The “Boom” In Latin American Literature. Literary Movement During 1960s and 1970s Latin American authors began to gain international attention at

The “Boom”

In Latin American Literature

Literary Movement

During 1960s and 1970s Latin American authors began to gain

international attention at a rapid pace Considered beginning of modern Latin

American literature Appealed especially to university

students around world

According to Carlos Fuentes,"the so-called boom, in reality,is the result of a literature that has at least fourcenturies of existence and that felt an urgency in adefinitive moment of ourhistory to update and and togive order to the manylessons of the past.“

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InfluencesPrecursors: Jorge Luís Borges and Juan Rulfo Surrealism, Vanguardismo, Modernismo European and American literature after WWI and WWII

James Joyce Jean Paul Sartre Virginia Woolf French New Novel William Faulkner

Cuban Revolution



Major Authors

Mario Vargas Llosa La cuidad y los perros (1962)

Carlos Fuentes La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962)

Julio Cortázar Rayuela (1963)

Gabriel García Márquez Cien años de soledad (1967)

Guillermo Cabrera Infante Tres Tristes Tigres (1967)

Severo Sarduy De donde son los cantantes (1967)

José Donoso El obsceno pájaro de la noche (1970)



Characteristics Hard to define but common traits include:

Break away from traditional literary devices Realism, picturesque, criollismo

Focus on Latin America history, culture, economic, and socio-political

Innovate and experimental Magical realism/fantastic Existentialism Psychology Universal themes Language

Latin America’s New Novel Does not have a definite

definition Cause an effect is

substituted for multiple perspectives and intersecting plots, which makes the narrative seem fragmented

Magical realism Literary creation Universal themes



New Novel continued Incorporate discussion

about mass culture and mass consumption of information

Play with words Reader creates and

deciphers the text Anti-hero Social criticism Urban



Bibliography Donoso, José. Historia personal del Boom. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1972.

Friedman, Edward H., L.Teresa Valdivieso, and Carmelo Virgillo, eds.

Aproximaciones al estudio de la literatura hispánica. 5th ed. New York:

McGraw-Hill, 2004.

Ocasio, José. Literature of Latin America. Westport: Greenwood, 2004.

Sklodowska, Elizbieta. “El Boom y la Nueva Novela.” Huellas de las

literaturas hispanoamericanas. Ed. Ann Marie McCarthy. 2nd ed. Upper

Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2002. 508-513.

Documents

The “Boom” In Latin American Literature. Literary Movement During 1960s and 1970s Latin American authors began to gain international attention at