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| Néstor Perlongher | |
|---|---|
| Name | Néstor Perlongher |
| Birth date | 1949-12-16 |
| Birth place | Santo Tomé, Santa Fe, Argentina |
| Death date | 1992-11-26 |
| Death place | São Paulo, Brazil |
| Occupation | Poet, essayist, ethnographer, activist |
| Nationality | Argentine |
Néstor Perlongher was an Argentine poet, essayist, and anthropologist active in the late 20th century whose work intersected with LGBT social movements, left-wing politics, and urban ethnography. He authored influential collections of poetry and essays, participated in grassroots activism, and taught at universities while collaborating with cultural institutions across Latin America and Europe. His writing and scholarship engaged with figures and movements spanning Buenos Aires, São Paulo, New York City, Paris, and broader transnational networks.
Perlongher was born in Santo Tomé, Santa Fe Province, during the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón and came of age amid the political turbulence associated with Argentine Revolution (1966–1973), the return of Peronism, and the advent of the National Reorganization Process. He moved to Buenos Aires to study at the National University of Buenos Aires and later pursued postgraduate work influenced by scholars at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and intellectual currents from Paris, including the legacies of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Jacques Derrida. His formative years intersected with cultural milieus connected to Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Alejandra Pizarnik, and the editorial circles around Editorial Sudamericana and Ediciones de la Flor.
Perlongher's poetic debut emerged within the context of Argentine avant-garde and queer literatures alongside contemporaries such as Haroldo de Campos, Oswald de Andrade, and Roberto Bolaño. He published collections that engaged urban nightlife, sex work, and transgressive bodies, contributing to magazines like El Porteño, Crisis, and Sur. Major works include collections and essays circulated in Buenos Aires and São Paulo, gaining attention from publishers like Editorial Bruguera and Siglo Veintiuno Editores. His texts intersected with translations and dialogues involving figures such as Susan Sontag, Octavio Paz, Severo Sarduy, and Hélène Cixous, generating exchange with major literary festivals including Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo.
Perlongher was active in LGBT rights organizing that connected with groups such as Gays por los Derechos Civiles and regional networks linked to Movimiento de Liberación Homosexual and later La Habana Gay Coalition-adjacent activists. He participated in protests and cultural interventions alongside labor and human rights organizations including Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Centre for Human Rights Studies, and transnational NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. His activism placed him in solidarity with movements around HIV/AIDS advocacy that coordinated with clinics and collectives in São Paulo and New York City linked to ACT UP and GMHC. Perlongher's political interventions intersected with debates surrounding the National Reorganization Process and regional transitions to democracy involving actors like Raúl Alfonsín, Carlos Menem, and international bodies including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Training in social sciences and ethnography led Perlongher to conduct fieldwork on nightlife, sex work, and urban marginality, engaging methods inspired by Clifford Geertz, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel de Certeau. He lectured and collaborated with departments at institutions such as the University of São Paulo, University of Buenos Aires, University of Campinas, and research centers affiliated with Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and FAPESP. His anthropological essays were discussed in journals and seminars alongside scholars like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, and Nancy Fraser. He contributed to interdisciplinary dialogues at venues such as Centro Cultural Recoleta, Fundação Getulio Vargas, and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
Perlongher's style synthesized elements from surrealism practiced by poets such as André Breton, the transgressive energies of beat generation writers linked to Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, and the formal experiments of modernismo practitioners like Rubén Darío. Recurring themes included urban nightlife, sex work, desire, mortality, and pandemics, dialoguing with contemporaneous debates by Foucault on sexuality, Deleuze on desire, and Susan Sontag on illness. His poetics employed heteronyms of rhythm and collage reminiscent of Osip Mandelstam and Paul Éluard, while invoking cultural references from Tango, samba, and continental itineraries through Europe and the United States.
Perlongher's work attracted scholarly attention in Latin American studies, queer theory, and comparative literature, discussed alongside canonized figures such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Octavio Paz. His contributions influenced writers, activists, and academics in Argentina, Brazil, and beyond, cited in symposia at the Latin American Studies Association and exhibitions at cultural centers like Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. Posthumous recognition included retrospectives and translations in publishing circuits connected to Folio, Anagrama, and academic presses at Oxford University Press and Routledge. His intersectional practice continues to inform scholarship in gender studies, urban studies, and medical humanities.
- Poetic collections and essays published in Argentina and Brazil with publishers and journals such as Editorial Sudamericana, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, Ediciones de la Flor, El Porteño, and Crisis. - Contributions to edited volumes and conferences held by Universidad de Buenos Aires, University of São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas, and Latin American Studies Association. - Translations and critical studies appearing through Oxford University Press, Routledge, Anagrama, and festival anthologies from Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín.
Category:Argentine poets Category:Argentine LGBT people Category:1949 births Category:1992 deaths