Latin American Boom
The Latin American Boom (Boom Latinoamericano) is the name applied to a period during the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. This sudden success (hence the movement's name) came in large part thanks to the fact that these authors' works were among the first Latin American novels to be published in Spain, by publishing houses such as Barcelona's Seix Barral.
The Boom's major representatives include the Argentine Julio Cortázar borned in Belgium in 1914 and died in Paris, France in 1985, he was influenced by Borgeshis works are Final del Juego, Bestionario, Las Armas Secretas, Todos los juegos el fuego, the storytellers of Rayuela and the Premios, novels like: Historia de Cronopios and another famous novel is Vuelta al día en 80 mundos. His most important work was the novel Rayuela. The Mexican Carlos Fuentes, the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, and perhaps especially the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez. However, in the light of these authors' success, the work of a previous generation of writers (such as Jorge Luis Borges (1898-1986) his famous novels were Fervor de Buenos Aires, Luna de Enfrente, El Aleph, Historia Universal de la Infamia, Ficciones, Elogio de las Sombras, informe de Crodie, Oro de los Tigres, Inquisiciones e Historia de la Eternidad He wrote stories that he described as fiction or symbolic stories, with real or imaginary characters which move between the reality, magic and satire scene. Miguel Ángel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, and Juan Rulfo) also gained access to a new and expanded public.
As well as being a publishing phenomenon, the Boom introduced a series of novel aesthetic and stylistic features to world literature. Though the various Boom authors often differ very much from each other, and should not be regarded strictly as a school or movement, they have come to be associated above all with so-called magical realism.
Hallmarks
Magical realism
The awestruck writings of the Chroniclers of the Indies and their sense of being in another world, conquering strange new lands unparalleled outside of chivalric romances, became a cultural touchstone for the people of Latin America. From these fantastical tales developed a new aesthetic, which matured into magical realism and (as conceived by Alejo Carpentier) marvelous realism or lo real maravilloso. According to this aesthetic, unreal things are treated as if realistic and mundane, and mundane things as if unreal. Plots, while often based on real experiences, incorporate strange, fantastic, and legendary elements, mythical peoples, speculative settings, and characters who, while plausible, could also be unreal, and combine the true, the imaginary, and the nonexistent in such a way that they are difficult to separate.
Comparing a novel written before the Boom to one written under its influence, the former is likely to strive for authenticity and reality, depicting a plain and somber reality, while the latter strives to show multiple facets of each character and each place. Boom literature breaks down the barriers between the fantastical and the mundane, transforming this mixture into a new reality.
Manipulation of time
A common literary technique of the Boom period is nonlinear chronology.[citation needed] For example, a traditional Latin American novel might begin with the protagonists meeting one another, overcoming many problems, and finally getting married. In a novel written during the Boom, the opening scenes might depict a marriage. "Later", the discovery of the fiancé's infidelity would prompt the fiancée to attempt suicide, only to be rescued by her unfaithful intended. Their love rekindled, the couple would end the novel preparing for the marriage related at the beginning. Such skewed chronologies are no longer remarkable, but they were uncommon in Latin American literature before the Boom.
Post-Boom
Since the 1980s it has become common to speak of Post-Boom writers, most of whom were born during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The Post-Boom is distinct from the Boom in various respects, most notably in the presence of female authors such as Isabel Allende.
Chronology
Some of the major publications and landmarks of the Boom and its precursors:
- 1949: Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo
- 1949: Miguel Angel Asturias, Hombres de maíz
- 1955: Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo
- 1962: Carlos Fuentes, La muerte de Artemio Cruz
- 1963: Mario Vargas Llosa, La ciudad y los perros
- 1963: Julio Cortázar, Rayuela
- 1964: Clarice Lispector, A paixão segundo G.H.
- 1966: Emir Rodríguez Monegal founds Mundo Nuevo (1966–1971) in Paris
- 1966: José Lezama Lima, Paradiso
- 1967: Miguel Angel Asturias awarded the Nobel Prize in literature
- 1967: Gabriel García Márquez, Cien años de soledad
- 1967: Jorge Amado, Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos
- 1967: Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Tres tristes tigres
- 1967: Severo Sarduy, From Cuba with a Song / De donde son los cantantes
- 1970: José Donoso, El obsceno pájaro de la noche
- 1974: Augusto Roa Bastos, Yo, el Supremo
- 1982: Gabriel García Márquez awarded the Nobel Prize in literature
External links
- Coleman, Alexander. "Guide to the Latin American Boom." Review of José Donoso's The Boom In Spanish American Literature: A Personal History (New York: Colombia University Press). Boston Review (Fall 1977).
- Levinson, Brett. The Ends of Literature: The Latin American “Boom” in the Neoliberal Marketplace Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.