Antonio Di Benedetto in the Banks

existentialiste presentism in Zama (1956), by Antonio Di Benedetto

Abstract

In the following research paper we propose a review of Antonio Di Benedeto’s fundamental novel, the one that influenced the development of the later historical novel the most, Zama, published in 1956. We start, for this, from a double perspective; first of all, we will comment on some metaphorical elements that unfold at the beginning of the novel, especially in relation to the symbolism of the Paraná River, which condenses the binomial of civilization and barbarism, a natural of Argentine culture since Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. From there, we will delve into the historical dimension of Buenos Aires existentialism in the face of the “modern historicity regime”, a concept coined by the French historian François Hartog because far from being fooled by the fallacy of progress, he would think of time as a pure present. This existentialism, then, would be in relation, first with post-metaphysical thought, but it would also act as a philosophical bridge towards the understanding that Gianni Vattimo has of postmodernity, a culture that would be characterized, instead, by a “presentist regime of historicity”.