since World War II. A prolific
poet, essayist, and even film
critic, Borges is best known for
his two collections of short
stories, Ficciones and El Aleph .
As elusive as they are allusive,
his brilliant works have
influenced many major writers
of our time.

Movie poster of
Blow-up

Gaucho Literature:
1880-1900
José Hernández's (1834-86)
verse epic El Gaucho Martín
Fierro (1872) is highly lauded
for its free-spirited hero drawn
from rural folk ballads. It is
regarded as the greatest
expression of the country's
national identity. Another
key work is Ricardo Güiraldes's
(1886-1927) Don Segundo
Sombra (1926), which casts a
skeptical eye on the gaucho
myth but still paints a vivid
portrait of rural life of the era.

The Moderns: 1900-
present day
Partially on its own merits and
also drawn along in the
slipstream of the boom in
interest in Latin American

Jorge Luis Borges, a 20th-century literary
genius and icon