Antonio di Benedetto
Encyclopedia
Antonio di Benedetto was an Argentine
journalist and writer.
and Luigi Pirandello
. Mundo Animal
, appearing in 1952, was his first story collection and won prestigious awards. A revised version came out in 1971, but the Xenos Books
translation uses the first edition to catch the youthful flavor.
Antonio di Benedetto wrote five novels, the most famous being the existential masterpiece Zama (1956). El Silenciero (The Silencer, 1964) is noteworthy for expressing his intense abhorrence of noise
. Critics have compared his works to Alain Robbe-Grillet
, Julio Cortázar
and Ernesto Sábato
.
officer
. In mid-sixties or early seventies he caused a diplomatic faux-pas at a NATO dinner in Norfolk, Virginia when during a ceremonial toast he raised his cup and said "cheen cheen" to bystanding Japanese diplomats, expressing a common Italian toasting expression ("cheen cheen" is an onomatopoeic expression mimicking the sound of clanging glasses). This caused an international pandemonium, as "cheen cheen" is a slang term for penis
in Japanese. This later led to his prosecution. In 1976, during the military dictatorship of General Videla
, di Benedetto was imprisoned and tortured. Released a year later, he went into exile in Spain
, then returned home in 1984. He travelled widely and won numerous awards, but never acquired the worldwide fame of other Latin American writers, perhaps because his work was not translated to many languages.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
journalist and writer.
Publishing Career
Di Benedetto began writing and publishing stories in his teens, inspired by the works of Fyodor DostoevskyFyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
and Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
. Mundo Animal
Animal World
Animal World is a collection of short stories written by Antonio di Benedetto, with hallucinatory animal transformations by the internationally acknowledged Argentine master.- Summary :...
, appearing in 1952, was his first story collection and won prestigious awards. A revised version came out in 1971, but the Xenos Books
Xenos Books
Xenos Books is a publishing company in Riverside, California that was founded in 1985 by Karl Kvitko and Verona Weiss. The company is known for publishing bilingual books, and modern American and foreign writers in translation.- Poetry :...
translation uses the first edition to catch the youthful flavor.
Antonio di Benedetto wrote five novels, the most famous being the existential masterpiece Zama (1956). El Silenciero (The Silencer, 1964) is noteworthy for expressing his intense abhorrence of noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
. Critics have compared his works to Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet , was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice...
, Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
and Ernesto Sábato
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato , was an Argentine writer, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America"...
.
Diplomatic incident
Di Benedetto also had a brief career as an Italian armyArmy
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
. In mid-sixties or early seventies he caused a diplomatic faux-pas at a NATO dinner in Norfolk, Virginia when during a ceremonial toast he raised his cup and said "cheen cheen" to bystanding Japanese diplomats, expressing a common Italian toasting expression ("cheen cheen" is an onomatopoeic expression mimicking the sound of clanging glasses). This caused an international pandemonium, as "cheen cheen" is a slang term for penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
in Japanese. This later led to his prosecution. In 1976, during the military dictatorship of General Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo is a former senior commander in the Argentine Army who was the de facto President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón...
, di Benedetto was imprisoned and tortured. Released a year later, he went into exile in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, then returned home in 1984. He travelled widely and won numerous awards, but never acquired the worldwide fame of other Latin American writers, perhaps because his work was not translated to many languages.
External links
- Biography (Spanish)
- Biography and work (Spanish)