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Chapter 8 - Borges and Sarmiento

from Part I - Self, Family, and the Argentine Nation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2020

By
Sandra Contreras
Edited by
Robin Fiddian
Robin Fiddian
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Various prologues and public statements made by Borges about Domingo F. Sarmiento respond to specific historical conjunctures where violence evinces anxiety about barbarism. In 1944, the prologue to ’Recuerdos de provincia’ responds to the immediate context of the Second World War and equates Nazism unequivocally with barbarism. In 1957 and 1968, Sarmiento’s formula of civilization/barbarism continues to serve as a framework for interpreting reality under Perón’s two governments. At the same time, however, the other classic work of Argentine literature, ’Martin Fierro’, evokes a world of courage and rebellion that crystallizes the aesthetic phenomenon. With the return of Perón in 1974, Martin Fierro is displaced again by Facundo as a compelling archetype in and for the national imaginary.

Keywords

civilizationbarbarismviolencePerónNazismpopulismarchetype
Type
Chapter
Information
Jorge Luis Borges in Context , pp. 67 - 74
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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