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The quintissential character of Argentine literature is Jorge Luis Borges. His work was acknowledged and it epitomized a rupture with national tradition. With works such as Fervor de Buenos Aires written in 1923 he temporarily became a follower of the criollista line. Don Segundo Sombra written by Ricardo Güiraldes in 1926 represented the acme of this narrative style portraying the gaucho, cattle breeder rambling on his horse accross the vast Pampa lands. Juan Moreira written by Eduardo Gutiérrez in 1879, and Martín Fierro written by José Hernández in 1872, which is regarded as “The Argentine National poem”, immortalized the gaucho and became pieces of art being worthy of popular admiration.

With the emergence of the notion of “cultural industry” towards 1930, most renowned writers and poets were working as reporters. Borges published the short stories that would later on become part of his Historia universal de la infamia (Universal History of Infamy) in Crítica, one of the newspapers having the largest print run. This work precedes others such as Ficciones (Fictions) 1944 and El aleph ( The Aleph) (1949), which would cause him to rise as the master of the fantastic tale. In the same breath, Borges worked for the Sur magazine grouping other renowned writers such as Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, Manuel Mujica Láinez, Silvina Bullrich. Cosmopolitism and liberalism stand as the imprinting marks of this group. Nevertheless, the one depicting the epoch atmosphere of the so-called “infamous decade” better than anyone else was Roberto Arlt, who by adopting a “disarrayed” style for the precepts of that time managed to express the imaginary context of modern Argentine people. El juguete rabioso (The Mad Toy) and Los siete locos ( The Seven Madmen) are regarded as his best-known novels.

With the arrival of Peronism in 1945, tensions between cult and popularity were on the rise. The elite conservative intellectuals were antiperonists just as the left party members. Arturo Jauretche and Leopoldo Marechal, author of Adán Buenosayres (1948), regarded as one of the most outstanding Argentine novels, adhered to Peron´s tenets and became pioneers in a movement that gave rise to the Sociology course of studies in the 50´s. They had become enlightened themselves with the book Radiografía de la pampa written by Ezequiel Martínez Estrada in 1933 and held debates revolving around this book, which together with Facundo, which was written by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, stand as two of the most impressive Latin American Literature essays
Back in the 60´s there emerged further publishing companies as well as political and cultural newspapers. The most representative writer of that time was Ernesto Sábato, who got his book Sobre héroes y tumbas (On Heroes and Tumbs) published in 1959. Julio Cortázar would head towards his first success in 1960 with his novel entitled Los premios (The Winners) which would lead him to the acme of his career with Rayuela (Hopscotch) written in 1963. There appeared authors that brought about an impact of renovation on the narrative style such as Manuel Puig, Juan José Saer and Haroldo Conti, and other writers having the same effect on poetry such as Juan Gelman, Olga Orozco and Alejandra Pizarnik. Similarly, there arose  a large number of comic strips embodying countless of international artists such as Héctor Germán Oesterheld (El eternauta) and Quino (Mafalda).

Many writers such as Osvaldo Soriano, Osvaldo Lamborghini, Néstor Perlongher, Daniel Moyano, Osvaldo Bayer and Antonio Di Benedetto were forced to go into exile in the 70´s. Others such as Haroldo Conti, Germán Oesterheld and Rodolfo Walsh were reported missing. The latter had had his book Operación Massacre (Masscare Operation)  published in 1957, which came to be known as one of the non-fiction style classics anticipating to the new American journalism.

New writers such as Fogwill, César Aira, Ricardo Piglia, Andrés Rivera, Angélica Gorodischer gained momentum during the post-dictatorship time period. Similarly, a generation of young writers has emerged  such as Sergio Bizzio, Daniel Guebel, Washington Cucurto, Juan Terranova, Fabián Casas, Oliverio Coelho, and Mariana Enríquez engaged in manifold types of genres, such writers striving hard to find their own place in the world of literature since the 90´s.

The number of books published in 2006 amounted to 85 million copies, 18.523 of which being regarded as new titles. Everyone, ranging from authors to editors, take advantage of a growing interest in reading aroused among Argentine people, which can be clearly perceived every year at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, which was visited by 1.212.000 people in its last edition.

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