Latin American Literatures
Latin American literatures comprise the Spanish-, Portuguese-, and other-language writing of the Americas, from colonial chronicles to magical realism and the Latin American Boom.
Definition
The literary traditions of Latin America in Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages, from colonial writing through modernismo and the Boom to the present.
Scope
This area surveys the literatures of Latin America: colonial chronicles and baroque poetry, nineteenth-century romanticism and modernismo, the twentieth-century avant-garde, the Latin American Boom and magical realism, and contemporary writing. It covers Spanish American and Brazilian (Lusophone) traditions and the Caribbean, addressing the encounter of indigenous, European, and African cultures and the region's central place in modern world literature.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- How did Latin American literature emerge from colonial and indigenous encounters?
- What were modernismo and the avant-garde in Latin America?
- What was the Latin American Boom and magical realism?
- How do Spanish American, Brazilian, and Caribbean traditions relate?
Key concepts
- the colonial chronicle
- modernismo
- magical realism
- the Boom
- the lettered city
Key theories
- The lettered city
- Angel Rama argued that writing and intellectual elites—the 'lettered city'—held power in Latin America from the colonial period, shaping the relationship between literature and the state.
History
Latin American literature began with colonial chronicles and the baroque poetry of figures such as Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. The nineteenth century brought romanticism and the modernismo of Dario; the twentieth century saw avant-garde experiment, the worldwide success of the Boom and magical realism with Garcia Marquez and others, and a rich contemporary literature across Spanish American, Brazilian, and Caribbean traditions.
Debates
- Defining magical realism
- Critics debate what magical realism is and whether it essentializes Latin American writing or names a genuine literary mode, as exemplified by Garcia Marquez.
Key figures
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Jorge Luis Borges
- Angel Rama
- Pablo Neruda
- Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria
Related topics
Seminal works
- garciamarquez1967
- borges1944
- echevarria1996
Frequently asked questions
- What languages does Latin American literature include?
- Chiefly Spanish and Portuguese, along with Indigenous languages and, in the Caribbean, French and English, reflecting the region's complex colonial history.
- What is magical realism?
- Magical realism is a literary mode, strongly associated with Latin America, in which fantastic or supernatural elements are presented as part of ordinary reality, as in Garcia Marquez's fiction.