Mallea, Eduardo [key], 1903–82, Argentine novelist and essayist. Mallea is considered one of the outstanding Latin American literary figures. Existentialist thought, particularly the writings of Kierkegaard and Kafka, influenced his intense and sometimes anguished analysis of modern urban society. In History of an Argentine Passion (1935; tr. 1983) he condemns the Argentine political oligarchy. Widely considered his masterpiece, All Green Shall Perish (1966; tr. 1967), makes use of interior monologue to explore an Argentine woman's bitter and lonely life. His other works include the essay collection El sayal y la púrpura (1941), and the novels The Bay of Silence (1940, tr. 1944), Simbad (1957), and Gabriel Andaral (1971). His complete works were republished in Spanish in 1986.
See studies by J. H. Polt (1959) and H. Lewald (1977).
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