Emir Rodríguez Monegal (28 July 1921 – 14 November 1985), born in Uruguay, was a scholar, literary critic, and editor of Latin American literature. From 1969 to 1985, Rodríguez Monegal was professor of Latin American contemporary literature at Yale University. He is usually called by his second surname Emir R. Monegal or Monegal (or erroneously Emir Rodríguez-Monegal).

Described as "one of the most influential Latin American literary critics of the 20th century" by the Encyclopædia Britannica,

He is remembered as a member of the Generation of 45, a Uruguayan intellectual and literary movement: Carlos Maggi, Manuel Flores Mora, Ángel Rama, Idea Vilariño, Carlos Real de Azúa, Carlos Martínez Moreno, Mario Arregui, Mauricio Muller, José Pedro Díaz, Amanda Berenguer, Tola Invernizzi, Mario Benedetti, Ida Vitale, Líber Falco, Juan Cunha, Juan Carlos Onetti, among others.

Biography

Early career (1921–1965)

In 1921, Emir Rodríguez Monegal was born on 28 July in Melo, Cerro Largo, Uruguay. He had the double-barrelled name Rodríguez Monegal (erroneously "Rodríguez-Monegal" in some texts) but was often referred to as R. Monegal or Monegal only, a Spanish naming custom when the first surname is extremely common.

From 1945 to 1957 (age 24 to 36), he edited the literary section of the Montevideo weekly Marcha. Conversely, he got a cameo in a pseudo-autobiographical Borges short story:

In 1949 (age 28), he won a scholarship from the British Council for a year's study at the University of Cambridge; he went to study under F. R. Leavis and complete a project on Andrés Bello. Mundo Nuevo contributed to the 1960s publishing phenomenon dubbed "The Boom" in Latin American literature that led to many Latin American writers being published outside of their home countries and gaining critical recognition.

Yale University (1969–1985)

In 1969 (age 48), Monegal was appointed professor of Latin American contemporary literature at Yale University.

Legacy

  • His 1966–1968 work with Mundo Nuevo, as well as his books and lectures, was influential for the spread of Latin American literature, launching the career of such as Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Severo Sarduy, and Manuel Puig, and contributing to the internationalization of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa.
  • His April 1968 article (reused in a chapter of his 1970 Borgè<!--GALLICIZED "è", SIC-->s) introduced the concept of "Biorges". According to him, when Adolfo Bioy Casares and Jorge Luis Borges collaborated under the pseudonyms H. Bustos Domecq or B. Suárez Lynch, the results seemed written by a new personality, more than the sum of its parts, which he dubbed "Biorges" and considered in his own right as "one of the most important Argentine prose writers of his time", for having influenced writers such as Leopoldo Marechal (an otherwise anti-Borgesian), or Julio Cortázar's use of fictional language and slang in his masterpiece Hopscotch.
  • His 1966 biography of his friend Pablo Neruda, who accepted to lend him his personal papers, remains a key book on the topic. Similarly, his 1970 study and 1978 biography of his friend Borges remain key books.
  • In June 1985, Monegal published an article exploring the "kinship" between Derrida's themes in "Plato's Pharmacy" and the work of Borges, from essays and tales Derrida had read such as "Pierre Menard" (1939) and "Tlön" (1940). He wrote that "I had experienced [deconstruction] in Borges avant la lettre, though also writing that "the intent here is not to produce another exercise of the 'Borges, presursor of Derrida' variety."

Bibliography

The bulk of Monegal's works exists only in Spanish. For untranslated texts, an English equivalent of the title is provided in parentheses.

Books

  • 1950: ("José Enrique Rodó in the twentieth century")
  • 1956: ("The trial of the parricides. The new Argentine generation and their masters.", study of the dismissal of Borges, Mallea, and Martínez Estrada in Argentina)
  • 1961: ("The roots of Horacio Quiroga")
  • 1961: ("Storytellers of this America", seventeen essays on prominent fiction writers of contemporary Latin American literature)
  • Expanded to thirty-four writers in two volumes (1969 and 1974)
  • 1963: ("Eduardo Acevedo Díaz. Two versions of a same theme.")
  • 1964: (with Homero Alsina Thevenet, "Ingmar Bergman. A cinematographic playwright.")
  • 1966: ("The immobile traveler: an introduction to Pablo Neruda")
  • (1973, French)
  • 1967: ("Genius and character of Horacio Quiroga")
  • 1968: ("The exile: life and work of Horacio Quiroga")
  • 1969: ("The other Andrés Bello")
  • 1970: (French, "Borges by himself")
  • (1979, Spanish)
  • (, 1987, Greek)
  • 1976: ("Borges: towards a poetic reading"), erroneous title printed for ("Borges: towards a poetics of reading")
  • (1980, Portuguese)
  • 1978: Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography
  • (1982, Italian)
  • (1983, French)
  • (1985, Spanish)

Articles

Selected among more than 330 articles and notices: via Google Scholar.)

; Tertiary sources consulted <!--ALPHABETICALLY-->

; Endnotes

; Official sites

  • [http://www.autoresdeluruguay.uy/biblioteca/emir_rodriguez_monegal/index_02.html] – the Emir Rodríguez Monegal website (a few documents in English): biography, bibliography, interviews, article collection, etc.

; Online works

  • "A Game of Shifting mirrors: the New Latin American Narrative and the North American Novel" (1973)
  • "Borges, Jorge Luis" (1974, in: Britannica Macropædia)
  • "The Metamorphoses of Caliban" (1977)
  • [http://www.autoresdeluruguay.uy/biblioteca/emir_rodriguez_monegal/bibliografia/indice/ind_01.htm ] (blue links lead to copies of articles)

; About Monegal

  • [http://www.autoresdeluruguay.uy/biblioteca/emir_rodriguez_monegal/fotografias/fotos_01.htm] (10 pictures, 1948–1984, with Borges, Paz, Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, Neruda, etc.)
  • Voice of Monegal: (MP3, 24:50, 24 MB)
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20070828031550/http://www.liccom.edu.uy/docencia/lisa/en_prensa/emir1.html ] by Lisa Block de Behar
  • Emir Rodriguez Monegal Papers (MS 1750). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

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