Dante’s Vita nuova and Book 6 of Adán Buenosayres : Solveig as Beatrice, Solveig as Argentina

In book 6 of Adán Buenosayres (“The Blue-Bound Notebook”) Leopoldo Marechal draws extensively from Dante in order to tell the story of the poetic development and spiritual growth of his protagonist Adán, the poet/lover. The book is modelled after Dante’s Vita nuova, which tells the story of Dante’s learning to love Beatrice properly. At first Dante feels physical love for his unattainable lady, but eventually through a process of divinization, Beatrice becomes a Christ-like figure who leads him to God. This chapter investigates the many parallels between book 6 and Dante’s Vita nuova. I argue that in Marechal’s version of the story, Solveig is not only a Christ-like Beatrice figure, but also a national-allegorical figure for Argentina. The soul’s journey of learning how to love is both spiritual and national.