An author who never ceased or will never cease to be passionate about me is Leopold Marshall. Many must know it, as many must ignore what it is about.
Writer Argentinian, Born June 11, 1900, and died June 26, 1970, he was one of the greatest writers this nation has left us.
One of his most important works was "Adam Buenosayres", His first novel that begins the trilogy that he would later complete with"The Banquet of Severo Arcángelo", And"Megaphone or War”. Apart from writing novels, he devoted himself a lot to the theater (with works such as “Don Juan"And"Antigone Velez”), As well as he developed as a great poet and storyteller.
I do not consider it appropriate to delve into the author's biography here, although in small details that I consider pleasant to know him much better, also in relation to a historical context, and a context of literary boom where his friends were many of "the biggest".
The writer was a very important follower of Peronism, during its development, and after it, in Argentina. Due to the political conflicts that this ideology raised throughout history, it was that Marechal's works were largely relegated to forced oblivion. "Adam Buenosayres"It was not widely recognized at the time of its publication, in 1948, although it did, and luckily, by later authors in the country.
Leopoldo was born in the city of Buenos Aires, although he traveled inland for many summers with his uncles, where when he arrived they called him “buenosayres” because of his origin. This was what gave rise to the name of the protagonist of his book, Adam, who in some way can be said to be himself, as well as it is also possible to find the wonderful identity coincidences in the protagonist's circle of friends, with the friends of Marechal in reality: Xul Solar, Borges and Jacobo Fijman among others.
The high degree of nationalism that the work demonstrates makes it one of the pillars of Argentine literature, along with the “Martin Fierro","Don Second Shadow", And"Facundo".
Regarding your "Adam Buenosayres”, Leopoldo wrote:“When writing my Adán Buenosayres I did not understand how to get out of poetry. From very early on, and based on Aristotle's Poetics, it seemed to me that all literary genres were and should be genres of poetry, both epic, dramatic and lyrical. For me, the Aristotelian classification was still valid, and if the course of the centuries had ended certain literary species, it had not done so without creating 'substitutes' for them. It was then that it seemed to me that the novel, a relatively modern genre, could not be anything other than the 'legitimate substitute' for the ancient epic. With such intention I wrote Adán Buenosayres and adjusted it to the norms that Aristotle has given to the epic genre.»
The book reflects the time of great immigration that the country experienced at the beginning of the century, where entire families came from Spain, Italy, France and other European countries, in search of work, and at the same time escaping from the political persecutions that in their nations they suffered. The promise of wealth with which they were dragged into the country was still a promise, and their pockets looked just as empty as years before, which is why they overpopulated certain areas of the city of Buenos Aires. This class of characters is what Marechal takes to develop the context in which Adán lives.
What is interesting about this author's literature, and especially about the novel I am talking about, is the intense dating work, as well as the philosophical and metaphysical exercise with which the characters develop in their relationships. More specifically, on this, it could not not be the friend of Adam, the philosopher Samuel Tesler, an apocryphal character whose results as an actor of countless derisory facts is always a reason for incredible laughter. And at the same time, as in any Being that lends itself to being, worth the redundancy, a basic factor, inherent to all of us, cannot be ignored, which is love. And since Adam is also part of us, he loved. Dedicating to his beloved constant notes that he carried with him in his blue-cover notebook that, towards the end of the novel, he gives it to her, encountering questions that exceed even the need itself.
And since the entire book is a tour of the same, but also of many others, Marechal could not help but afford to pay homage to Dante Alighieri, creating his own hell, or rather, "the hell of Schultze", the astrologer friend of Adam. Therefore, we are dragged chapter after chapter, through each of the hells that make up the largest, each one of them being an excellent parody of a Buenos Aires condemned to the most delicious flames of the underworld.
This is still a tour of something already known, or perhaps a cause for astonishment for some (I hope). Perhaps an excuse to read it again, or to start reading it, since it is not only part of Argentine literary history, but also part of the best lyrics in history.
Bibliography of Leopoldo Marechal:
Poetry-
"Aguiluchos", 1922
"Odes for Man and Woman", 1929
"Labyrinth of love", 1936
"Five Southern Poems", 1937
"The Centaur", 1940
"Songs to Sophia", 1940
"Song of San Martín", 1950
"Heptameron", 1966
"The Robot Poem", 1966
Theater-
"Antígona Vélez", 1950
"Don Juan", 1956
Novel-
"Adán Buenosayres", 1948
"The Banquet of Severo Arcángelo", 1965
"Megaphone or War", 1970
Recommended links: http://www.elortiba.org/marechal.html; marechal.org.ar
Marechal and Borges were friends?