Latin American literature consists of the oral and written
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...
of
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...
in several
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
indigenous languages of the Americas
Over a thousand indigenous languages are spoken by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. These languages cannot all be demonstrated to be related to each other and are classified into a hundred or so language families (including a large num ...
. It rose to particular prominence globally during the second half of the 20th century, largely due to the international success of the style known as
magical realism
Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to:
* Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse
* "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr
* '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...
. As such, the region's literature is often associated solely with this style, with the 20th century literary movement known as Latin American Boom, and with its most famous exponent,
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
. Latin American literature has a rich and complex tradition of literary production that dates back many centuries.
History
Pre-Columbian literature
Pre-Columbian cultures were primarily oral, though the Aztecs and Mayans, for instance, produced elaborate
codices
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, ...
. Oral accounts of mythological and religious beliefs were also sometimes recorded after the arrival of European colonizers, as was the case with the
Popol Vuh
''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan a ...
. Moreover, a tradition of oral narrative survives to this day, for instance among the Quechua-speaking population of Peru and the Quiché of Peru.
Colonial literature
From the very moment when Europeans encountered the New World, early explorers and conquistadores produced written accounts and crónicas of their experience, such as
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
's letters or Bernal Díaz del Castillo's description of the conquest of the Aztec Empire. At times, colonial practices stirred a lively debate about the ethics of colonization and the status of the indigenous peoples, as reflected for instance in
Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas, Dominican Order, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish Empire, Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman ...
's ''Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies''. The first printing press in North America was established in present-day
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
in 1539 by publisher Juan Cromberger.
Mestizos and natives also contributed to the body of colonial literature. Authors such as
El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (12 April 1539 – 23 April 1616), born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa and known as El Inca, was a chronicler and writer born in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Sailing to Spain at 21, he was educated informally there, where he ...
and Guaman Poma wrote accounts of the Spanish conquest that show a perspective that often contrasts with the colonizers' accounts.
During the colonial period, written culture was often in the hands of the church, the context within which Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote memorable poetry and philosophical essays. Her interest in scientific thought and experiment led to professional discussions and writings with
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the g ...
. Toward the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th, a distinctive criollo literary tradition emerged, including the first novels such as José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi's El Periquillo Sarniento (1816). The "libertadores" themselves were also often distinguished writers, such as
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and ...
and
Andrés Bello
Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López (; November 29, 1781 – October 15, 1865) was a Venezuelan- Chilean humanist, diplomat, poet, legislator, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute ...
.
Nineteenth-century Literature
The 19th century was a period of "foundational fictions" (in critic Doris Sommer's words), novels in the
Romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
or Naturalist traditions that attempted to establish a sense of national identity, and which often focused on the role and rights of the indigenous or the dichotomy of "civilization or barbarism", pioneered in Latin America by Esteban Echeverría who was influenced by the Parisian romantics while he lived there from 1825 to 1930. Romanticism was then taken up by other prominent literary figures, for which see, the Argentine Domingo Sarmiento's '' Facundo'' (1845). Likewise, Alberto Blest Gana's Martin Rivas (1862), widely acknowledged as the first
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
an novel, was at once a passionate love story and a
national epic
A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with a ...
about revolution. Other foundation fictions include the Colombian Jorge Isaacs's '' María'' (1867), Ecuadorian Juan León Mera's '' Cumandá'' (1879), or the Brazilian
Euclides da Cunha
Euclides da Cunha (, January 20, 1866 – August 15, 1909) was a Brazilian journalist, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is '' Os Sertões'' (''Rebellion in the Backlands''), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions ...
's '' Os Sertões'' (1902). Such works are still the bedrocks of national canons, and usually mandatory elements of high school curricula.
Other important works of 19th century Latin American literature include regional classics, such as
José Hernández José Hernández may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* José Hernández (writer) (1834–1886), Argentine writer
* Pepe Hern (José Hernández Bethencourth, 1927–2009), American actor
* José Hernández, American singer (born 1940), better known ...
's epic poem '' Martín Fierro'' (1872). The story of a poor
gaucho
A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and the south of Chilean Patagonia. Gauchos became greatly admired and ...
drafted to fight a frontier war against Indians, ''Martín Fierro'' is an example of the "gauchesque", an Argentine genre of poetry centered around the lives of gauchos.
The literary movements of the nineteenth century in Latin America range from Neoclassicism at the beginning of the century to Romanticism in the middle of the century, to Realism and Naturalism in the final third of the century, and finally to the invention of Modernismo, a distinctly Latin American literary movement, at the end of the nineteenth century. The next sections discuss prominent trends in these movements more thoroughly.
Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, and Emerging Literary Trends
The Latin American wars of Independence that occurred in the early nineteenth century in Latin America led to literary themes of identity, resistance, and human rights. Writers often followed and innovated popular literary movements (such as Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism), but many were also exploring ideas such as nationalism and independence. Cultural independence spread across Latin America during this time, and writers depicted Latin American themes and locations in their works. While literature that questioned the colonial order may have emerged initially during the seventeenth century in Latin America, it rose in popularity in the form of resistance against Spain, the United States, and other imperialist nations in the nineteenth century. Latin American writers sought a Latin American identity, and this would later be closely tied with the ''Modernismo'' literary movement.
Male authors mainly dominated colonial literature, with the exception of literary greats such as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, but a shift began in the nineteenth century that allowed for more female authors to emerge. An increase in women's education and writing brought some women writers to the forefront, including the Cuban Romantic author
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga (March 23, 1814 – February 1, 1873) was a 19th-century Cuban-born Spanish writer. Born in Puerto Príncipe, now Camagüey, she lived in Cuba until she was 22. Her family moved to Spain in 1836, where s ...
with the novel ''Sab'' (1841), a romantic novel offering subtle critique of slavery and the treatment of women in Cuba, the Peruvian Naturalist author Clorinda Matto de Turner who wrote what is considered one of the most important novels of "indigenismo" in the 19th century: ''Aves sin nido'' (1889), and the Argentinian Romantic writer Juana Manuela Gorriti (1818-1892), who penned a variety of novels and short stories, such as ''La hija del mashorquero'' (1860) and directed a literary circle in Peru. A Naturalist trail-blazer, Peruvian Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera penned ''Blanca Sol'' (1888) to critique women's lack of practical work options in her society. Women writers of the nineteenth century often wrote about the inequalities in Latin America that were vestiges of colonialism such as the marginalization and oppression of Indigenous peoples, slaves, and women. Many works by women in this period challenged Latin American patriarchal societies. These prominent women writers discussed the hypocrisy of the dominant class and institutions that existed in their nascent nations and criticized the corruption of the government. Some prime examples of such works include Clorinda Matto de Turner's ''Indole'', ''Herencia'', and ''El Conspirador: autobiografia de un hombre publico''.
Modernismo, the Vanguards, and Boom precursors
In the late 19th century, '' modernismo'' emerged, a poetic movement whose founding text was the Nicaraguan
Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as '' modernismo'' (modernism) that flourished at the end of ...
's ''Azul'' (1888). This was the first Latin American poetry movement to influence literary culture outside of the region, and was also the first truly Latin American literature, in that national differences were no longer as much of an issue and authors sought to establish Latin American connections.
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liber ...
, for instance, though a Cuban patriot, also lived in Mexico and the United States and wrote for journals in Argentina and elsewhere. In 1900 the Uruguayan José Enrique Rodó wrote what became read as a manifesto for the region's cultural awakening, ''Ariel''. Delmira Agustini, one of the female figures of modernismo, wrote poetry that both utilized typical modernist images (such as swans) and adapted them with feminist messages and erotic themes, as critic Sylvia Molloy describes.
Though modernismo itself is often seen as aestheticist and anti-political, some poets and essayists, Martí among them but also the Peruvians Manuel González Prada and
José Carlos Mariátegui
José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira (June 14, 1894 - April 16, 1930) was a Peruvian writer, journalist, politician and Marxist–Leninist philosopher.
A prolific author despite his early death, El Amauta (from Quechua: hamawt'a, "teacher", a n ...
, introduced compelling critiques of the contemporary social order and particularly the plight of Latin America's indigenous peoples. In this way, the early twentieth century also saw the rise of indigenismo, a trend previously popularized by Clorinda Matto de Turner, that was dedicated to representing indigenous culture and the injustices that such communities were undergoing, as for instance with the Peruvian José María Arguedas and the Mexican Rosario Castellanos.
Resistance against colonialism, a trend that emerged earlier in the nineteenth century, was also extremely important in modernismo. This resistance literature was promoted by prominent modernists including the aforementioned
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liber ...
(1853-1895) and
Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as '' modernismo'' (modernism) that flourished at the end of ...
(1867-1916). Martí warned readers about the imperialistic tendencies of the United States and described how Latin America should avoid allowing the United States to intervene in their affairs. A prime example of this sort of message is found in Martí's ''Our America'', published in 1892. Darío also worked to highlight the threat of
American imperialism
American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest ...
, which can be seen in his poem ''To Roosevelt'', as well as his other works ''Cake-Walk: El Baile de Moda''. Many of his works were published in ''La Revista Moderna de Mexico'', a modernist magazine of the time.
The Argentine
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
invented what was almost a new genre, the philosophical short story, and would go on to become one of the most influential of all Latin American writers. At the same time, Roberto Arlt offered a very different style, closer to mass culture and popular literature, reflecting the urbanization and European immigration that was shaping the
Southern Cone
The Southern Cone ( es, Cono Sur, pt, Cone Sul) is a geographical and cultural subregion composed of the southernmost areas of South America, mostly south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Traditionally, it covers Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, bou ...
. Both writers were the most important emergents in an important controversy in Argentinian literature between the so-called Florida Group of Borges and other writers and artists that used to meet at the Richmond Cafe in the centrical Florida street of Buenos Aires city vs. the Boedo Group of Roberto Arlt that used to meet at the Japanese Cafe in the most periferical Boedo borough of the same city.
The Venezuelan
Romulo Gallegos Romulo may refer to:
People with the given name Romulo Italian
* Rômulo (footballer, born 1987), Brazilian-born football player
* Romulo Cincinato (1502 – circa 1593), painter
Portuguese
* Rómulo (footballer, born 1976), football player
Mex ...
wrote in 1929 what came to be one of the most well known Latin American novels in the twentieth century, '' Doña Barbara''. ''Doña Barbara'' is a
realist novel
Literary realism is a literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. It originated with the realist art movement that began with ...
describing the conflict between civilization and barbarism in the plainlands of South America, and is a masterpiece of criollismo. The novel became an immediate hit, being translated into over forty languages.
Notable figures in Brazil at this time include the exceptional novelist and short story writer
Machado de Assis
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (), often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, ''Machado,'' or ''Bruxo do Cosme Velho''Vainfas, p. 505. (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short sto ...
, whose both ironic view and deep psychological analysis introduced a universal scope in Brazilian prose, the modernist poets Mário de Andrade,
Oswald de Andrade
José Oswald de Souza Andrade (January 11, 1890 – October 22, 1954) was a Brazilian poet, novelist and cultural critic. He was born, spent most of his life and died in São Paulo.
Andrade was one of the founders of Brazilian modernism and a m ...
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
Mariano Azuela
Mariano Azuela González (January 1, 1873 – March 1, 1952) was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He wrote novels, works for theatre and literary criticism. He is the f ...
's '' Los de abajo'', a committed work of social realism and the revolution and its aftermath would continue to be a point of reference for
Mexican literature
Mexican literature is one of the most prolific and influential of Spanish-language literatures along with those of Spain and Argentina. Found among the names of its most important and internationally recognized literary figures are authors Oct ...
for many decades. In the 1940s, the Cuban novelist and musicologist
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French a ...
There is a vibrant tradition of prose poetry in 20th century Latin America; the
prose poem
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects.
Characteristics
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...
becomes a prevalent format for lyrical philosophical inquiry and sensual sentiments of the region's poets. Masters of the prose poem include
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
("Everything and Nothing"),
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
(''Passions and Impressions)'',
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
(''Aguila o Sol?/''Eagle or Sun?), Alejandra Pizarnik ("Sex/Night"), Giannina Braschi ( Empire of Dreams) and Rafael Cadenas (Memorial).
Leaders of the vanguard whose poetry express love, romance, and a commitment to left leaning regional politics are
Cesar Vallejo Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol
* ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
* César Award, a French film award
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* Ce ...
(Peru) and
Nobel
Nobel often refers to:
*Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel
Nobel may also refer to:
Companies
*AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994
*Branobel, or ...
laureate
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
Jorge Eduardo Eielson
Jorge Eduardo Eielson (April 13, 1924 – March 8, 2006) was a Peruvian artist and writer. As an artist he is known for his quipus, a reinterpretation of an ancient Andean device, they are considered precursors of conceptual art.
Life a ...
or Javier Sologuren.
After Modernismo several lesser known, short-lived poetry movements emerged in Latin America. In Chile, Braulio Arenas and others founded in 1938 the Mandrágora group, strongly influenced by
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
Cesar Moro Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol
* ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
* César Award, a French film award
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* Ces ...
and Emilio Adolfo Westphalen developed
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
in the Andes region.
The Boom
After World War II, Latin America enjoyed increasing economic prosperity, and a new-found confidence also gave rise to a literary boom. From 1960 to 1967, some of the major seminal works of the boom were published and before long became widely noticed, admired, and commented on beyond Latin America itself. Many of these novels and collections of short stories were somewhat rebellious from the general point of view of Latin America culture. Authors crossed traditional boundaries, experimented with language, and often mixed different styles of writing in their works.
Structures of literary works were also changing. Boom writers ventured outside traditional narrative structures, embracing non-linearity and experimental narration. The figure of
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
, though not a Boom author per se, was extremely influential for the Boom generation. Latin American authors were inspired by North American and European authors such as
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most ...
,
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
, and
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born ...
, by the legendary Spanish poet and dramatist
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
as well as by each other's works; many of the authors knew one another, which led to a mutual crossbreeding of styles.
The Boom launched Latin American literature onto the world stage. It was distinguished by daring and experimental novels such as
Julio Cortázar
Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ...
's '' Rayuela'' (1963), that were frequently published in Spanish and quickly translated into English. From 1966 to 1968,
Emir Rodríguez Monegal
Emir Rodríguez Monegal (28 July 1921 – 14 November 1985), born in Uruguay, was a scholar, literary critic, and editor of Latin American literature. From 1969 to 1985, Rodríguez Monegal was professor of Latin American contemporary literatu ...
published his influential Latin American literature monthly ''
Mundo Nuevo
''Mundo Nuevo'' (1966–1971, Spanish for "the New World") was an influential Spanish-language periodical, being a monthly ''revista de cultura'' ( literary magazine) dedicated to new Latin American literature. Sponsored by the Ford Foundation, ...
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
's '' Cien años de soledad'' in 1966. In 1967, the published book was one of the Boom's defining novels, which led to the association of Latin American literature with magic realism, though other important writers of the period such as
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
and Carlos Fuentes do not fit so easily within this framework. In the same year, 1967. Miguel Ángel Asturias was awarded the Nobel prize for literature, making his magical realist, metaphor-heavy, folkloristic and sometimes politically charged novels widely known in Europe and North America. Perhaps, the Boom's culmination arrived in Augusto Roa Bastos's monumental ''
Yo, el supremo
''I the Supreme'' (orig. Spanish ''Yo el Supremo'') is a historical novel written by exiled Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos. It is a fictionalized account of the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who ...
'' (1974). Other important novelists of the period include the Chilean José Donoso, the Guatemalan
Augusto Monterroso
Augusto Monterroso Bonilla (December 21, 1921 - February 7, 2003) was a Honduran writer who adopted Guatemalan nationality, known for the ironical and humorous style of his short stories. He is considered an important figure in the Latin Americ ...
and the Cuban Guillermo Cabrera Infante.
Though the literary boom occurred while Latin America was having commercial success, the works of this period tended to move away from the positives of the modernization that was underway. Boom works often tended not to focus on social and local issues, but rather on universal and at times metaphysical themes.
Political turmoil in Latin American countries such as
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
at this time influenced the literary boom as well. Some works anticipated an end to the prosperity that was occurring, and even predicted old problems would resurface in the near future. Their works foreshadowed the events to come in the future of Latin America, with the 1970s and 1980s dictatorships, economic turmoil, and
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 ...
s.
Post-Boom and McOndo
Post-Boom literature is sometimes characterized by a tendency towards irony and humor, as the narrative of Alfredo Bryce Echenique, and towards the use of popular genres, as in the work of Manuel Puig. 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. Hence the Chilean
Alberto Fuguet
Alberto Felipe Fuguet de Goyeneche (; born 7 March 1963) is a Chilean author, journalist, film critic and film director who rose to critical prominence in the 1990s as part of the movement known as the New Chilean Narrative. Although he was bo ...
coined McOndo as an antidote to the Macondo-ism that demanded of aspiring writers that they set their tales in steamy tropical jungles in which the fantastic and the real happily coexisted. In a mock diary by post-modernistGiannina Braschi the Narrator of the Latin American Boom is shot by a Macy's make-up artist who accuses the Boom of capitalizing on her solitude. Other writers, however, have traded on the Boom's success: see for instance
Laura Esquivel
Laura Beatriz Esquivel Valdés (born September 30, 1950) is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter and politician, serving in the LXIII Legislature of the Mexican Congress in the Chamber of Deputies for the Morena Party from 2015 to 2018. Her first n ...
's pastiche of magical realism in ''Como agua para chocolate''.
The Spanish language author who has had most impact in United States has been
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (; 28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel ''Los detectives salvajes'' ('' The Savage Detectives ...
. Overall, contemporary literature in the region is vibrant and varied, ranging from the best-selling
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho de Souza (, ; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His novel '' The Alchemist'' became an international best-seller and he has published 28 more boo ...
and
Isabel Allende
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
Luisa Valenzuela
Luisa Valenzuela Levinson (born 26 November 1938) is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective.
She may be bes ...
Jorge Marchant Lazcano
Jorge Marchant Lazcano (born March 9, 1950, in Santiago, Chile) is a Chilean writer, playwright, screenwriter, novelist and journalist.Alicia Yánez, Jaime Bayly, Alonso Cueto,
Edmundo Paz Soldán
José Edmundo Paz-Soldán Ávila (Cochabamba, 29 March 1967) is a Bolivian writer. His work is a prominent example of the Latin American literary movement known as McOndo, in which the magical realism of previous Latin American authors is suppl ...
Daniel Alarcon
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...
Mario Mendoza Zambrano
Mario Mendoza Zambrano (born January 6, 1964) is a Colombian writer, professor, and journalist.
Biography
Mario Mendoza Zambrano was born in 1964 in Bogotá, Colombia. He studied at Colegio Refous and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, or " ...
. Other important figures include the Argentine
César Aira
César Aira (Argentine Spanish: ; born 23 February 1949 in Coronel Pringles, Buenos Aires Province) is an Argentinian writer and translator, and an exponent of contemporary Argentinian literature. Aira has published over a hundred short books o ...
, the Peruvian-Mexican Mario Bellatin or the Colombian Fernando Vallejo, whose ''La virgen de los sicarios'' depicted the violence in Medellín under the influence of the drug trade. Emerging voices include Fernando Ampuero, Miguel Gutierrez, Edgardo Rivera Martinez, Jaime Marchán and Manfredo Kempff.
There has also been considerable attention paid to the genre of testimonio, texts produced in collaboration with subaltern subjects such as
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum (; born 9 January 1959) is a K'iche' Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the rights of Guatemala's Indigenous peoples during and after t ...
.
Finally, a new breed of chroniclers is represented by the more journalistic Carlos Monsiváis and Pedro Lemebel, who draw also on the long-standing tradition of essayistic production as well as the precedents of engaged and creative non-fiction represented by the Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano and the Mexican Elena Poniatowska, among others.
Prominent 20th century writers
According to literary critic
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
, the most eminent Latin American author of any century is the Argentine
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
. In his controversial 1994 book '' The Western Canon'', Bloom says: "Of all Latin American authors in this century, he is the most universal... If you read Borges frequently and closely, you become something of a Borgesian, because to read him is to activate an awareness of literature in which he has gone farther than anybody else."
Among the novelists, perhaps the most prominent author to emerge from Latin America in the 20th century is
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
. His book '' Cien Años de Soledad'' (1967), is one of the most important works in world literature of the 20th century. Borges opined that it was "the Don Quixote of Latin America."
Among the greatest poets of the 20th century is
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
; according to Gabriel García Márquez, Neruda "is the greatest poet of the 20th century, in any language."
Mexican writer and poet
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
is unique among Latin American writers in having won the Nobel Prize, the Neustadt Prize, and the Cervantes Prize. Paz has also been a recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, as well as an honorary doctorate from Harvard.
The most important literary prize of the Spanish language is widely considered to be the Cervantes Prize of Spain. Latin American authors who have won this prestigious award include:
José Emilio Pacheco
José Emilio Pacheco Berny (June 30, 1939 – January 26, 2014) was a Mexican poet, essayist, novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the major Mexican poets of the second half of the 20th century. The Berlin International Lite ...
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911 – April 30, 2011) was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary w ...
(Argentina),
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
(Argentina),
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French a ...
(Cuba) and
Rafael Cadenas
Rafael Cadenas (born 8 April 1930 Barquisimeto, Lara) is a Venezuelan poet and essayist.
Career
He taught for many years at the Central University of Venezuela. He received the National Prize for Literature (1985), Guadalajara's Internation ...
(Venezuela).
The Latin American authors who have won the most prestigious literary award in the world, the
Nobel Prize for Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901 ...
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
(Chile, 1971),
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
(Colombia, 1982),
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
(Mexico, 1990), and
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
(Peru, 2010).
The
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial literary award, award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''. It is considered one of the more p ...
, perhaps the most important international literary award after the Nobel Prize, counts several Latin American authors among its recipients; they include: Claribel Alegría (Nicaragua), Álvaro Mutis (Colombia), João Cabral de Melo Neto (Brazil), Octavio Paz (Mexico), and Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia). Candidates for the prize include: Ricardo Piglia (Argentina), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Marjorie Agosin (Chile), Eduardo Galeano (Uruguay), Homero Aridjis (Mexico), Luis Fernando Verissimo (Brazil), Augusto Monterroso (Guatemala), Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua), Carlos Fuentes (Mexico), Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Jorge Amado (Brazil), Ernesto Sábato (Argentina), Carlos Drummond de Andrade (Brazil), and Pablo Neruda (Chile).
Another important international literary award is the Jerusalem Prize; its recipients include: Marcos Aguinis (Argentina), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Ernesto Sabato (Argentina), Octavio Paz (Mexico), and Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina).
Latin American authors who figured in prominent literary critic
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
's ''The Western Canon'' list of the most enduring works of world literature include: Rubén Dário,
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
, Alejo Carpentier, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Severo Sarduy, Reinaldo Arenas, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, César Vallejo, Miguel Ángel Asturias, José Lezama Lima, José Donoso,
Julio Cortázar
Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ...
, Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, and Carlos Drummond de Andrade.
Brazilian authors who have won the Camões Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Portuguese language, include: João Cabral de Melo Neto, Rachel de Queiroz,
Jorge Amado
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...
, Antonio Candido, Autran Dourado, Rubem Fonseca, Lygia Fagundes Telles, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, and Ferreira Gullar. Some notable authors who have won Brazil's Prêmio Machado de Assis include: Rachel de Queiroz, Cecília Meireles, João Guimarães Rosa, Érico Veríssimo, Lúcio Cardoso, and Ferreira Gullar.
Prominent 21st century writers
Latin American literature produced since 2000 spans a wide realm of schools and styles. In the 20th Century, Latin American literary studies was primarily centered around what came before, during, and after The Boom. The scholarly optic has since widened to regularly examine Latin American literature within fields such as the
Global South
The concept of Global North and Global South (or North–South divide in a global context) is used to describe a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political characteristics. The Global South is a term often used to identify regio ...
hysterical realism
Hysterical realism is a term coined in 2000 by English critic James Wood to describe what he sees as a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization, on the one hand, and careful, det ...
crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
,
horror fiction
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. ...
, among other fields. Prominent 21st authors whose works are widely available, taught, and translated into many languages include
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
,
Isabel Allende
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
(1971)
*
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
, Mexico (1990)
*
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
,
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
(2010)
Chronology: Late 19th century-present day
*1888 ''Azul''
Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as '' modernismo'' (modernism) that flourished at the end of ...
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (), often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, ''Machado,'' or ''Bruxo do Cosme Velho''Vainfas, p. 505. (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short sto ...
Euclides da Cunha
Euclides da Cunha (, January 20, 1866 – August 15, 1909) was a Brazilian journalist, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is '' Os Sertões'' (''Rebellion in the Backlands''), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions ...
Mariano Azuela
Mariano Azuela González (January 1, 1873 – March 1, 1952) was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He wrote novels, works for theatre and literary criticism. He is the f ...
Alfonso Hernández Catá
Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...
Trilce
''Trilce'' (Lima, 1922) is the best-known book by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo, and is considered, thanks to its lexicographical and syntactical boldness, as a major work of international modernism and a poetic masterpiece of the avant-garde in ...
Mariano Brull Mariano Brull Caballero (February 24, 1891 – June 8, 1956) was a Cuban poet usually associated with the French Symbolist movement. Two Symbolists who strongly influenced him were Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Valéry. Among Cuban poets of the fir ...
(Cuba)
*1929 ''
Doña Bárbara
''Doña Bárbara (Lady Bárbara)'' is a novel by Venezuelan author Rómulo Gallegos, first published in 1929. It was described in 1974 as "possibly the most widely known Latin American novel".Shaw, Donald, "Gallegos' Revision of Doña Bárbara 1 ...
'' Rómulo Gallegos (Venezuela)
*1929 ''Los siete locos'' Roberto Arlt (Argentina)
*1929 ''Onda'' Rogelio Sinán (Panama)
*1930 ''O Quinze'' Rachel de Queiroz (Brazil)
*1931 ''Altazor'' Vicente Huidobro (Chile)
*1931 ''Las lanzas coloradas'' Arturo Uslar Pietri (Venezuela)
*1931 ''Sóngoro Cosongo'' Nicolás Guillén (Cuba)
*1934 ''Huasipungo'' Jorge Icaza (Ecuador)
*1936 ''Angústia'' Graciliano Ramos (Brazil)
*1937 ''Doble acento'' Eugenio Florit (Cuba)
*1938 ''Olhai os Lírios do Campo'' Érico Veríssimo (Brazil)
*1939 ''El pozo (novel), El pozo'' Juan Carlos Onetti (Uruguay)
*1940 ''The Invention of Morel, La invención de Morel'' Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina)
*1940 ''Mamita Yunai'' Carlos Luis Fallas (Costa Rica)
*1941 ''El mundo es ancho y ajeno'' Ciro Alegria (Peru)
*1943 ''Todo verdor perecerá'' Eduardo Mallea (Argentina)
*1943 ''Vestido de Noiva'' Nelson Rodrigues (Brazil)
*1944 ''Ficciones''
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
(Argentina)
*1945 ''A rosa do povo'' Carlos Drummond de Andrade (Brazil)
*1946 ''El señor presidente'' Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala)
*1947 ''Al filo del agua'' Agustín Yáñez (Mexico)
*1948 ''El túnel''
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911 – April 30, 2011) was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary w ...
(Argentina)
*1948 ''Adam Buenosayres, Adán Buenosayres'' Leopoldo Marechal (Argentina)
*1949 ''Men of Maize, Hombres de maíz'' Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala)
*1949 ''O tempo e o vento'' Érico Veríssimo (Brazil)
*1949 ''The Aleph (short story collection), El Aleph''
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
(Argentina)
*1949 ''The Kingdom of This World, El reino de este mundo''
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French a ...
(Cuba)
*1950 ''Canto general''
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
(Chile)
*1950 ''The Labyrinth of Solitude, El laberinto de la soledad''
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...
(Mexico)
*1950 ''La vida breve (novel), La vida breve'' Juan Carlos Onetti (Uruguay)
*1950 ''Prisión verde'' Ramón Amaya Amador (Honduras)
*1951 ''La mano junto al muro'' Guillermo Meneses (Venezuela)
*1952 ''Confabulario'' Juan José Arreola (Mexico)
*1952 ''La carne de René'' Virgilio Piñera (Cuba)
*1953 ''Los pasos perdidos''
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French a ...
(Cuba)
*1955 ''El negrero'' Lino Novás Calvo (Cuba)
*1955 ''Morte e Vida Severina'' João Cabral de Melo Neto (Brazil)
*1955 ''Pedro Páramo'' Juan Rulfo (Mexico)
*1956 ''The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, Grande Sertão: Veredas'' João Guimarães Rosa (Brazil)
*1956 ''La hora 0'' Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua)
*1958 ''Gabriela, cravo e canela''
Jorge Amado
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...
(Brazil)
*1958 ''Los ríos profundos'' José María Arguedas (Peru)
*1959 ''A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água''
Jorge Amado
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...
(Brazil)
*1960 ''Hijo de hombre'' Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay)
*1960 ''La tregua'' Mario Benedetti (Uruguay)
*1962 ''Sobre héroes y tumbas''
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911 – April 30, 2011) was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary w ...
(Argentina)
*1962 ''El siglo de las luces''
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French a ...
(Cuba)
*1962 ''La amortajada'' María Luisa Bombal (Chile)
*1962 ''La muerte de Artemio Cruz'' Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)
*1963 ''Rayuela''
Julio Cortázar
Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ...
(Argentina)
*1963 ''La ciudad y los perros''
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
(Peru)
*1964 ''A Paixão segundo G.H.'' Clarice Lispector (Brazil)
*1965 ''O Vampiro de Curitiba'' Dalton Trevisan (Brazil)
*1965 ''Marzo anterior'' José Balza (Venezuela)
*1966 ''Cenizas de Izalco'' Claribel Alegría (El Salvador)
*1966 ''La casa verde''
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
(Peru)
*1966 ''Paradiso'' José Lezama Lima (Cuba)
*1967 ''Tres tristes tigres (novel), Tres tristes tigres'' Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Cuba)
*1967 ''Cien años de soledad''
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
(Colombia)
*1967 ''Quarup'' Antônio Callado (Brazil)
*1968 ''Fuera del juego'' Heberto Padilla (Cuba)
*1969 ''El mundo alucinante'' Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba)
*1970 ''El obsceno pájaro de la noche'' José Donoso (Chile)
*1970 ''La cruz invertida'' Marcos Aguinis (Argentina)
*1971 ''Sargento Getúlio'' João Ubaldo Ribeiro (Brazil)
*1973 ''As Meninas'' Lygia Fagundes Telles (Brazil)
*1974 ''Yo, el supremo'' Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay)
*1974 ''El limonero real'' Juan José Saer (Argentina)
*1975 ''El otoño del patriarca''
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
(Colombia)
*1975 ''Lavoura Arcaica'' Raduan Nassar (Brazil)
*1975 ''Pobrecito poeta que era yo'' Roque Dalton (El Salvador)
*1975 ''Poema Sujo'' Ferreira Gullar (Brazil)
*1975 ''Terra nostra'' Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)
*1976 ''El beso de la mujer araña'' Manuel Puig (Argentina)
*1976 ''La guaracha del Macho Camacho'' Luis Rafael Sánchez (Puerto Rico)
*1978 ''Maitreya'' Severo Sarduy (Cuba)
*1978 ''Casa de campo'' José Donoso (Chile)
*1979 ''O Que É Isso, Companheiro?'' Fernando Gabeira (Brazil)
*1980 ''Respiración artificial'' Ricardo Piglia (Argentina)
*1981 ''La guerra del fin del mundo''
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
(Peru)
*1982 ''La casa de los espíritus''
Isabel Allende
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
(Chile)
*1985 ''El amor en los tiempos del cólera''
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
(Colombia)
*1985 ''El desfile del amor'' Sergio Pitol (Mexico)
*1988 ''El imperio de los sueños'' Giannina Braschi (Puerto Rico)
*1988 ''O Alquimista''
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho de Souza (, ; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His novel '' The Alchemist'' became an international best-seller and he has published 28 more boo ...
(Brazil)
*1989 ''Como agua para chocolate''
Laura Esquivel
Laura Beatriz Esquivel Valdés (born September 30, 1950) is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter and politician, serving in the LXIII Legislature of the Mexican Congress in the Chamber of Deputies for the Morena Party from 2015 to 2018. Her first n ...
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (; 28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel ''Los detectives salvajes'' ('' The Savage Detectives ...
(Chile)
*1999 ''La pasion segun Carmela'' Marcos Aguinis (Argentina)
*2000 ''La fiesta del chivo''
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...
(Peru)
*2000 ''Dois irmãos'' Milton Hatoum (Brazil)
*2001 ''La reina de América'' Jorge Majfud (Uruguay)
*2002 ''Ojos, de otro mirar: poemas'' Homero Aridjis (Mexico)
*2002 ''Poesía'' Dulce María Loynaz (Cuba)
*2004 ''2666''
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (; 28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel ''Los detectives salvajes'' ('' The Savage Detectives ...
(Chile)
*2007 ''The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao'' Junot Díaz (Dominican Republic)
*2011 ''United States of Banana'' Giannina Braschi (Puerto Rico)
*2019 ''Torto Arado'' Itamar Vieira Junior (Brazil)
Literature by nationality
Latin American literature written in Spanish and Portuguese by nationality:
* Argentine literature
* Bolivian literature
* Brazilian literature
* Chilean literature
* Colombian literature
* Costa Rican literature
* Cuban literature
* Dominican Republic literature, Dominican literature
* Ecuadorian literature
* Guatemalan literature
* Honduran literature
*
Mexican literature
Mexican literature is one of the most prolific and influential of Spanish-language literatures along with those of Spain and Argentina. Found among the names of its most important and internationally recognized literary figures are authors Oct ...
* Nicaraguan literature
* Panamanian literature
* Paraguayan literature
* Peruvian literature
* Puerto Rican literature
* Salvadoran literature
* Uruguayan literature
* Venezuelan literature
See also
* List of Latin American writers
* Latin American poetry
* Latino poetry
* Criollismo
* Chicano literature
* Chicano poetry
* Latin American Boom
* McOndo
* Latin American culture
* The Dictator Novel
* Nuyorican
* Hispanic and Latino literature
* Spanish-language literature
References
Further reading
*''The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry: An Anthology'' / ed. Ilan Stavans, 2011.
*''The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature'' / eds. Ilan Stavans, Edna Acosta-Belén, Harold Augenbraum, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, 2010.
*''Latin American women writers: an encyclopedia'' / ed. María André; Eva Bueno., 2008
*''A companion to Latin American literature and culture'' / ed. Sara Castro-Klarén, 2008
*''The Cambridge companion to the Latin American novel'' / ed. Efraín Kristal, 2005
*''Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean literature, 1900-2003'' / ed. Daniel Balderston, 2004
*''Literary cultures of Latin America : a comparative history'' / ed. Mario J. Valdés, 2004
*''Latin American writers at work (Interviews)'' / ed. George Plimpton, 2003
*''Literatures of Latin America (anthology), Literatures of Latin America: from Antiquity to the Present'' / Willis Barnstone, 2003
*''Cuerpos errantes: literatura latina y latinoamericana en Estados Unidos''/ Laura Rosa Loustau, 2002.
*''Latin American writers. Supplement I'' / ed. Carlos A Solé; Klaus Müller-Bergh., 2002
*''Concise encyclopedia of Latin American literature'' / ed. Verity Smith, 2000
*''Latin American literature and its times (12 volumes)'' / Joyce Moss, 1999
*''Mutual impressions : writers from the Americas reading one another'' / ed. Ilan Stavans, 1999
*''Encyclopedia of Latin American literature'' / ed. Verity Smith, 1997
*''From romanticism to modernismo in Latin America'' / ed. David William Foster, 1997
*''The Cambridge History of Latin American literature'' / ed. Roberto González Echevarría, 1996
*''Modern Latin-American fiction writers'' / ed. William Luis, 1994
*''Handbook of Latin American literature'' / ed. David William Foster, 1992
*''Feminist readings on Spanish and Latin-American literature'' / ed. Lisa P Condé, 1991
*''Past, present, and future : selected studies on Latin American Indian literatures'' / ed. Mary M. Preuss, 1991
*''The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative'' / Rolena Adorno
*''Magical realism and beyond : the contemporary Spanish and Latin American novel'' / ed. Roy C Boland, 1991
*''Modern Latin American fiction (The Critical Cosmos Series)'' / ed.
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
, 1990
*''Latin American writers (3 Volumes)'' / ed. Carlos A Solé, 1989
*''Philosophy and literature in Latin America : a critical assessment of the current situation'' / ed. Jorge Gracia, 1989
*''Latin American literature in the 20th century : a guide'' / ed. Leonard S Klein, 1988
*''Modern Latin American fiction : a survey'' / ed. John King, 1987
*''In retrospect : essays on Latin American literature'' / ed. Elizabeth S Rogers, 1987
*''Latin America in its literature'' / ed. César Fernández Moreno, 1980
*''Latin American fiction today : a symposium'' / ed. Rose S Minc, 1979
*''Tradition and renewal : essays on twentieth-century Latin American literature and culture'' / ed. Merlin H Forster, 1975
*''Modern Latin American literature (A Library of Literary Criticism)'' / David William Foster, 1975
*''Modern Latin American literature'' / David Patrick Gallagher, 1973
*''Contemporary Latin American literature; a conference'' / ed. Harvey Leroy Johnson, 1973
External links
Literature from Latin America from LANIC
Palabra virtual Latin American Poetry.
miniTEXTOS.org Contemporary short-stories, poetry, essays and theatre.
Latineos Latin America, Caribbean, arts and culture
{{Authority control
Latin American literature,
Latin American culture, Literature
Caribbean literature
Central American literature
North American literature
South American literature