David Viñas

David Viñas
Born	July 28, 1927(1927-07-28) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died	March 10, 2011(2011-03-10) (aged 83) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupation	Dramatist, critic, novelist
Years active	1955–2008

David Viñas (July 28, 1927 – March 10, 2011)^[1] was an Argentine dramatist, critic, and novelist.

Life and career

Viñas grew up in Buenos Aires, and enrolled in the University of Buenos Aires, becoming head of the student organization Federación Universitaria de Buenos Aires. He published his first novel in 1955, and first came to wide attention when he won the Gerchunoff Prize for his novel Un Dios Cotidiano (1957). He received the Premio Nacional for Jauna (1971). The following year, his play Lisandro won the National Prize for Theater.

Viñas' work centers on Argentine history, and generally does not partake of the magical realism favored by his contemporaries. He is deeply concerned with Argentina's legacy of authoritarianism and the problems posed by the nature and historical dominance of the Argentine military. Two of his children disappeared during the 1976-83 military regime, and he spent that era in exile, returning to Argentina in 1984.

He was an early mentor of critic and essayist Beatriz Sarlo, although he adhered to a more traditional leftist position than did Sarlo in later years. Following the election of left-wing Peronist Néstor Kirchner in 2003, he became a vocal supporter of his, and in 2008 co-founded Carta Abierta ("Open Letter") with journalist Horacio Verbitsky, an informal think tank of left-wing public figures in literature, journalism and academia who regularly publish opinion columns in defense of Kirchnerism and progressive social policy, generally.^[2]

Viñas directed the Institute of Argentine Literature at his alma mater.

References

1. ^ Argentine writer David Viñas passed away
2. ^ Noticias, March 28, 2009: Los pensadores de la corona.

Further reading

• Argentina's Jewish Short Story Writers, Rita M. Gardiol, 1986.

External links

• David Viñas at literatura.org

Persondata
Name	Viñas, David
Alternative names
Short description	Writer
Date of birth	July 28, 1927
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of death	March 10, 2011
Place of death	Buenos Aires, Argentina