Argentine literature, is one of Latin American literature in Spanish.
It is inextricably linked with Uruguay (Uruguayan literature), since both countries served as exiles for authors from the other country. In addition, Argentine literature was and is a role model for Paraguayan literature and is in intensive exchange with Chilean literature, while relations with other Latin American cultures have tended to be mediated through Europe until the recent past.
During the Spanish colonial era, with the establishment of the viceroyalty of La Plata (1776), a literary culture emerged. Before and during the Wars of Independence (1810–20), a »folk-style« imitating the oral poetry of the gauchos and an elitist (primarily neoclassical) literary tradition developed in parallel. The former began with the poetry of the Uruguayan Bartolomé Hidalgo (* 1788, † 1822). The line of so-called gauchesque literature led through the poems of Hilario Ascasubi (* 1807, † 1875) and E. del Campo on one of the most important works in all of Latin America in the 19th century, the verse epic “Martín Fierro” (1872–79; German) by J. Hernández. The modernist novel “Don Segundo Sombra” (1926; German “The Book of the Gaucho Sombra”) by R. Güiraldes and the ironic novels by RJ Payró represent offshoots of the Gauchesque literature. a. 19th century elitist literature based on French models was constituted in 1838 by E. Echeverría et al. founded »Asociación de Mayo«, which is under the sign of romanticism.
The brutal regime of J. M. de Rosas (1829–52) led to a close relationship between literature and political resistance. A number of important, politically committed works were created in exile, including the novel-like essay »Civilización y barbarie. Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga “(1845; German” Facundo Quiroga or civilization and barbarism “) of the later President D. F. Sarmiento, the novel” Amalia “(1855; German) by J. Marmol and the novella” El matadero “(written around 1838, published 1871) by E. Echeverría. Essay writing in particular achieved high literary rank throughout the 19th century. In addition to DF Sarmiento, v. a. Lucio Victor Mansilla (* 1831, † 1913) to mention, whose autobiographical report “Una excursión a los indios ranqueles” (1870) gained great importance because of its criticism of the positivist belief in progress and civilization.
From 1880 on, interest in the novel grew. Recognized authors were among others. Eugenio Cambaceres (* 1843, † 1888) and José Miró (* 1867, † 1896), who largely adopted the techniques of naturalism from Zola. With the arrival of R. Darío from Nicaragua (1893), the modernist movement began in Buenos Aires . Next to R. Darío, L. Lugones Argüello was soon considered to be the greatest poet. His volume of poems “Lunario sentimental” (1909) already points to the avant-garde. Modernism found a continuation of very individual expression in the works of the poet Enrique Banchs (* 1888, † 1968), B. Fernández Moreno and A. Storni . The most famous modernist novel is “La gloria de Don Ramiro” (1908; German “Temptations of Don Ramiro”, also under the title “Don Ramiro”) by E. R. Larreta. The avant-garde began in 1921 with the ultraism,which placed the bold metaphor at the center, introduced by J. L. Borges from Spain.
In contrast to this avant-garde group, named after the central shopping street “Florida”, a socially critical, politically active group also developed, named after the working class suburb of the capital, “Boedo”. It was based on the model of the Dostoyevsky admirer R. Arlt with his novel “Los siete locos” (1929; German “The seven madmen”), the generation still called by the “Parricidas” (“patricide”), who in the 1950s -Years of writing (A. Di Benedetto; Héctor Álvarez Murena, * 1923, † 1975; Beatriz Guido, * 1924, † 1988; D. Viñas and others), was regarded as a role model. As novelists and essayists, E. Martínez have Estrada , E. Mallea and later E. Sábato deepened the existential pessimism of R. Arlt.
The drama was initially based on the neoclassical paradigm around 1830, then was practically lost as an independent tradition before it emerged from the circus (“Circo criollo”) and the gauchesque equestrian games at the end of the 19th century. This tradition culminated in a realistic peasant drama, the main representative of which is the Uruguayan F. Sánchez . In the 1930s, under the influence of L. Pirandellos , the musical entertainment theater (“sainete”), embellished with tango songs, developed into an independent, bitterly humorous genre, the so-called Grotesco criollo, as its most important representatives A. Discépolo and Samuel Eichelbaum (* 1894, † 1967) to be mentioned. According to estatelearning, the entire modern Argentine theater is based on this “Grotesco criollo”, for example the dramatic work by G. Gambaro , which is close to the Theater of Cruelty and which was important for the entire theater of Latin America.
A broad literary tradition was initiated by the fantastic stories of H. Quiroga and L. Lugones Argüello, to which the Dadaist M. Fernández joins; since the 1940s, the fantastic story about the group JL Borges, A. Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo (* 1903, † 1993) affiliated with the magazine »Sur« has represented the central paradigm of Argentine literature. Fantastic «in the 1960s is J. Cortázar who wrote “Rayuela” (1963; German “Rayuela, Himmel-und-Hölle”), one of the most important novels of the experimental “Nueva Novela” in Latin America.
The level of development of prose literature in the early 1970s is characterized by, among other things. the collage novels by M. Puig or Eduardo Gudiño Kieffer (* 1935, † 2002). The prominent tendencies of the poetry are not only the big city themes and the tendency towards metaphysics (following JL Borges), but also an ever lively exchange with the poetry of the »Lunfardo« dialect of Buenos Aires and with popular culture (tango texts).
After the military came to power in 1976, numerous authors had to emigrate, some were abducted, lost or murdered, such as the novelist Haroldo Conti (* 1925, † 1977) and the novelist Rodolfo Walsh (* 1927, † 1977). Among the numerous examples of literary and artistic mastering of this phase are the novels R. Piglias such as “Respiración artificial” (1980; German “Artificial Breathing”) and the films F. Solanas ‘ (“Tangos”, 1985, and “South”, 1988) to be highlighted.
The younger generation also holds on to the technique of fantastic storytelling, not without tendencies towards postmodern deconstruction. So lets Mariana Enríquez (* 1973) turn the supposedly normal into the supernatural in her stories and Federico Andahazi (* 1963) deconstructs continental or national myths (from Columbus to E. Perón ) in his historical novels, which he uses to deal with European history in a playful and humorous way.
The theater partly continues the tradition of critical realism in the critical examination of the dictatorship, partly in the tradition of the »Grotesco criollo« and the theater of the absurd (conveyed by G. Gambaro) and with elements of performance experiments (Roberto M. Cossa, * 1934).
In the poetry, influences of popular culture (Latin rock, rap) are noticeable. Sergio Raimondi (* 1968), on the other hand, describes very specifically in his poems how people shape their home and environment and how they behave in them.
