''Zama'' is a 1956 novel by Argentine writer

Antonio di Benedetto Antonio di Benedetto (2 November 1922 – 10 October 1986) was an Argentine novelist, short story writer and journalist. Career Di Benedetto began writing and publishing stories in his adolescence, inspired by the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky and ...

. Existential in nature, the plot centers around the eponymous Don Diego de Zama, a minor official of the colonial

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

stationed in remote

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

during the late 18th century and his attempts to receive a long-awaited promotion and transfer to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

in the face of personal and professional stagnation. Di Benedetto drew heavily from Russian writer

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...

. These existential themes of inward and outward stasis because of circumstance drive the novel's narrative as being constantly in motion yet never changing. Together with two of his other novels, ''El silenciero'' (1964) and ''Los suicidas'' (1969), ''Zama'' has been published as part of Benedetto's informal ''La trilogía de la espera'' (The Trilogy of Waiting). The novel is considered by various critics to be a major work of

Argentine literature Argentine literature, i.e. the set of literary works produced by writers who originated from Argentina, is one of the most prolific, relevant and influential in the whole Spanish speaking world, with renowned writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Ju ...

Plot summary

Don Diego de Zama is a servant to the Spanish crown in remote Paraguay. Separated from his wife and children, he continuously schemes for professional advancement as he struggles with his mental and emotional state as isolation, bureaucratic setbacks, and self-destructive choices begin to compound themselves in his life. The novel is divided chronologically into three sections: 1790, 1794, and 1799, which focus on, respectively, Zama's sexual, financial, and existential conflicts.

Reception

Obscure on its original release and unknown to English readers before its translation in 2016, ''Zama'' has since been considered by various critics to be a major work of Argentine literature.

Roberto Bolaño Roberto is an Italian, Portuguese and Spanish variation of the male given name Robert. Notable people named Roberto include: * Roberto (footballer, born 1912) * Roberto (footballer, born 1977) * Roberto (footballer, born 1978) * Roberto (footb ...

used Antonio di Benedetto and ''Zama'' as the basis of his short story "Sensini" from the collection ''

Last Evenings on Earth ''Last Evenings on Earth'' (''Llamadas Telefonicas'' in Spanish) is a collection of short stories by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño, published in 1997 with a translation into English by Chris Andrews published in 2006. The stories in this vol ...

'', about fictional writer Luis Antonio Sensini and his novel ''Ugarte'', likewise about an 18th-century colonial bureaucrat, described as having been written with "neurosurgical precision." The 2016 translation in English was lauded in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' by novelist

Benjamin Kunkel Benjamin Kunkel (born December 14, 1972) is an American novelist and political economist. He co-founded and is a co-editor of the journal ''n+1.'' His novel ''Indecision'' was published in 2005; and ''Utopia or Bust: A Guide to the Present Cr ...

as "a neglected South American masterpiece" ("The belated arrival of Zama in the United States raises an admittedly hyperbolic question: Can it be that the Great American Novel was written by an Argentinean? It’s hard, anyway, to think of a superior novel about the bloody life of the frontier."), and by

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

laureate

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

in ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'': "Zama remains the most attractive of Di Benedetto's books, if only because of the crazy energy of Zama himself, which is vividly conveyed in

Esther Allen Esther Allen (born June 29, 1962) is a writer, professor, and translator of French-language and Spanish-language literature into English. She is on the faculties of Baruch College (Department of Modern Languages & Comparative Literature) and th ...

’s excellent translation."

's translation into English won the 2017

National Translation Award The National Translation Award is awarded annually by the American Literary Translators Association The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is an organization in the United States dedicated to literary translation. ALTA promotes literar ...

(USA).

Adaptation

In 2017 ''Zama'' was adapted into a feature film by Argentine director

Lucrecia Martel Lucrecia Martel (born December 14, 1966) is an Argentine film director, screenwriter, and producer whose feature films have frequented Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, and many other international film festivals. Film scholar Paul Julian Smith ...

.{{Citation, last=Martel, first=Lucrecia, title=Zama, date=1 January 2000, url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3409848/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1, access-date=5 October 2016

References

External links

Zama – New York Review Books
1956 Argentine novels Existentialist novels Novels set in Paraguay Spanish-language novels NYRB Classics