Latin-American literature

ROLCAM · Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:17 pm Post subject: Latin-American literature

Latin-American literature consists of the literature of the Spanish-speaking countries of the Western Hemisphere, of Puerto Rico, and of Portuguese-speaking Brazil. For the historical background of the literature, see LATIN AMERICA.

Colonial literature

The colonial period began with the first Spanish and Portuguese explorations of the New World in the late 1400's. It ended with the colonial wars for independence more than 300 years later. The earliest colonial literature consisted mostly of chronicles and narratives written by soldiers and missionaries who described their amazing encounters with new landscapes and civilizations. The authors mixed fantasy with realism in describing their adventures and contacts with unfamiliar peoples, customs, animals, and plants.

Hernando Cortes, the Spanish conqueror of the Aztec empire, wrote five reports for King Charles I of Spain. These accounts, known as the Five Letters (1519-1526), are a gripping and detailed presentation of Cortes's campaign. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who served in the Aztec campaigns led by Cortes, wrote a lively chronicle, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (1522).

Many works dealt with the period of conquest. In The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account (1552), the Dominican missionary Bartolome de Las Casas criticized the brutal treatment of the Indians by the Europeans. The Royal Commentaries (1609) of Garcilaso de la Vega, who was known as El Inca, dramatizes the history of the Inca empire.

The greatest poem of the time was La Araucana (1569-1589) by Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga. The poem told of the bravery of Chilean Indians who resisted the Spanish invaders. The first colonial poet to write in Portuguese was Bento Texeira Pinto. In his epic Prosopopeia (1601), he dealt with the individual and nature in the American environment.

A new literary style called the baroque emerged during the second half of the 1600's. Baroque authors wrote in an ornate and artificial style and used cutting wit and intricate wordplay. The complex baroque style produced works that were often difficult to understand.

The leading writer of the baroque period was the Mexican nun Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, who is generally considered the finest writer in colonial Latin-American literature. She wrote plays, satires, philosophical works, and various types of poetry.

Juan del Valle y Caviedes of Peru composed satirical poetry that criticized the corruption he saw in colonial society. Gregorio de Matos of Brazil also wrote satirical poetry. The Brazilian poet Tomas Antonio Gonzaga wrote some of the finest lyric poetry in the Portuguese language, notably his love poem Marilia de Dirceu (1792). The Brazilian writers Jose Basilio da Gama and Jose de Santa Rita de Durao continued the tradition of epic poetry. Da Gama's Uruguay (1769) describes the war between the European conquerors and the Paraguayan Indians. De Durao's Caramuru (1781) narrates the discovery and settlement of Brazil.

The 1800's

Most of the Latin-American colonies began fighting for their independence from Spain and Portugal in the early 1800's. Hostility toward the colonial powers led to the so-called Wars of Independence, which began in 1810 and lasted for about 16 years. The wars inspired writers to compose patriotic poetry and fiction that satirized the colonial powers. Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi wrote perhaps the first Latin-American novel, The Itching Parrot (1816), a satirical story about the corrupt colonial society of Mexico City. Jose Joaquin Olmedo of Ecuador wrote the famous patriotic poem "Song to Bolivar" (1825).

Romanticism was a cultural movement that began in Europe in the late 1700's and spread to Latin America. Romanticism emphasized individualism and nationalism. It also stressed artistic freedom to pursue new subject matter and fresh literary forms.

Jose Maria Heredia of Cuba was one of Latin America's earliest romantic writers. He wrote the melancholy nature poem "On the Pyramid of Cholula" (1820). Some of the poetry of Andres Bello of Venezuela has subtle romantic elements, especially "Ode to the Agriculture of the Torrid Zone" (1826).

A type of romanticism called nativism developed in the 1800's. Nativist writers dealt with the distinctive regional characteristics of their countries. Esteban Echeverria of Argentina expressed his love of the vast Argentine Pampas (plains) in his lyric poetry. Gaucho literature became especially popular. Gauchos were nomadic cowboys who were depicted as romantic outlaws. Jose Hernandez of Argentina wrote the best-known example of gaucho literature, the epic poem Martin Fierro (1872, 1879). This work recounts the gaucho hero's lonely life, his encounters with Indians, and the harsh treatment he receives from an insensitive government.

The novel flourished during the romantic period. Jorge Isaacs of Colombia wrote Maria (1867), a sentimental love story that remains one of the most popular works in Latin-American literature. Jose Marmol of Argentina and Ignacio Manuel Altamirano of Mexico were liberal writers who wrote novels that opposed political injustice. Another political writer, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento of Argentina, mixed essays and fiction in Civilization and Barbarism: Life of Juan Facundo Quiroga (1845).

The romantic concept of the noble savage became a popular theme during the 1800's. To the romantics, non-Europeans such as the Indians were superior because they were not corrupted by European civilization. In Brazil, the poetry of Antonio Goncalves Dias won praise for its glorified portrayal of the Indians. Indians were the heroes of the novels O Guarani (1857) by Jose de Alencar of Brazil and Cumanda (1879) by Juan Leon Mera of Ecuador and of the epic poem Tabare (1888) by Juan Zorrilla de San Martin of Uruguay.

The Peruvian writer Ricardo Palma created a unique literary form called tradicion. The form consisted of prose sketches that combined history, legend, gossip, stories, and humor. Palma's sketches were collected in Peruvian Traditions, published from 1872 to 1910.

Realism was a literary movement that developed in the late 1800's. Writers tried to capture external reality in a detailed and objective way. Their works showed how human beings are influenced by their social environment. Some writers wrote in a more severe and pessimistic form of realism called naturalism.

The leading Latin-American realists included the novelists Alberto Blest Gana and Baldomero Lillo of Chile, Clorinda Matto de Turner of Peru, Eugenio Cambaceres of Argentina, and Federico Gamboa of Mexico. Probably the most important realist was the Brazilian novelist Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. His best-known novels, Epitaph of a Small Winner (1881) and Dom Casmurro (1900), show a mastery of characterization and narrative technique.

A number of writers emphasized the local customs, habits, and speech of Spanish America's regions in sketches, short stories, and novels. Their works became known as costumbrismo. The leading costumbrista authors included Javier de Viana of Uruguay, Roberto J. Payro of Argentina, and Tomas Carrasquilla of Colombia. All these writers emphasized descriptions of local rural landscapes and types in their stories. The best-known realist playwright was Florencio Sanchez of Argentina, who wrote plays dealing with human conflict in rural Argentina.

Modernism, which lasted from about 1888 to 1910, was one of the most significant literary periods in Latin-American literature. The most important writers were poets. The Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario gave modernism its form. Dario believed that poetry should avoid messages. Instead, poetry should strive to attain beauty in its purest form while liberating verse from traditional styles. In their search for the unusual, poets turned to such exotic sources as Greek, Oriental, and Nordic mythology. Dario's book of poems called Azul (1888) marked the beginning of modernism. Leopoldo Lugones of Argentina was another leading poet of the period.

Jose Enrique Rodo, a Uruguayan essayist, exerted almost as much influence as Dario. Rodo's essay Ariel (1900) became a landmark of Latin-American thought. Rodo appealed to the young people of Latin America to strive for idealism and high spiritual goals, both of which were being threatened by modern materialism. Jose Marti of Cuba was another influential Latin-American intellectual. He was a celebrated journalist, essayist, and poet who was honored as a patriot after he died fighting for Cuban independence.

The 1900's

The early 1900's. A group of women poets won praise during the early 1900's. Many of their poems dealt with love and womanhood in a society dominated by men. In 1945, Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral became the first Latin American to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. Other leading woman poets included Delmira Agustini and Juana de Ibarbourou of Uruguay and Alfonsina Storni of Argentina.

Novelists took a fresh interest in regional themes. Jose Eustasio Rivera of Colombia portrayed the Amazon rain forest as a place of beauty and terror in The Vortex (1924). Romulo Gallegos wrote about the tropical plains of Venezuela in Dona Barbara (1929). Ricardo Guiraldes of Argentina told the adventures of a boy who receives spiritual guidance from a gaucho in Don Segundo Sombra (1926). Jose Lins do Rego's "sugarcane cycle" of novels (1932-1943) recaptures the author's childhood on a sugar plantation in Brazil.

Many regional novels explored social and political problems. Rebellion in the Backlands (1902) by Euclides da Cunha gives a dramatic picture of a military conflict between poverty-stricken peasants and government forces. The Mexican revolution of 1910 inspired Mariano Azuela's novel The Underdogs (1916). Graciliano Ramos' Barren Lives (1938) and Jorge Amado's The Violent Land (1942) criticized social conditions in Brazil. The mistreatment of Indians is portrayed in Huasipungo (1934) by Jorge Icaza of Ecuador, El indio (1935) by Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes of Mexico, and Yawar Fiesta (1940) by Jose Maria Arguedas of Peru.

Several Latin-American poets of the 1920's experimented with form and technique. The most important of these poets were Vicente Huidobro and Pablo Neruda of Chile, Cesar Vallejo of Peru, Mario de Andrade of Brazil, and Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina. They rejected traditional forms to create poetry with unusual imagery. Such poems were intended to reveal the subconscious mind. Andrade's Hallucinated City (1922) is an example of the experimental poetry of the time.

The mid-1900's. A variety of themes dominated the literature of the mid-1900's. A sense of isolation and lack of human communication was expressed by Eduardo Mallea of Argentina in his novels Bay of Silence (1940) and All Green Shall Perish (1941). Ciro Alegria of Peru wrote a novel of social protest about the abuses of Peruvian Indians in Broad and Alien Is the World (1941). Jorge Luis Borges wrote philosophical short stories of fantasy in Ficciones (1944).

During the mid-1940's, writers combined authentic subject matter, varied themes, and experiments in language to produce the "new novel." Novelists became more aware of their cultural identity, but they avoided extreme expressions in their works. The best-known examples of the "new novel" included El senor presidente (1946) by Miguel Angel Asturias of Guatemala, The Edge of the Storm (1947) by Augustin Yanez of Mexico, Adan Buenosayres (1948) by Leopoldo Marechal of Argentina, Born Guilty (1951) by Manuel Rojas of Chile, The Lost Steps (1953) by Alejo Carpentier of Cuba, and Pedro Paramo (1955) by Juan Rulfo of Mexico.

The leading Latin-American poet at midcentury was the Mexican Octavio Paz. Much of his verse deals with Mexican identity and history. He also wrote essays on literary criticism, art, and politics.

Recent developments. The most important development in Latin-American literature since the 1950's has been the sudden and unprecedented international attention enjoyed by novelists. The large number of important novels produced by these writers has been called the "boom." The original boom novelists were Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, Julio Cortazar of Argentina, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia. All four use literary invention in their narratives to express their cultural heritage. They experimented with language and structure, often injecting fantasy and fragmenting time and space. The boom produced a style known as "magical realism," which blended dreams and magic with everyday reality.

Carlos Fuentes' major novels provide a panorama of life in modern Mexico. His major works include Where the Air Is Clear (1958) and The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962). Cortazar's most influential novel is Hopscotch (1963), which experiments with narrative technique and revolts against traditional uses of language. Many critics consider Cortazar's short stories to be even better than his novels. Fantasy, allegory, and philosophy characterize such story collections as A Change of Light (1974). The boom novelist Vargas Llosa writes about modern Peruvian society. His most ambitious work, The War of the End of the World (1981), is a historical novel of high adventure based on Euclides da Cunha's Rebellion in the Backlands.

The most famous boom novelist is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the 1982 Nobel Prize for literature. His novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) ranks as a landmark of Latin-American fiction. The novel contains much historical fact, but the author also includes fantasy, extraordinary characters, bizarre events, suspense, and unusual humor. Garcia Marquez maintained his international reputation with such works as The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) and The General in His Labyrinth (1989). Isabel Allende of Chile blended magical realism and history in her novels The House of the Spirits (1985) and Eva Luna (1987).
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Roland Camilleri

Moderator

Sydney , Australia.