Latin America novel boom
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After World War II, Latin America in general prospered in many areas due to the economic boom of the post-war period. Along with a significant economic boom came a literary boom. From 1960 to 1967, the major works of the Latin American literary boom were published. Many of these novels 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: e.g., a novel and poem in one. Structures of literary works were also changing. Latin American writers were inspired by authors such as Faulkner, Joyce, James, and Woolf, and they incorporated these authors' techniques into their writing. With these authors as inspirations, some literature lacked linearity, disregarding conventional rules, and oftentimes introducing techniques such as internal monologues. Along with being influenced by other North American and European authors, Latin American authors were inspired by each others' works. Because many of the authors knew one another and influenced each other, Latin American literature came to have its own distinct characteristics that became recognized worldwide.
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. Instead literary works focused on the problems and injustices that people were suffering across Latin America.
Political turmoil in Latin American countries such as Cuba 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. Some historians believe that great authors emerge when a country is about to undergo a historical transformation. Their works foreshadowed the events to come in the future of Latin America, with the 1970s and 1980s full of dictatorships, economic turmoil, and Dirty Wars.
- Some novels of the literary boom
- Los ríos profundos (1958), José María Arguedas
- Hijo de hombre (1960), Augusto Roa Bastos
- La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962), Carlos Fuentes
- Sobre héroes y tumbas (1962), Ernesto Sábato
- La ciudad y los perros (1963) and La casa verde (1966), Mario Vargas Llosa
- Paradiso (1966), José Lezama Lima
For more information on this topic consult Identity and Modernity in Latin America by Jorge Larrain. Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 2000