Sofia Mercader’s research interests are twentieth-century Argentine and Latin American literature, politics and culture, magazines and intellectual networks. Her PhD thesis examines the recent history of Argentina’s cultural and political development through the perspective of intellectuals. In particular, it focuses on the trajectory of the intellectual cohort grouped around the magazine Punto de Vista (1978-2008), one of the most influential cultural publications of the late twentieth century, in Argentina and Latin America. Sofia argues in her research that this group of intellectuals played a key role in the 1983 democratic transition, both in the restoration of the cultural and intellectual fields, and in the interpretation and reconstruction of a rather traumatic past. Either engaged to the post-dictatorship government as advisors of President Raúl Alfonsín, or as critical supporters, the intellectuals from Punto de Vista established the dominant discourse of the 1980s in Argentina, which strongly endorsed democracy and opposed the authoritarian discourses of the military and right-wing political parties.

Sofia is currently working on an article about the work of Ricardo Piglia, an Argentine writer who was originally a main editor of Punto de Vista. His recently published The Diaries of Emilio Renziare a relevant testimony of the 1960s and 1970s Argentina and an excellent literary piece.

Keywords: Argentina, Punto de Vista, political magazines, Latin American literature