José Agustín Ramírez Gómez (19 August 1944 – 16 January 2024) was a Mexican novelist, short story writer, essayist and screenwriter. Publishing under the
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
José Agustín, he was considered one of the most influential and prolific Mexican writers of the second half of the 20th century.
Life and career
José Agustín was born in
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...
, Guerrero, on 19 August 1944.
He studied
classical literature
Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...
at the
School of Philosophy and Letters of the
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...
(UNAM),
film direction
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in ch ...
at the
Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC) and
dramaturgy at the
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBA).
Agustín participated in
Juan José Arreola's writers' workshop from 1962 to 1965, where he wrote his first novel, ''
La tumba'' ("The Tomb"), when he was nineteen years old.
[ The novel was the brief but provocative story of a Mexican upper-class teen, deemed indecent by the public but gathering praise from older writers. This and his most famous work, '' De perfil'' ("Profile View"), a fast and detailed view of three days in the main character's life, show stylistic similarities to ]James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's work, especially '' A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man''.
Agustín was considered a member of the so-called ''Onda'' literature, ''onda'' (wave
In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from List of types of equilibrium, equilibrium) of one or more quantities. ''Periodic waves'' oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium ...
) being slang
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...
for current and fashionable views in the eyes of young people.
A common technique in his work is mixing a character's speech with narrative, without making any kind of distinction (free indirect discourse). Thus the reader finds a long dialogue written in a single sentence, and is expected to realize which character is speaking as he reads the words. He also made use of the stream of consciousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which ...
technique.
Agustín taught at the University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
, the University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
, and the University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...
.
Agustín died in Cuautla, Morelos, on 16 January 2024, at the age of 79.
Awards
* 1977: Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
* 1993: Premio Nacional de Literatura Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
* 2011: Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes
Bibliography
Novels
*'' La tumba'' (1964)
*'' De perfil'' (1966)
*''Abolición de la propiedad'' (1969)
*''Se está haciendo tarde'' (1973)
*''El rey se acerca a su templo'' (1978)
*'' Ciudades desiertas'' (1982)
*''Cerca del fuego'' (1986)
*' (1992)
*''Dos horas de sol'' (1994)
*' (2004)
*''Armablanca'' (2006)
Short stories
*''Inventando que sueño'' (1968)
*''La mirada en el centro'' (1977)
*''No hay censura'' (1988)
*''No pases esta puerta'' (1992)
*''La miel derramada'' (1992)
Plays
*''Círculo vicioso'' (1974)
:(''Vicious Circle'' (2021), tr. Eric W. Vogt. )
Essays
*''La nueva música clásica'' (1968)
*''Literature and censorship in Latin America Today: Dream within a dream'' (1978)
*''Tragicomedia Mexicana: La vida en Mexico de 1940 a 1970. Tomo 1'' (1990)
*''Tragicomedia Mexicana: La vida en Mexico de 1970 a 1982. Tomo 2'' (1992)
*''Tragicomedia Mexicana: La vida en Mexico de 1982 a 1994. Tomo 3'' (2007)
*''Camas de campo, campos de batalla'' (1994)
*''La Contracultura en Mexico'' (1996)
*''El hotel de los corazones solitarios'' (1996)
*''Los grandes discos de rock 1951-1975'' (1996)
Chronicles
*''Contra la corriente'' (1991)
Autobiography
*''Quién soy, dónde estoy, qué me dieron'' (1966)
*''El rock de la cárcel'' (1986)
*''Diario de brigadista: Cuba 1961'' (2011)
Translations
*''Cabot Wright comienza'' (James Purdy
James Otis Purdy (July 17, 1914 March 13, 2009) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who, from his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work ha ...
: ''Cabot Wright Begins''), 1969.Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
: '' The Old Man and the Sea''), 1986.
Filmography
*'' 5 de chocolate y 1 de fresa'' (1968)
*'' Luz externa'' (1974)
*'' El año de la peste'' (1979)
*'' El apando'' (1976)
In popular culture
The Mexican band Belafonte Sensacional wrote the song "Epic Aris" inspired by the literary works of José Agustín and Parménides García Saldaña, another writer who was considered a member of La Onda literature.
See also
* List of people from Morelos
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agustin, Jose
1944 births
2024 deaths
Mexican male novelists
National Prize for Arts and Sciences (Mexico)
People from Acapulco