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Towards a Reading of the Argentine Literary Magazine Sur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

John King
John King*
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
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This article is concerned with the problem of reading and interpreting the Argentine literary magazine Sur, which was published regularly between 1931 and 1970 (and irregularly thereafter) as an elegant fusion of fiction, poetry, philosophy, plastic arts, and social commentary. That a magazine should be chosen as a research topic reflects the reality of Argentine literary life in the twentieth century. Such publications offered many writers their main opportunity to put forward ideas in the forms of works of literature and critical or general essays. Most magazines lasted for very few years, but Sur, thanks to the quality of its contributors and the sound financial base of its founder, Victoria Ocampo, was to have an important influence on several generations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , 1981 , pp. 57 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Paul Commack, Tim Duncan, and Gerald Martin for their comments on this manuscript.

References

Notes

1. For a general survey of Argentine literary magazines, see H. Lafleur, S. Provenzano, and F. Alonso, Las revistas literarias argentinas, 1893–1960 (Buenos Aires: Ed. Culturales Argentinas, 1962).

2. Two comprehensive accounts of the development of specific literary magazines can be found in F. Mulhern, The Moment of Scrutiny (London: NLB, 1979) and A. Anglès, André Gide et le premier groupe de la Nouvelle Revue Française (Paris: NRF, 1978).

3. Mulhern, The Moment, p. ix.

4. See the introduction to E. Said, Orientalism (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980).

5. Nélida Salvador, Revistas argentinas de vanguardia (1920-1930) (Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, 1962); María Luisa Bastos, Borges ante la crítica argentina, 1923–1960 (Buenos Aires: Ed. Hispamérica, 1974).

6. J. L. Borges, “Autobiographical Essay.” Quoted in E. Rodríguez Monegal, J. L. Borges: A Literary Biography (New York: Dutton, 1978), p. 129.

7. See M. R. Oliver, La vida cotidiana (Buenos Aires: Ed. Sudamericana, 1969) and E. González Lanuza, Los martinfierristas (Buenos Aires: Ed. Culturales Argentinas, 1961).

8. R. Mariani, Martín Fierro 7 (25 julio 1924).

9. Evar Méndez, Martín Fierro 8–9 (agosto-setiembre 1924).

10. See Frank Field, Three French Writers and the Great War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975).

11. Rodriguez Monegal is of the opinion that the Florida/Boedo polemic was a publicity stunt, but also a “determined effort by some writers more or less connected with the emerging Argentine Communist party, to gain control of or destroy the avant-garde movement.” Monegal, J. L. Borges, p. 192.

12. In an interview with the author, José Bianco, jefe de redacción of Sur, pointed out that he published his most adolescent work in Nosotros.

13. Interview with Roberto Giusti. Oral History Project, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, 1971.

14. The literary division between Borges and Victoria Ocampo has been recently illustrated by Borges: “Yo juzgaba a los escritores por su retórica o por su facultad de invención, Victoria por su índole o por su contexto biográfico. Detrás del libro, que es la máscara, indagaba el rostro secreto” (La Prensa, suplemento, 8 abril 1979).

15. See Oliver, La vida cotidiana.

16. An account of Alfonso Reyes in Buenos Aires is given in P. Patout, Alfonso Reyes et La France (Paris: Klincksieck, 1978), pp. 463–500.

17. Victoria Ocampo, “Después de cuarenta años,” Sur 325 (julio-agosto 1970), p. 1.

18. The problems of such an approach are illustrated in Ian Hamilton, The Little Magazines: A Study of Six Editors (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1976).

19. Victoria Ocampo, “Carta a Waldo Frank,” Sur 1 (verano 1931), pp. 11, 16.

20. Emir Rodríguez Monegal, as part of an homage to Victoria Ocampo, in Vuelta, 30 mayo 1979, p. 46.

21. A comparison could be made in this respect with the project of the Di Tella Arts Centers in the 1960s. The author is presently engaged in a study of these centers.

22. Victoria Ocampo, “Vida de la revista Sur: 35 años de una labor,” Sur 303–305 (noviembre 1966–abril 1967), p. 19.

23. Interview with the author.

24. See especially “Pablo Neruda y Sur,” Sur 221 (marzo-abril 1953), p. 121.

25. Quoted in Ian Wright, “F. R. Leavis, the Scrutiny Movement, and the Crisis,” in Culture and Crisis in Britain in the 30s (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1979), p. 41.

26. Victoria Ocampo, Testimonios (quinta serie) (Buenos Aires: Ed. Sur, 1957), p. 28.

27. Leo Ferrero, “Carta de Norteamérica, crisis de elites,” Sur 8 (setiembre 1933), p. 114.

28. Julio Irazusta, “Historia de una revista,” La Opinión Cultural, 4 marzo 1979.

29. A. F. Schmidt, “12 de octubre de 1945,” Sur 137 (febrero 1944), p. 74.

30. J. L. Borges, “Palabras pronunciadas por J. L. Borges en la comida que le ofrecieron los escritores,” Sur 142 (agosto 1946), p. 115.

31. V. Massuh, “Restitución de la verdad,” Sur 237 (noviembre–diciembre 1955), p. 107.

32. J. C. Portantiero, “Economía y política en la crisis argentina, 1958–1973,” Zona Abierta 14–15 (1978), p. 126.

33. Interview with the author.

34. Victoria Ocampo, “Después de cuarenta años,” p. 5.

35. Victoria Ocampo, Testimonios (novena serie) (Buenos Aires: Ed. Sur, 1975), p. 220.

36. R. Fernández Retamar,“ ”Calibán,“ Casa de las Americas 68 (setiembre-octubre 1971).

37. I will omit discussion of the the whole spectrum of magazines that produced similar material, because, first, Sur was very much a model of its kind and any general points made about it can apply to other, less ambitious “little magazines”; and, second, as Jaime Rest points out, no magazine was willing to take up the mantle of Sur in the 1950s or 1960s, when a new impetus was clearly necessary: “Una revista como ésta [Sur] tiene duración limitada, como expresión no sólo del ciclo vital de sus fundadores sino también de las cambiantes circunstancias del mundo. Sin embargo Sur no pudo desaparecer … porque no fue reemplazada. Las generaciones siguientes—incluida la mía—permanecieron atomizadas por un pasado inmediato atroz y un presente incierto” (La Opinión Cultural, 4 marzo 1979).

38. The works of R. Doll, L. Castellani, C. Ibarguren, and the Irazusta brothers that deal with this subject have been reprinted recently in the collection “Biblioteca del Pensamiento Nacionalista Argentino” ((Buenos Aires). See also the essay on populism in E. Laclau, Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory (London: NLB, 1979). Paul Commack pointed out the relevance of this essay to my argument.

39. C. Ibarguren, La historia que he vivido (Buenos Aires: Ed. Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1969), pp. 466–67.

40. Quoted in OSS reports, Research and Analysis 3007, National Archive, Washington, 21 April 1945.

41. A. Juaretche, El medio pelo en la sociedad argentina (Buenos Aires: Ed. A. Peña Lillo, 1967).

42. J. A. Ramos, Crisis y resurrección de la literatura argentina, 2d. ed. (Buenos Aires: Ed. Coyoacán, 1961). The synopsis of his ideas, included here, is given in Ramón Alcalde, “Imperialismo cultural y literatura nacional,” Contorno 5/6 (setiembre 1955).

43. J. Sebreli, “J. A. Ramos: Crisis y resurrección de la literatura argentina,” Sur 230 (setiembre–octubre 1954), p. 120.

44. J. J. Hernández Arrégui, Imperialismo y cultura, 3d ed. (Buenos Aires: Ed. Plus Ultra, 1973).

45. Adelaida Gigli, “V. O.,” Contorno 3 (setiembre 1954).

46. One text that deals with the complexities of Sur is David Viñas, De Sarmiento a Cortázar (Buenos Aires: Ed. Siglo Veintiuno, 1974).

47. Blas Matamoro, Oligarquía y literatura (Buenos Aires: Ed. del Sol, 1975), p. 59.

48. J. Marsal, “Los ensayistas socio-políticos de Argentina y Méjico,” Documento de Trabajo 65 (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, 1969). In her recent critique of this article, Francis Korn asks how a father's occupation helps to determine analytical inclinations, and concludes that categories such as “small' or ”tall“ fathers might be equally ”helpful.“ ”¿Clases sociales?,“ in F. Korn, ed., Ciencias sociales, palabras y conjeturas (Buenos Aires: Ed. Sudamericana, 1977), pp. 24–25.

49. E. Sábato, La Prensa, suplemento, 8 abril 1979.

50. Victoria Ocampo was perceived as an important political figure in the mid-1940s. “The Braden campaign can resolve itself into an attempt to unite against Perón the estanciero class, who have much to lose, and intellectual Radicals (especially the rich ones like Victoria Ocampo) whose leftist tendencies unite with their life of ease in their desire to keep out fascism.” British Foreign Office dispatch, Hadow to Perowne, 13 December 1945 (AS 6572-317-51, F.O. 371–45019, Public Record Office, Kew, London).

51. Ocampo, “Después de cuarenta años,” p. 3.

52. Mulhern, The Moment, pp. 172–76.

53. Juaretche, El medio pelo, p. 292.

54. José Bianco has pointed to his interest in diversity: “Sí para que negarlo, me gustaba hacer conocer en la revista opiniones y puntos de vista diferentes. Tengo lo que Paulhan llamaba: ‘le goût du monstre’ ” (interview with the author).

55. Rodríguez Monegal, J. L. Borges, p. 424.

56. See A. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), and Laclau, Politics, pp. 160–61.

57. J. L. Borges, “Jack Lindsay: A Short History of Culture,” Sur 60 (setiembre 1939), p. 67.

58. V. Propp, The Morphology of the Folk Tale (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968); T. Todorov, Introduction a la littérature fantastique (Paris: Tel Quel, 1972).

59. For an analysis of this phenomenon, see the article by Noé Jitrik, “Estructura y significado en ‘Ficciones’ de Jorge Luis Borges,” Casa de las Américas 53 (marzo-abril 1969)

60. J. Sturrock, Paper Tigers: The Ideal Fictions of J. L. Borges (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 4.

61. J. L. Borges, “Ellery Queen. The New Adventures of E. Q.,” Sur 70 (julio 1940), p. 62.

62. J. L. Borges, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” Sur 68 (mayo 1940), p. 45.

63. P. Macherey, “Borges et le récit fictif,” in Pour une théorie de la production littéraire (Paris: Maspero, 1966).

64. Borges, “Tlön,” p. 30.

65. See Jitrik, “Estructura y significado.” See also Ricardo Piglia, “Ideología y ficción en Borges,” Punto de Vista, núm. 5 (marzo 1979).

66. J. L. Borges, “L'illusion comique,” Sur 237 (noviembre-diciembre 1955), p. 9.

67. W. Frank, América Hispana (Buenos Aires: Ed. Losada, 1950), pp. 120–21.

68. See Macherey, Pour une théorie, especially the chapter on Lenin as critic of Tolstoy.