Un arte para el hombre. El compromiso intelectual en Sur y Contorno

Abstract

The article takes up and develops some partial conclusions from my previous research from a question raised by recent statements by Ricardo Piglia: “What does it mean today to insist on reviewing the tradition of Sur?” The first paragraphs analyze the scope that took the notion of "commitment" in Sur and defined the conditions, linked to the literary debate, which made the early attention devoted to Jean Paul Sartre possible. The final paragraph checks out this analysis from the misunderstanding, crystallized by Contorno, which identifies Sur writers as epigonous followers of the martinfierrista avant-garde, defenders of a free and disinterested art, to postulate the idea that for the majority of the members of Sur, as for those of Contorno, the idea of "intellectual commitment", in its different versions, was a means of privileged access to literature.