SOUTH AMERICAN

LITERATURE

https://youtu.be/gfKiYpgeAFQ
 Latin America
- South America is the fourth largest continent, about one-eighth of the land
surface of Earth. The continent roughly has an inverted triangular shape.
- South America is bounded by the Caribbean Sea to the northwest and north, the
Atlantic Ocean to the northeast, east, and southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the
west.
- The countries in South America are the following:
 Argentina  Guyana
 Bolivia  Paraguay
 Brazil  Peru
 Chile  Suriname
 Colombia  Uruguay
 Ecuador  Venezuela

- But because Mexico and Central America share an Iberian heritage with nearly all
of South America, this entire region frequently is grouped under the name Latin
America.

FOOTBALL
Passion for football is the main
unifying and dividing force in
South America with elimination
games for the continental
championship called Copa
Libertadores de America held
Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil,
every year. But the endless
competition is always
partnered with the shared
passionate feelings for the
sport.
CULTURE
BETTING ARTS
Games associated with Art of South America
betting such as horse expresses the history and
culture of the people and
racing are popular in
region. Ancient art forms are
countries including
pottery and textile weaving,
Venezuela, and Chile. while colonial and modern art
forms are paintings and
wood carvings.
 LANGUAGE
- Spanish is the most spoken language in South America with
214,265,000 speakers, followed by Portuguese with 211,754,600
speakers, both of which are colonial languages.
- The main indigenous languages are:
 Quechua in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia
 Guarani in Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina
 Aymara in Bolivia, Peru, and Chile
 Wayuu in northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela
 Mapudungun in the small islands of southern Chile and Argentina
 HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
- Latin American literature has a rich history from the pre-Colombian period to
the modern day, with each period having a dominant genre and themes. The
periods in the continent’s history are the following:
 Pre-Colombian period - marked by the oral traditions of Mesoamerican
civilizations, such as the Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs that usually tackle
about agriculture, mythology, astronomy, political history, and religion.
 Colonial period – the arrival of Spaniards marked the start of the
colonial period and the beginning of written literature. During this
period, countless essays, poetry, and the first novel titled “Periquillo
Sarniento” by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi were produced.
 Resistance Literature – in the middle of the 19th century, resistance
literature aimed to define a sense of national identity to stand up
against the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers. There was an explosion
in the number of female writers who wrote against the patriarchal
oppression and marginalization of women in Latin America.
First Latin American novel published in 1816
 HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
 Modernismo - during the late 19th century until the 20th century, modernismo
began with the publication of Azul by Ruben Dario in 1888 and was mainly
driven by poetry. This is the first Latin American literary movement where
national differences were no longer an issue.
 The Boom – in the 1960s and 70s after WWII, South America experienced a
literary boom. Writers during this period ventured outside the box and the
traditional narrative structures, exploring experimental styles of writing. Most
of the works fall under the genre, magical realism, marked by fantastical
elements merged with everyday life.
 Contemporary period – from the 1970s onward, contemporary literature
rejected the magical realism genre. Literature became more flexible and
allowed writers to write what they want rather than follow the expectations
of the period. Some genres during this period are novels, poetry, and short
stories.
The work that marked the start of the
Modernismo movement
 GENRES
drama fiction nonfiction poetry

Pre-Colombian Mythology

Essays
Colonial Novels (unspecified)
F.P. Narratives

Resistance

Short Stories
Modernismo Novels
(all subgenres)

Magical
The boom
Realism

Novels
contemporary Short Stories
(all subgenres)
 RECURRING THEMES
- The major themes in South American literature are:
 The Fantastic and Magical Realism
 Labyrinth – characters are trapped in a place or time, repeating the same bad decisions.
 Eternal recurrence of all things – everything in the past will happen again unless the
character is capable of self-knowledge to not repeat the same mistakes.
 Social realism – dark and depressing depictions of life in Latin America that reflects the
violent history of the continent with colonizers
 Female discourse – works with gender role as their main theme that critique marianismo
(i.e., stereotypical female characteristics such as hyper femininity and submissiveness to
males) and machismo (i.e., strong masculinity) in Latin America.
Prominent authors
and their titles
Gabriela Mistral (Chile)
One of the female writers from the
Resistance period whose writings
primarily focus on marginalization of
women in Latin America. She remains
to be the only female Latin American
writer to win the Nobel Prize 1945.
“Sonetos de la muerte” (1914) or
“Sonnets of Death” made Mistral
known throughout Latin America.
Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)
One of the leading authors during the
Modernismo movement. He is
credited for developing and
advancing the “fantastic” style of
literature in Latin America. One of his
famous works is “Ficciones” or
“Fictions” (1944) which is a collection
of short stories
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
One of the leading authors during the
Boom movement. He won the Nobel
Prize for Literature 1982. His work
“Cien Años de Soledad” (1967) or “One
Hundred Years of Solitude” is
considered one of the most important
literary works of the 20th century.
Isabel Allende (Chile)
A contemporary/post-Boom writer.
Some of her works still contain
aspects of magical realism and they
challenge “elitism” or the belief of
having elite people due to intrinsic
quality. Her work “The House of the
Spirits” (1982) was developed from
her letter to her dying grandfather.
 THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS
Clara del Valle started writing a journal when she was a child. She can predict events from the future
and was able to predict a death in her family. Her favorite sister, Rosa the beautiful, is engaged to Esteban
Trueba, a poor miner. Esteban was devasted when Rosa died to poisoning and he devoted his life to
making fortune with his family hacienda, Tres Marias. During this time, Esteban exploited young peasant
girls including Pancha. He also had a sexual relationship with a prostitute, Transito Soto, lending her
money to go to the city. After nine years, Esteban’s mother died and he visited the del Valle home and
married Clara. Clara predicted the marriage two months prior. They moved into a “big house on the
corner” built by Esteban for the Trueba Family. Clara became pregnant and gave birth to her first child,
Blanca. A few years later, the family visited Tres Marias and Blanca met Pedro Tercero and they fell in
love. Clara became pregnant again to a pair of twins, Jaime and Nicolas. But a few days before labor,
Clara’s parents died to a car accident. Clara asked Esteban’s sister, Ferula, to help her find her mother’s
missing head and they were successful. Clara and Ferula became friends but Esteban became jealous and
kicked Ferula out of the house. Ferula cursed Esteban to die lonely. Esteban is a conservative while
Blanca’s lover, Pedro Tercero, is a revolutionary. When Blanca and Tercero’s relationship was discovered
by Esteban, Tercero was banished from the hacienda. Esteban was furious and slapped Clara. She never
talked to him again for several years although they are living in the same house.
 THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS
Blanca finds out that she is pregnant but Esteban told her that he killed Pedro Tercero and forces
her to marry a French count, Jean de Satigny. Six months after their marriage, Blanca finds out Jean’s
unusual sexual fantasies and leaves him. She gave birth to her daughter, Alba, and the birth of the girl
was witnessed by Miguel, the young brother of a friend of Nicolas and Jaime. Clara predicts that Alba will
have a happy future and good luck. Alba is the only member of the family that had a close relationship
with Estaban. She met Pedro Tercero but has no idea that he is her father. A few years later, Clara died
and Nicolas was kicked out by Estaban to North America. When she was eighteen, Alba went to the
university where she met Miguel and they fell in love. Miguel is a revolutionary and out of love, Alba
involves herself in protests against the conservative government. When the socialist party won the
election, Pedro Tercero joined the government. On the other hand, Estaban and his fellow conservative
politicians planned a military coup against the socialist government. Jaime who was friends with the
Socialist president was killed. Esteban then realized that the coup will result in a military dictatorship.
Without enough power to stop it from happening, Esteban just chose to help Blanca and Pedro Tercero to
escape to Canada. Meanwhile, Alba was abducted by the colonel of the socialist dictator. He turns out to
be Esteban Garcia, the grandson of Pancha and Esteban Trueba. Garcia plans to revenge on Alba for
Esteban exploiting Pancha.
 THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS
Desperate to save Alba, Esteban goes to Transito Soto, the prostitute he helped before. Transito was
able to repay the favor to Estaban and Alba was returned home. Alba and Estaban then used Clara’s
journal to write the story of their family. Estaban dies in the arms of Alba, escaping the curse of Ferula
that he will die lonely. Alba continues the project of writing her family’s story while she was pregnant with
either Miguel’s child or Garcia’s who raped her when she was abducted.
We can analyze “The House of the Spirits” using the feminist criticism approach because like the
other works of Isabel Allende, this novel emphasizes women-centeredness. The protagonists of the novel
are all women who work in subtle ways to assert their rights. Clara, Blanca, and Alba are the focus of the
story, while Esteban, Pedro Tercero, and Miguel are part of the story only because they are the men that
those women loved or married. Clara is the character with the supernatural power of predicting events in
the future, while Alba is the last character mentioned who is alive and accomplished the main goal of the
story, to write the story of their family.
 References:
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https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/houseofspirits/summary/

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https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1945/mistral/biographical/

Raja Sharma. (2016, December 2). Literature Help: Novels: Plot Overview 591: The House of the Spirits [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLgKxSBn-qg

Rayburn-Trobaug, C. (2019, January 15). Traditional Art of South America. Travel Tips - USA Today. Retrieved November

3, 2021, from https://traveltips.usatoday.com/traditional-art-south-america-11685.html

 References:
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https://www.britannica.com/place/South-America/Cultural-life

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https://study.com/academy/lesson/latin-american-literature-history-authors-genres.html

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November 3, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_American_countries_by_population

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from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_South_America