Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato |
Ernesto
Sábato, in full Ernesto Roque
Sábato, (born June 24, 1911, Rojas, Argentina—died April 30, 2011, Buenos
Aires), Argentine novelist, journalist, and essayist whose novels are notable
for their concern with philosophical and psychological issues and whose
political and social studies were highly influential in Argentina in the latter half of the 20th century.
Educated as a physicist and
mathematician, Sábato attended the National University of La Plata (1929–36), where he received a doctorate in physics in 1937. He did postdoctoral work at the
Curie Laboratory in Paris in 1938 and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1939 and returned to Argentina in 1940. From 1940 to 1945 he taught
theoretical physics at the National University of La Plata and at a teachers college in Buenos Aires. He began to contribute to the literary
section of La Nación, one of Argentina’s leading newspapers, articles
that stated his opposition to the Juan Perón government, and as a result he was removed
from his teaching posts in 1945.
Uno y el
universo (1945; “One and the
Universe”), a series of aphorisms, statements, and personal observations by
Sábato on diverse philosophical, social, and political
matters, was his first literary success. The novel El túnel (1948; “The
Tunnel”; Eng. trans. The Outsider) won Sábato national and international
notice. The protagonist of the novel is a typical existential antihero who is unable to communicate with
anyone. Faced with the absurdity of the human condition, he withdraws from
society. Sábato subsequently published nonfiction works such as Hombres y
engranajes (1951; “Men and Gears”), examining the myth of progress and the use of machine
technology as a model for social structures, and Heterodoxia (1953;
“Heterodoxy”), on the problems of modern civilization and what Sábato saw as an
attendant loss of earlier moral and metaphysical foundations.
After the fall of Perón in
1955, Sábato published El otro rostro del peronismo (1956; “The Other
Face of Peronism”), which is an attempt to study the historical and political
causes of the violence and unrest of Perón’s rule. The essay “El caso Sábato” (1956; “The Sábato Case”)
is a plea for reconciliation of Peronist and anti-Peronist forces.
His second novel, Sobre
héroes y tumbas (1961; On Heroes and Tombs), is a penetrating
psychological study of man, interwoven with philosophical ideas and
observations previously treated in his essays. Tres aproximaciones a la
literatura de nuestro tiempo (1968; “Three Approximations to the Literature
of Our Time”) are critical literary essays that deal specifically with the
works of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jorge Luis Borges, and Jean-Paul Sartre. The novel Abaddón el exterminador
(1974, corrected and revised, 1978; “Abaddón the Exterminator”; Eng. trans. The
Angel of Darkness) contains the ironic statements on literature, art, philosophy, and the excesses of
rationalism that characterize his work.
Sábato in 1984 received the
Cervantes Prize, Hispanic literature’s most prestigious
award. The award followed the publication in Spain of the “Sábato Report”
(1984; Nunca más [“Never Again”]), an investigation of human rights violations in Argentina, of which Sábato was
the principal author. The document was vital in aiding the prosecution of
military leaders responsible for the killings of some 10,000–30,000 citizens
during the country’s Dirty War (1976–83). In 2000, in his 89th year, Sábato
released a new work, a reflection on Western culture titled La resistencia (“The
Resistance”), on the Internet prior to its print publication.
With affection,
Ruben
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