Key Movements in 20th Century Latin American Novels
Realism in Latin American Novels
This movement focused on the life difficulties within Hispanic American republics, often with a testimonial purpose. Realist novels frequently addressed the oppression of Indigenous peoples, generating indignation.
Notable authors and works include:
- Mariano Azuela
- Rómulo Gallegos: Doña Bárbara
- Ricardo Güiraldes: Don Segundo Sombra
- José Eustasio Rivera: La Vorágine (The Vortex)
- Jorge Icaza: Huasipungo
- Ciro Alegría: El mundo es ancho y ajeno (The World is Broad and Alien)
Magical Realism Emergence
Starting around 1940, new novelistic forms emerged, incorporating innovative narrative techniques while retaining political, social, Indigenous, and existential themes and adding urban genres. Narrators assimilated modes from classic and contemporary literature, recreating worlds where reality and fantasy fuse, thus establishing the current of Magical Realism.
Jorge Luis Borges
Cultivated poetry, short stories, and essays. His vision of humanity was agnostic and skeptical, viewing reality as chaotic. Known for his meticulous prose and abundant metaphors. He wrote The Aleph, which addresses themes of infinity and vanity, often using parables.
Miguel Ángel Asturias
Poet and novelist who wrote El Señor Presidente (The President), a chronicle of dictatorship in an invented Hispanic American country, creating a grotesque and political novel.
Alejo Carpentier
Coined the term ‘lo real maravilloso’ (marvelous reality). He wrote El Siglo de las Luces (Explosion in a Cathedral / The Century of Lights), recounting revolutionary excesses in Haiti and Guadeloupe at the end of the 18th century.
Juan Rulfo
Wrote Pedro Páramo, a story where Juan Preciado travels to Comala at his dying mother’s request to find his father, Pedro Páramo. He encounters a ghost town populated by phantoms who help reconstruct the life of his father, a despotic and lustful cacique (chief), destroyed by the Revolution.
The Latin American Boom
This period preferentially featured Magical Realism alongside political, social, and Indigenous themes. It introduced technical and formal innovations. Language varied, striving for simplicity in some works while embracing baroque complexity in others. Experimentation with prose was common, and language carried significant symbolic and metaphorical weight.
Ernesto Sabato
Explored the psychic mechanisms that cause love and lead to destruction, presenting a pessimistic worldview. He wrote Sobre héroes y tumbas (On Heroes and Tombs), a tragic story involving a father and daughter.
Julio Cortázar
Wrote literature often modeled on the fantastic, influenced by Borges. His novel Rayuela (Hopscotch) consists of 155 chapters that can be read in a normal sequence or by ‘hopping’ between chapters as indicated by the author, like the game of hopscotch. The novel questions the values of contemporary civilization and culture.
Gabriel García Márquez
Epitomizes Magical Realism. His work is often divided into two stages: before and after Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude). This novel mixes his childhood memories, Colombia’s past, the supernatural, and fantasy. It narrates the history of the Buendía family until its disappearance. Principal themes include love, life, magic, and death. The novel has parallels with the Bible, features circular time (a past that happens again), and employs poetic language.
Mario Vargas Llosa
His work can also be divided into periods. The first includes Conversación en La Catedral (Conversation in the Cathedral), where Llosa depicts the formative process of Peruvian youth, influenced by APRA, Marxism, and military values. Later works often explore themes of military life, the jungle, life, and death.
Other Key Latin American Authors and Works
- Carlos Fuentes: La región más transparente (Where the Air Is Clear)
- Fernando del Paso: Noticias del Imperio (News from the Empire)
- Laura Esquivel: Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)
- José Lezama Lima: Paradiso
- Guillermo Cabrera Infante: Tres tristes tigres (Three Trapped Tigers)
- Augusto Roa Bastos: Yo el Supremo (I, the Supreme)
- Augusto Monterroso: La oveja negra y demás fábulas (The Black Sheep and Other Fables)
- Julio Ramón Ribeyro: Crónica de San Gabriel (Chronicle of San Gabriel)
- Juan Carlos Onetti: La vida breve (A Brief Life)
- Mario Benedetti: La tregua (The Truce)
- José Donoso: El obsceno pájaro de la noche (The Obscene Bird of Night)
- Luis Sepúlveda: Un viejo que leía novelas de amor (The Old Man Who Read Love Stories)
- Isabel Allende: La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits)
- Manuel Puig: La traición de Rita Hayworth (Betrayed by Rita Hayworth)