Rocznik Komparatystyczny

The main purpose of the article is to analyze the impact of the American and European philosophy and literature on the Argentinian culture. The paper focuses on three intellectuals-travelers, who visited Argentina in the first half of the 20th century, namely: Waldo Frank, writer and political activist from the United States; Stefan Zweig, Austrian novelist, playwright and biographer; and José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher and sociologist. During their sojourns in Argentina, all of them would give lectures and write to local press thus testifying to an intellectual exchange between Argentina and the European and North-American world. In this context, I also situate a Polish intellectual traveler – Witold Gombrowicz, who lived in Argentina for more than two decades. Although the status of Gombrowicz in Argentina was different, he was aware of the current discourse and his reflections about South America contained similar topics as in the case of the above mentioned thinkers. Although none of the discussed authors are associated with travel literature, one can interpret their works as travel writing, because of the situation they found themselves in. At the same time, their travel notes can be compared with the rise and development of area studies, to which issue I pay my critical attention.