Latin American

Literature
• It consists of the oral and written literature of
Latin America in diverse languages, like Spanish,
Portuguese and the Indigenous languages of the
Americas in particular. the base language of
Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French
• It became globally prominent during the
second half of the 20th century, largely because
of the international success of the style known as
Magical Realism
• Since the region’s literature was much associated
only with the 20th century literary movement known
as Latin American Boom which was actively
supported by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
• Latin American literature is rich with culture and social
commentary and like many cultures Latin American stories revolve
around Universal Themes based on life experiences like poverty,
family and relationship loyalties, gender roles, social protest and
exploitation, religion and magical realism
HISTORY
• Latin American Literature has a rich and
complex tradition of literary production
dates back many centuries.
• Pre-Columbian Literature were primarily
oral, while the Aztecs and Mayans
produced elaborate codices
• Colonial Literature when Europeans encountered
the New World, early explorers and
conquistadores produced written accounts of
crónicas of their experience, like Columbus’s
letters or Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s description of
the conquest of Mexico
• Nineteenth Century Literature was the period of
foundational fictions. Novels in the Romantic or Naturalist
traditions which attempted to establish a sense of national
identity and focused on the role and rights of the
indigenous or the dichotomy of “civilization or barbarism”.
• It was also the time of gradual increase in
women’s education and writing that brought
more women writers to the forefront.
• Modernismo, the Vanguards, and Boom
precursors emerged in the late 19th century was a
poetic movement whose founding text was the
Nicaraguan Ruben LESSON Dario’s Azul.
• This was the first Latin American literary
movement to influence literary culture outside
the region and was also the first truly Latin
American Literature in which the national
differences were no longer so much at issue.
• In poetry, it had been the renovation of poetic form and
techniques, extending the use of free verse. Avant-Garde also
vanguadria (fore - guard) was the next artistic movement after
Modernismo which instituted a radical search for new, daring,
confrontational themes and shockingly novel forms.
• The Boom was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s,
after World War II, Latin America enjoyed increasing economic
prosperity, and a new-found confidence also gave rise to a
literary boom. Boom writers ventured outside traditional
narrative structures, embracing non-linearity and
experimental narration.
• It launched Latin American Literature onto the
world stage, and it was distinguished by daring
and experimental novels.
• Post-Boom and Contemporary Literature is characterized by a
tendency towards irony and humor and towards the use of
popular genres. Some writers felt the success of the Boom to
be a burden, and spiritedly denounced the caricature that
reduces Latin American literature to magical realism.
• Contemporary literature in the region is vibrant and varied,
ranging from the best-selling Paulo Coelho and Isabel Allende
to the more avant-garde and critically acclaimed work of
writers such as Diamela Eltit, and Giannina Braschi.
21st Century
Representative Texts and
Authors from Latin
America
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
(6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014)
• a famous Columbian novelist, short story writer,
journalist, screenwriter and a Nobel Prize winner in
1982 for his novels and short stories, in which the
fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly
composed world of imagination, reflecting a
continent’s life and conflicts
• He was familiarly known as “Gabo” and
considered as one of the greatest authors of the
20th century
• He had written the most endearing and memorable
stories of magic realism in Latin American fiction:
• One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death
Foretold, Love in time of Cholera, and Autumn of the
Patriarch. He was Neustadt International Prize for
Literature (1972) and Nobel Prize in Literature
awardee (1982)
• One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death
Foretold, Love in time of Cholera, and Autumn of the
Patriarch. He was Neustadt International Prize for
Literature (1972) and Nobel Prize in Literature
awardee (1982).
CARLOS FUENTESMACÍAS
(11, November 1928- 15 May 2012)
• a Mexican novelist and essayist
• He was described by The New York Times as “one of
the most admired writers in the Spanish Speaking
World” and an important influence in the Latin
American Boom while The Guardian called him
“Mexico’s most celebrated novelist.
• His many literary honors include the Miguel de
Cervantes Prize, Belisario Dominguez Medal of Honor
(1999) as Mexico’s highest award and was often a
candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, though he
never won. Among his works are The Death of
Artemio Cruz, Aura, Terra Nostra, The Old Gringo and
Christopher Unborn.
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
(28 March 1936)
• a Peruvian Spanish writer whose commitment to
social change is evident in his novels, plays, and
essays and was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in
Literature
• He was an unsuccessful candidate for president in
Peru year 1990. He wrote about this experience “A
Fish in the Water: A Memoir” (1993) and became a
citizen of Spain and was awarded the Cervantes Prize
of the same year.
• Despite his new nationality he continued to write
about Peru in such novels “The Notebooks of Don
Rigoberto” (1997), The feast of the Goat (2000,
filmed 2005), The Way to Paradise (2003) The Bad
Girl (2006), The Dream of the Celt (2010), The
Discreet Hero (2013) and The Neighborhood (2016).
• In 2015, Vargas Llosa also made his acting debut at
the Teatro Real in Madrid, where he appeared as a
duke in Tales of the Plague his stage adaption of
Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron.
JULIA ALVAREZ
(27 March 1950)
• a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist
• Many literary critics regard her to be one of the most
significant Latina writers and she has achieved critical
and commercial success on an international scale
• Alvarez rose to prominence with her novels How the
Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of
the Butterflies (1994), and Yo! (1997).
• Her works as a poet include Homecoming (1984), and
The Woman I kept to Myself (2004) and Something to
Declare (1998) was her autobiographical compilation
as an essayist.
• Her notable award was the National Medal of Arts
(2014) from President Obama.
• Many of Alvarez’s works are influenced by her
experiences as a Dominican in the United States and
focuses heavily on issues of assimilation and identity.
• Her cultural upbringing as both a Dominican and an
American is evident in the combination of personal
and political tone in her writing.
• She is known for works that examine cultural
expectations of women both in the Dominican
Republic and the United States, and for rigorous
investigations of cultural stereotypes.