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Juan José Saer Manuscripts
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Juan José Saer was an Argentine novelist, poet, and literary scholar. He was born in Serodino, Santa Fe, Argentina on June 28, 1937 to parents who had immigrated from Syria. After studying law and philosophy at the Universidad Nacional de Litoral in Santa Fe, Argentina, he went on to teach film history and criticism there. Saer moved to Paris in 1968 and served as a lecturer on literature at the Université Rennes, commuting from his apartment above Montparnasse station. He set his fiction in Santa Fe and Paris, using the term "zona" to refer to this inter-connected fictional landscape in which the same places and characters appear and re-appear. His first success, Cicatrices (1969), a collection of four stories linked by the same crime, began to articulate the boundaries of this fictional world. In such novels as Nadie nada nunca (1980) and La pesquisa (1994), Saer used the framework of crime fiction to explore the nature of representation and the limits of interpretation. Saer published twelve novels, five collections of short stories, numerous essays, and one poetry collection, and his novel La ocasión won the Nadal Prize in 1987. He died in Paris on June 11, 2005.
This collection contains notebooks, notes, and drafts of Saer's writing, including notebooks for such works as Glosa, La grande, Nadie nada nunca, and La pesquisa. The collection includes drafts of essays, poems, and short stories and notes for novels. Also contains photographs of Juan José Saer and Santa Fe, Argentina.
This collection is arranged in the following series and subseries:
Hopkinson, Amanda. "Juan José Saer." The Guardian. 20 June 2005. Web. 11 Jan. 2011.
Purchased from Guillermo Schavelzon in December 2010 (AM2011-58).
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
This collection was processed by Alyssa Meyers in 2011 and updated by Jill Baron in 2011.
No appraisal information is available.
Subject
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2011
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Collection Inventory
This series contains the writings of Juan José Saer, including extensive notebooks, manuscripts of essays and criticism, written responses to interviews, notes and partial drafts of novels, poems, notes and drafts of short stories, and other prose writing.
This series is arranged by type of writing into the following subseries: 1A: Notebooks, 1B: Essays and Criticism, 1C: Novels; 1D: Poetry, 1E: Short Stories, and 1F: Miscellaneous Prose.
Physical Description14 boxes
Fifty-seven notebooks containing notes and drafts of essays, novels, plays, poems, short stories, and translations.
Arranged alphabetically by title of work; notebooks not pertaining to a particular work are arranged by date.
Physical Description7 boxes
1 box
Interviews, information about El entenado, essays, including "El saber de Borges" and other short fragments without titles. Loose lecture notes and drawings.
Physical Description1 folder
El entenado and essays.
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
Contains one notebook with the beginings of Glosa and one loose sheet from the 1960s. Second notebook contains the continuation of Glosa.
Physical Description2 folders
Final manuscript of Glosa and drafts of published essays.
Physical Description1 folder
2 boxes
Photograph of Saer as a young man in Santa Fe, Argentina removed to Series 2: Photographs, Box 13, Folder 9.
Physical Description1 folder
Notes for La grande.
Physical Description1 folder
Contains three notebooks. Yellow lined notebook "2. Miércoles. La manzana" with loose notes. Green notebook "3. Jueves. De crecida" includes loose notes. Yellow notebook "4. Viernes. El vino." Also includes a TMS with autograph corrections entitled "El precisionismo."
Green notebook "3. Jueves. De crecida" includes a photograph of Saer and fellow intellectuals in Santa Fe. The photograph has been removed to Series 2: Photographs [Box 13, Folder 9].
Physical Description1 folder
Contains three notebooks. Green notebook with vertical and horizontal lines "5. Sabado. Márgenes," blue notebook "Domingo. El colibrí" and loose notes, and green notebook with horizontal lines "Domingo. El colibrí."
Physical Description1 folder
Four notebooks. Three sequential manuscripts of La grande. The first part appears in the green notebook, the second in the blue, and the third in the red. The fourth notebook is entitled "Martes: Agua de abril."
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
First notebook (Norte) contains poems, the unpublished essays "Sobre la novela poética" (1963) and "Sobre Bernard Shaw" (1963), prose works entitled "Responso" and "Los limones bajo la luna" (1964), and the beginning of El limonero real entitled "La mañana sobre el planeta" (November 9, 1964). Second notebook (Manón) contains unpublished essays, an unfinished and untitled play, short stories, notes, and a draft fragment of El limonero real.
Physical Description2 folders
2 boxes
Material for Lo imborrable and notes from a trip to Somosierra in 1992.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
Lo imborrable and an unfinished draft of a story.
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
1 folder
Notes and drafts for Lugar. Other unpublished writing.
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
1968 agenda book containing manuscript drafts of works from Argumentos: "Balnearios," "El intérprete," "Manos y planetas," and "En la costra reseca." Also includes drafts of "A medio borrar," and "El punto de la hoguera" as well as poems, notes on film, theater, tango, and literature, and the beginning of Nadie nada nunca (1972-1973).
Physical Description1 folder
Continuation and ending of Nadie nada nunca.
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
4 notebooks containing notes and drafts of Las nubes.
Physical Description4 folders
Final draft of Las nubes.
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
Beginnings of La pesquisa.
Physical Description1 folder
Corrections for La pesquisa, text for an article on Antonio di Benedetto, and notes for Las nubes.
Physical Description1 folder
La pesquisa and a text entitled "Orilla."
Physical Description1 folder
La pesquisa, notes, a plot for a film entitled "Ricardo Ríos, biólogo, viaja de Francia a su país de origen, Argentina," and writing entitled "El problema" and "Más allá del error."
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
4 boxes
Drafts of unpublished essays on such topics Dos Passos, Borges, Argentine literature, and Faulkner.
Physical Description1 folder
Prose writing entitled "La relación de oro," "Fresco de mano," "El pozo de cal," "Fotofobia," and other incomplete fragments. Also includes poems and an essay on Joyce.
Physical Description1 folder
Manuscript entitled "Paramnesia," fragments of unpublished essays, including the beginning of "El largo adiós" (on Raymond Chandler), lecture notes, and loose pages containing notes and a fragment of an essay on Borges.
Physical Description1 folder
Contains the short stories "Sombras..." and "Rojo blanco. Al rojo vivo." Also includes unpublished fragments and notes for La ocasión.
Physical Description1 folder
Unpublished essays "Sociología, estética, narración," "Para una crítica materialista de la poesía," writing on Arlt and Borges. Also includes poems, a translation of Genette, and loose sheets of conference notes.
Physical Description1 folder
Unpublished draft entitled "Rosa y dorada la ribera, la libera rosa y dorada" (1971). Also includes sketches for La mayor (1972).
Physical Description1 folder
Essays entitled "Zama" (1973) and "Tierras de la memoria."
Physical Description1 folder
Play entitled "El café" set during the Trojan War.
Physical Description1 folder
Prose drafts entitled "Del juego del hombre "(1976), "Dos problemas," "El inconciente"; also includes poems and Spanish translations of El cantar de Gilgamesh and writing by Henri Michaux.
Physical Description1 folder
Short prose fragment entitled "El mito griego," poems, short script plan entitled "El subsuelo," essays, including the first draft of "Literatura y crisis argentina," an interview for La Quinzaine littéraire.
Physical Description1 folder
Poems, various unpublished fragments, and an early version of El entenado.
Physical Description1 folder
"Instrucciones familiares del letrado Koei," the beginning of the unpublished short story "La giganta," script timeline and outline, interview, and drafts of published essays from the collections El concepto del ficción and La narración-objecto.
Physical Description1 folder
Drafts of "En un cuarto de hotel" and "Letras de tango: dos constantes," unpublished essays and writings.
Physical Description1 folder
Prepatory notes for novels (Glosa, La ocasión, El intrigante), drafts of essays, lecture notes, and material for El concepto de fición, La narración-objeto and unpublished works.
Physical Description1 folder
Notebook contains "Tardecita" and "Tarde de la primavera" and is mostly empty.
Physical Description1 folder
Notebook "Arte" contains a script entitled "A fuego lento" and the beginnings of another, "Exils." Also includes a translation of Samuel Beckett's "Company." Notebook with animals on the cover contains translations of poetry, notes for lectures on poetry, and loose sheets of poems. Notebook "Norpac" contains one sentence.
Physical Description3 folders
Oversize sheet of poems.
Physical Description1 box
This subseries consists of notes and drafts of Saer's literary criticism, including essays on Borges, Cervantes, and Vargas Llosa.
Organized alphabetically by work and subject; essays and notes not belonging to a published work are arranged by date.
Physical Description2 boxes
TMs with autograph corrections, photocopy of a TMs with autograph corrections; clippings and other material; autograph notes. 60 pp.
Physical Description2 folders
Fragment of AMs and a photocopy of a fragmentary AMs. 30 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
2 boxes
TMss of a conference paper on Don Quixote and a copy of Saer's article on Cervantes published in Corbières matin, August 8, 1998. 9 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
TMs with autograph corrections, 5 pp. Also includes clippings and notes.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes TMss with autograph corrections of the following published essays: "My brother's keeper," "La leccion del maestro," "La novela y la critica sociologica," "Unas paginas sobre Raymond Chandler" "Nota sobre la poesía," "Kuranes: los limites de lo fantastico," and "Sobre el procedimiento epistolar." 40 pp. TMss with autograph corrections of the following unpublished essays: "Sobre John Dos Passos,"Le nouveau roman y nosotros," "Sobre el artículo en que Della Volpe trata de rebatir a Lukács," "El punto de vista en la critica literaria," and "Explicación," the prologue to a projected book of essays. 20 pp.
Physical Description2 folders
Entitled "Serie Negra." Includes TMss of the following published essays: "La linguistica ficción," "La novela y la crítica sociológica," "El guardian de mi hermano," "La lección del maestro," and "El largo adiós," and autograph notes and a TMs of "La perversión institucionalizada." TMss of the following unpublished essays: " Ma mère de Bataille," "Sobre John Dos Passos," "De Buenos Aires Affaire," and "La muerte de Oberdan Salustro," 90 pp. Second folder includes TMss and AMss of the following essays: "La literatura de Bataille borden el ridículo," "¿Es papa el amo?," "Textos sobre Sartre," "La boca de Tibero," "Nota al bolco sobre crítica y poesía," "Función actual de la poesía: una modesta proposición," "Que hombre de izquierda del mundo entero..." and "Teoría de la prosa." 30 pp.
Physical Description2 folders
TMss and AMss of the following published essays: "Notas sobre la nueva nueva novela," "La invención de Morel," "La linguistica ficción," and "Tierras de la memoria." TMss of the following unpublished essays: "Noticias de policía: la perversion institucionalizada, los intelectuales y la CIA, los travestis de Madama Arthur," "Contra Flaubert," "Fritz Lang y el psiconálísis," "El libro por venir," "Emily Dickinson y la cuestión de la poesía," and "Para un estudio de fiestas y espectaculos en América Latina." 50 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
TMss with autograph corrections, notes, and clippings. Contains the essays "La novela versión francesa," "Il marchait un peu courbé," " Martin Fierro: problemas de género," "Santuario 31," "Exilio y literatura," "Borges novelista," "La perspectiva exterior," "Borges francofobo," "Literatura y crisis argentina," "Poco importa que el escritor...," "Una literatura sin cualidades," "The Concept of Fiction," and "La lengua como espacio privado." Also includes a list of essays prepared for a book project. 100 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Printed essays, including offprints and TMss: "Literatura argentina hoy" (Vervuert Verlag, 1989), "Regards sur la littérature gauchesca" ( Études sur les mondes hispanophones 23), " Les paroles de tango dans le contexte de la poésie argentine" ( Musiques et sociétés en Amérique Latine, Mondes Hispanophones 26), "Sobre Bouvard y Pecuchet," "El soñador discreto," "Vanguardia y narracion," "Para un estudio de fiestas y espectáculos en América Latina," "Borges francofobo," "Exilio y literatura," and " Martin Fierro: problemas de genero."
Physical Description1 folder
TMss and AMss of the following published essays: "Borges y su tiempo," "El proyecto literario," "Macedonio Fernández," and "A Renzi." TMss and AMss of the following unpublished essays: "Je dois dire que malheureusement...," "Evita," "Vecinidades de Char," "Sin ninguna duda, preservar la democracia...," "En un gesto autoritario y grosero," "Trabajo con Laure," "Ajuste de cuentas: sobre Roberto Maurer," "En photographie comme en société, (Mohror)," "Reflexiva y coloquial la poesía de Hugo Padeletti...," and "Muy breve sobre Rodolfo Alonso," 40 pp. Also includes a folder of notes, fragments, photocopied articles, and the first draft of an article on Joseph Conrad (AMs). 55 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Written responses to interviews. TMss and AMss, 100 pp. Also includes clippings.
This subseries contains Saer's written responses to interviews.
Not arranged according to any arrangement scheme.
Physical Description2 folders
This subseries consists of notes and fragmentary drafts of novels as well as a partial French translation of La vuelta completa.
Arranged alphabetically by title.
Physical Description3 boxes
Notes and photocopied material, 10 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Autograph notes and prepatory material. 20 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
3 boxes
Autograph notes, 30 pp. Photocopies of pp. 492-499 of Glosa, clippings, 1 TLs from "Raúl" about wine.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Information on wine, background material on Santa Fe, Argentina, including three issues of the magazine Hoy y manana and postcards and a book of images of Santa Fe entitled Vistas de la provincia de Santa Fe, 1888-1892: Fotografías de Ernesto H. Schlie (Santa Fe, Argentina: Diario El Litoral, 2000). Bibliography included.
Physical Description2 folders
Printed material on Santa Fe, including a street guide, and guides to the literature, painting, and photography of Santa Fe.
Physical Description4 folders
Printed material on Argentine trees, Latin American literature, the architecture of Santa Fe, dream interpretation, and Islam.
Physical Description2 folders
Autograph notes, 20 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Photocopy of TMs with autograph corrections. Includes autograph epigraph page. 178 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Autograph notes and sketches, 10 pp.; 2 photocopied pages of printed material by others (poems by Baldomero Fernández Moreno and Jorge Luis Borges).
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
Folder marked "La ocasión: Parana, 1961; Guadalquivir, 1973; Sena, 1984." Two pages of autograph notes and TMs with autograph corrections of eighteen chapters of the first draft (1961), 32 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Autograph notes, 10 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
Autograph notes, 5 pp. Typed notes, 1 p. Clipping.
Physical Description1 folder
Incomplete French translation of La vuelta completa. TMs containing pp. 362-537.
Physical Description1 folder
This subseries contains drafts of Saer's published and unpublished poetry.
Arranged alphabetically by title of work.
Physical Description1 box
TMss and AMss, 110 pp. Includes index.
Physical Description2 folders
Unpublished poetry collection, TMss with autograph corrections, 15 pp.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
TMss of unpublished poetry collection, 10 pp.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
TMss with autograph corrections of an unpublished poetry collection, 50 pp. Contains one poem, "Octubre en Tostido," later published in El arte de narrar.
Physical Description1 box
Possesses the same title as a poem published in El arte de narrar.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
4 versions
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
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1 folder
1 folder
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1 folder
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Cadaqués
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
2 versions
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
2 versions
Physical Description1 folder
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Written in Besançon, France.
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
1 folder
1 folder
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The same sheet contains a version of the poem "Dánae" that appears in El arte de narrar.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Different version than the one that appears in El arte de narrar.
Physical Description1 folder
Paris
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
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Also includes notes.
Physical Description1 folder
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Oslo
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Saer's translations of his poems into French and the poems of others into Spanish.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
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Two folders of unidentified and untitled poems. TMss and AMss, 45 pp.
Physical Description2 folders
Contains fragments of poems by others with occasional translations by Saer. TMss and AMss, 6 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
This subseries consists of notes and drafts of Saer's published and unpublished short stories.
This subseries is arranged alphabetically by title of work.
Physical Description1 box
TMs with autograph corrections, 21 pp. Also includes a photocopy of that TMs and a photocopy of a printed short story, "El camino de la costa".
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
TMs with autograph corrections, 23 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
AMss, 10 pp. TMss, 40 pp. Drafts, fragments, and notes.
Physical Description1 folder
1 box
AN, 1 p.
Physical Description1 folder
TMs with autograph corrections, 13 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
AMs, 1 p.
Physical Description1 folder
AMs, 1 p.
Physical Description1 folder
TMs with autograph corrections, 25 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
AMs, 1p.
Physical Description1 folder
AN, 1p. TM, 1 p.
Physical Description1 folder
Two TMss with autograph corrections, 6 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
ANs, 4 pp. Photocopied TMs, 3 pp.
Physical Description1 folder
TMs, 71 pp.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
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This subseries contains bibliographic and biographical material, a manuscript of the book Cahier Juan José Saer, which features excerpts of his writing and other writers on Saer, notes for films, lecture notes, and prose fragments.
Arranged alphabetically.
Physical Description2 boxes
Contains bibliographies of Saer's works and others' works on Saer. Also includes curriculum vitae and work documents.
Physical Description2 folders
TMss of a collection of writings by Juan José Saer and writings on Saer by others, 250 pp. Includes excerpts of Saer's published and unpublished works, including "Razones" "Atrides et Labdacides," "Choix en cours," "Sur le principe de fiction," "Por un relato futuro, diálogo Piglia-Saer," and articles on Roberto Arlt and Felisberto Hernández.
Physical Description2 folders
TMs with autograph corrections entitled "Visiónes del Sur," 27 pp. TMs entitled "Projecto de film de Ricardo Aronovitch," 2 pp. TMs of an untitled film scenario written in French.
Physical Description2 folders
AMs, 5 pp. Notes for a course on Martín Fierro.
Physical Description2 folders
AMss entitled "Para antología"; "Para continuo," with notes for an unwritten novel; "No abundan, no, las cartas de P.G".; "Al secretaria de Real Academia de Letras," a fictional letter presented by the writer Jean Dupont-Durand; "Conversación con Washington Noriega" for "El círculo de octubre" with a draft of a letter to "Tununa y Noé" (March 22, 1969); "A los viajeros ingleses"; "El pasajero" (1969), "El paraíso recuperado" (1969) (autobiographical prose); "Sueños," a description of Saer's dreams; recorded memories and writing on the nature of memory. 15 pp. TMss and AMss of the following published works: "Las instrucciones familiares del letrado Koei," "Atridas y Labdacidas," "Nochero," "La conferencia," and a haiku. TMss of the following unpublished works: "Prinicipios," "Serodino," "La primavera en Alcalá de Henares," "La lluvia en Alcalá de Henares," "Tinta verde/Altos y bajos," "Nieve de primavera II," "Los dos cines," "No esperen de mí...," "La luna de la mañana" (1980), "El amanecido" (1975), 50 pp. AMss entitled "A examinar" containing the following unpublished works: "Recuerdos," "Jorge el juego," "Literatura y felicidad," "A propósito de Bouvard y Pechuchet," "Jean Pouillon, 'Del lado de Marx'," "Cicatrices," "El círculo de octubre," "En el extranjero," "Me llamo Pínchon Garay," "Apéndice," "El temor de no ser entendido...," "Martes nublado," "Hojas rosas," "Los hermanos Marx," "De Polonio a Laertes," "La pasíon según Belaqua," "A Bölendorff," "Para 'Estragos'," 40 pp.
Physical Description4 folders
1 folder
This series contains 9 photographs of Juan José Saer, 3 photographs of others, and 23 photographs of Santa Fe, Argentina.
Arranged by subject of photograph.
Physical Description1 box
9 photographs. Four photographs of a presentation with Jean Andrea in Toulouse, March 27, 2003. Others taken in the house of Raúl Beceyro and Marylin Contardi.
Physical Description1 folder
3 photographs. Colastine, Argentina.
Physical Description1 folder
23 photographs. Includes photographs of Calle San Martín and the Gualeguay River.
Physical Description1 folder