Chilean author Antonio Skármeta, writer of ‘Neruda’s Postman’, dies | EUROtoday

The Chilean author Antonio Skármeta (Antofagasta, 1940) died this Tuesday on the age of 83, in accordance with the University of Chile, the place the internationally acknowledged writer studied Philosophy after which labored as an instructional. The 2014 National Literature Prize is a part of the decision Generation of the 60stogether with the Chilean poets and writers Poli Délano, Oscar Hahn and Claudio Bertoni. In the works of the novelist, screenwriter, playwright, diplomat and lover of the seventh artwork, his illustration of the Chilean individuals, the colloquial type of speech and drama stand out. Also his fascination with poetry, his adoration of Shakespeare and the significance he gave to brotherhood amongst individuals, no matter their origins and achievements.

One of his most acknowledged novels is Burning endurance (1985), a piece by which he imagined a delicate friendship between the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his postman, which was made into a movie on two events: the primary directed by Skármeta himself, and the second on the urging of the Italian actor Massimo Troisi in The postman (and Pablo Neruda), in 1994, directed by Englishman Michael Radford, nominated in 5 classes to the Oscars, together with Best Film and Direction, successful Best Score.

During Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity, Skármeta, a part of the Unitary Popular Action Movement (MAPU), was a part of the founding staff of the cultural journal La Quinta Rueda. The coup d’état in Chile in 1973 led him into exile. The then thirty-year-old continued creating his literary profession in nations similar to Argentina and Bolivia, however primarily in West Germany, the place he tailored a number of of his works to movie. In completely different settings he joined teams of Chilean artists and intellectuals who labored on solidarity and literary duties, similar to Araucaria from Chilethe cultural journal of the Chilean resistance printed in Madrid, by which Skármeta incessantly collaborated. His first foray into literature was by means of tales, similar to The enthusiasm (1965) y bare on the roof (1969). During the years in exile he modified his register and wrote a number of novels, the primary of them I dreamed that the snow was burning (1975), adopted by nothing occurred (1980), The riot (1982) y Burning Patience.

After the 1988 plebiscite, by which Chileans voted to finish the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the author graduated to the South American nation and arrange his Heinrich Böll literary workshop in Santiago on the German Goethe cultural institute. He additionally developed a profession as a columnist in numerous media, such because the journal Guys and the diary The timethe place he sharpened his vital eye on subjects starting from tradition to sports activities. He additionally wrote texts illustrated by artists for kids, “because I also like to dedicate myself to exalting the fantasy of those who are going to be the future narrator poets,” he stated when he acquired the National Literature Award. Skármeta’s profession additionally included diplomacy. During the Government of socialist Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) he served as Chile’s ambassador to Germany.

Once the demise of the author, husband of the sculptor Nora Preperski, was confirmed, President Gabriel Boric printed a message on his networks thanking him for “the life lived.” “For stories, novels and theater. For political commitment. By The book show [programa de televisión cultural presentado por Skármeta entre 1992 y 2002 y exportado a países de América Latina y Europa] that expanded the boundaries of literature. For dreaming that the snow was burning in Chile that hurt you so much,” wrote the left-wing president, who is expected to participate in an event in tribute to the artist at the Chilean National Theater of the University of Chile, in the center of the capital. , where he is being watched this afternoon.

The Chilean writer Rafael Gumucio also expressed on his social networks that “he owes it” to Antonio Skármeta to be a author: “His perpetual enthusiasm, which is in his books and was in each of his gestures, was a fundamental experience. His books are young, tender, full of that smile where I couldn’t help but see some kind of melancholy.”

As a playwright he wrote The plebiscite, a never staged theatrical monologue that was made into a film in the film No, by Pablo Larraín, nominated for an Oscar in 2012. That was not his only approach to the dictatorship. In his novel, rainbow days (Planeta Award 2011) also delves deeply into that period that made him live in exile. His vast work led him to be awarded on several occasions. Internationally, he received the Planeta award in 2003 for his novel The Victory Dance, which It was adapted to film, this time by Fernando Trueba with Ricardo Darín as the protagonist. Skármeta also received the Ennio Flaiano International Prize in 2006.

“My books express affectionate respect for the truth of my characters. I try to understand and express what they are about them. In this strategy I have discovered that what they are includes in a very decisive way what they want to be. I believe in the power of imagination, which is not exclusive to artists. Now, your speech for change should not be utopian but poetic. Avant-garde is not the artist who runs ahead, but rather the one who makes others run forward,” stated the author in an interview with EL PAÍS in 2023.

In a tribute paid to him by the University of Chile in 2020, Adriana Valdés, then director of the Chilean Academy of Language, highlighted the way in which by which Skármeta at all times revitalized the literary scene. “His image in our letters is that of enormous energy, overflowing creativity and somewhere in our consciousness as readers he will always continue pedaling on the San Cristóbal and transmitting his contagious enthusiasm,” he famous.