Due to the weak foundation and lack of national tradition, Latin American literature has obvious imitation in the development process. However, with the continuous rise of national consciousness, national literature has also been continuously developed, forming one climax of literary creation after another. In particular, the new generation of Latin American writers, whose creative enthusiasm and spirit of continuous exploration "made them gradually get rid of the traditional obstacles, contemptuous encirclement and mediocre realm, and many excellent works emerged in various periods, which promoted the development of Latin American literature."
The development of world literature can be roughly divided into three stages: classicism, romanticism and realism. The classicism of Latin American literature was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At that time, Spanish and Portuguese literature was dominated by Baroque gongola. Therefore, the literature of Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America basically belongs to gongola Doctrine. Scholars in the court of the colonial governor are imitators of this school. However, among these imitators, there is a poetess-Juana Iné s Delacruz, who has the characteristics of creating national literature. She is called "the tenth muse". She is not only a poetess who writes poems in gongola style, but also a humanist thinker. Her four-volume complete works include poetry, drama, letters and essays. A writer like her is also rare in European literary circles.
Juana Innes' example illustrates the first feature of Latin American literature, that is, creation in imitation. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the literature of the suzerain country appeared, the colonies always reacted. The influence of Lopez de Veigar reached New Spain, and a Ruiz de alarcon appeared in New Spain. Similarly, Kvito's biting satire has his followers in New Spain, namely Juan del Valle-Kaviedes in Lima. His famous satirical poem "The Teeth of Panasso" made a bitter mockery of colonial society. Another example is Spanish tramp novels, and there are imitators in the colonies, that is, the epileptic parrot of Mexican Fernandez de Lisardi. This book was published in 18 16, which was 70 years later than the French imitator Le Secchi's Jill Brass. This work has all the characteristics of a tramp, but its scene is much larger than Little Epilepsy and Pablo the Liar by Kvito.
/kloc-In the second half of the 0/8th century, the Enlightenment spread to Latin America, which coincided with the budding trend of national independence. This trend of thought is called "Creole Knife" or "Americanism". Cleo is a descendant of Europeans born and raised in the colonies. They demanded to get rid of the shackles of the sovereign state and establish an independent country. The earliest expression of this trend of thought in literature is a book "Little Lazarus guides the blind, from Buenos Aires to Lima". The author's signature is kongolo corvo, which is the nickname of Indian callisto Carlos Bustamante Inca. Whether it really exists, it is still impossible to prove it. This book was printed and published in Gihon, Spain under the guise of 1773, but it was actually secretly printed in Lima in 1774. This book is about a businessman named Alonso Carrio de la Bondra, who told the author about a trip from Buenos Aires to Lima. In addition to his description of local conditions and customs, he also expressed many feelings and attacked the colonial system.
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One of the characteristics of the development of Latin American literature is the frequent climax. So far, there have been four climaxes in the history of literature.
The first climax is romantic poetry. Romantic literature in Latin America began almost at the same time as the independent revolutionary movement. The representative figures are three great poets: Jose Maria Heredia of Cuba, who appeared before the Spanish Romantic poets. Ecuadorian Jose Joaquin Olmedo is famous for a long poem describing the victory in the Battle of Hu Ning. Venezuelan Andres Peyo, whose poems mainly praise the customs of Latin America, such as Silva of America and Ode to Agronomy in Tropical Areas, etc. However, there are still traces of classicism in the works of the three great poets. Andres Peyo defended classicism in theory, so later Samianto launched a debate with him in Chile, which promoted the development of romantic literature, and a number of works against rosas's tyranny appeared in Argentina, the most important of which was Fagundo written by Samianto himself. This work is neither a novel nor a biography. This film tells the life of the military leader Fagondo Kiroha, nicknamed "Tiger of the Grassland". It is written in the book that Fagundo turned to attack rosas after being assassinated by rosas, and put forward the slogan of "civilization and barbarism", which is the central spirit of the romantic climax.
The second climax was the modernist poetry movement. This movement is spread all over Latin American countries, and it is an effort made by Latin American writers to get rid of the shackles of classicism and romanticism and create a modern new literature. It was influenced by European literature at that time, but it created a national style, which further influenced Spain. Therefore, Max enriquez Urene, a Dominican literary critic, wrote The Return of the galleon, comparing modernism to a treasure shipped back to Spain from the colony. The modernist movement began with poetry and then spread to prose and novels. Indeed, modernist poetry has a fresh flavor, but there are also many problems, such as paying attention to the pursuit of form, leading to lack of emotion; The social reality in Latin America makes it decadent and pessimistic. Many literary historians believe that modernism is "the first original contribution of Spain and America to world literature". With ruben dario as the representative, his poetry collection Blue was published in 1888. Famous poets include Julien Casal and José Martí in Cuba, Gutierrez Najera in Mexico and Asunció n Silva in Colombia. Later, Amado Nervaux of Mexico, Santos Chocano of Peru, Hayes Foehrer of Bolivia, Herrera I Resig of Uruguay, Leopoldo Lugones of Argentina, and Guillermo Valencia, the first Colombian poet in the Spanish-speaking world to translate China's Tang poems. Modernism has a far-reaching influence in Latin America, and many literary historians are still studying it until now. Max enriquez Urene commented on Ruben Dario: "... his works are the greatest because they have aesthetic value and historical significance. Since the era of Zigong Gola and Corvetto, no one has played a comparable role in updating ability. "
The third climax is the rise of realistic novels, which appeared in the 1920s. At that time, Latin American writers suddenly discovered that indigenous people had extremely rich creative sources in their urgent desire for creation. This is mainly caused by the Mexican democratic revolution that began with 19 1 1. Five masterpieces emerged in the climax, namely, The Underclass People by Mariano Azoula (19 16) and Bronze Race by Alcides Gudas (65438). Don Segundo Sombra of Ricardo Giraldes in Argentina (1926), Vortex of Jose Eustacio Rivera in Colombia (1928) and Donna Barbara of Romulo Gallegos in Venezuela (1929) have the following characteristics. Some are artistic, others are not. But they all had great influence, so that realistic novels formed a trend, which spread all over countries and lasted until the 1950s.
The fourth climax is the so-called "literary sensation" in recent years, or translated as "explosive literary knife". The original text is English LiteraryBoom, which is a word used by British and American literary critics. It refers to a batch of Latin American novels that appeared in the 20 years from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. These novels also take the land and people of Latin America as the theme, but different from the third climax, they have taken a big step in art and made bold innovations, surpassing contemporary European and American writers in techniques and techniques, forming a colorful picture. It was called Boom at that time, and it was said that it was because there were many printed works and a wide range of distribution. One of the most outstanding works is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Colombian Gabriel Garcí a Majes. But the first person who surpassed the old realism tradition in technology and skill was Mexican juan rulfo. His Pedro Barramo is only a novella with hundreds of thousands of words, but it has been reprinted more than 20 times since the first edition of 1955.
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In the past two decades, many new works have appeared in Latin American literature, which can be roughly divided into the following categories: works that describe fictional plots in an illusory way to express the author's views on life, such as short stories by Argentine writer Guiorguis Luis Borges.
Reflect the background of the times by exploring the souls of the characters, such as Adam Buenos Aires by Argentine Leopoldo Marquez and Paradise by Cuban Lesama Lima. Describe magical stories in real life, such as The Disappearing Footprints by Alejo Capenti of Cuba and The Corn Man by asturias of Guatemala. Reflect reality through illusions, such as The Son of Man by Roya bastos in Paraguay and All Blood by Jose Maria argus Das in Peru.
Fictitious towns are used to allude to the present situation, such as Comara in Pedro Barramo by Juan Ruffa, Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Garcia Margis of Colombia, Santa Maria in the Dock and Hongtacadavirez by Juan Carlos Onetti of Uruguay.
There are also works combining history and present situation, such as The Edge of the Flood by Mexican Agustin Y á? ez and The Death of Artemio Cruz by carlos fuentes. In addition, there are some writers who are difficult to classify, such as mario vargas llosa in Peru, from satirizing the army to writing in the jungle of the mainland; Julio Coe Tassar in Argentina mainly writes about Ernes, a Latin American expatriate living in France.
Sabato, writing about social problems in Buenos Aires; Guillermo cabrera infante of Cuba; Write about Havana before the revolution; José Donoso of Chile wrote about the declining manor class.
Some people call these works "magic realism" genre, but more people call them "magic realism". Although they have their own characteristics, if I want to sum up, I can say that there is one thing in common, that is, the combination of fantasy and reality, and the intersection of past and present. Although the methods of expression are different, the basis of the theme is still reality.
Some literary critics are exploring the origin of magical realism. It is said that Italian painter Massimo Fontapelli first used this term in art criticism in 1938.
In Latin America, Capenti El of Cuba thinks that the reality in Latin America is a kind of "magical reality", which can be seen in an article he wrote after his trip to Haiti 1943:
"Every step has an incredible reality. I think this magical reality is not unique to Haiti, but the ancestral property of the whole United States ... Every page of mainland history will encounter magical reality. "
Von den Perry's magical realism holds that artists magically reflect the reality, while Capenti holds that the reality in Latin America itself is magical, which is the same as the reality in Europe, Asia or Africa. The conclusion is that most of the reasons are due to the natural environment, ethnic composition and historical events in Latin America, all of which contain unexpected magic or magical elements. Therefore, writers must reflect this reality when creating. In fact, such seeds have already appeared in novels at the beginning of this century, such as the mysterious grassland in Donna Barbara and the terrible primitive jungle in Vortex.
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Contemporary Latin American writers believe that old realism is a kind of historical relic, which only describes superficial phenomena or general similarities, which can be seen by any reader himself, and can not be regarded as art, nor can it give readers beautiful enjoyment or profoundly reflect reality. It is appropriate to represent the capitalist society in the nineteenth century, but it is out of date to represent the Latin American society at the end of the twentieth century.
Another view holds that realism is a creative method advocated to achieve a certain political goal, with obvious tendency. This kind of literature has appeared in Latin America, such as The Son of Nitric Acid written by Todell Boym in Chile, Our Oil written by Mancidor in Mexico, Undercurrent written by Varela in Argentina, Manor in the Storm written by Glavina in Uruguay, The Road to Hunger and Boundless Land written by Mado in Brazil, and some poems by Gonzalez Dulong and pablo neruda. Some writers, such as Cassidy and Nie Luda, later gave up this writing style.
No contemporary Latin American writer can admit that he is not a realist, no matter how magical his writing is and how bizarre his technique is. They think that the purpose of their creation is to reflect reality, which is realism. As for the methods used, there are many different paths, but there is a common direction, that is, to achieve the goal with the highest artistic means. So some pay attention to language, some elaborate in structure, some render in atmosphere, and some use mythical writing, which makes the works have unique images and wonderful colors.
For example, juan rulfo's Pedro Barramo, the author's theme is to reflect the decline of Mexican countryside under the manor system. He described a small village, Komala, and a semi-Vietnamese landlord, Balamo. Barramo is a typical Latin American landlord who plundered, annexed land, murdered and ravaged villagers. The novel begins with Barrymore's son returning to his hometown and asking his father for money. At this time, Komala was in ruins, and no one was alive. The plot unfolds from three time levels. One is what Barrymore's son saw and heard, the other is the dialogue and memories between the dead, and the other is the repetition of what happened at that time. The intricacies of time and life and death show that the author's conception is ingenious. It turns out that this novel is said to have more than 200 thousand words. Later, the author deliberately deleted half of it, leaving a lot of gaps in the structure and a lot of jumps for readers to think for themselves.
Another example is "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Garcia Magis. The author describes the centuries-old history of the fictional city Macondo and the Buendia family in Macondo, in order to reflect the changes of Colombian society in the past hundred years. Resettlement, the establishment of towns, the dispute between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, the looting of foreign banana plantations, and the massacre during the general strike are all typical historical plots. However, the author uses mythical methods to describe it, so there are gypsies' predictions, people with long tails, women in their 0/00 s, girls flying around in blankets during the day and so on. The author's style is sometimes ironic, sometimes humorous, and there is also a sense of humor.
Another example is Vargas Luesa and Cole Tassar, who are also very distinctive writers. They broke through the traditional narrative method, that is, the author does everything and knows everything, describing the plot and characters, but using many dialogues or writing some fragments from different angles to get the complete plot and characters after reading the book completely.
Whether the literature of these twenty years can be called "magic realism" is still inconclusive. Although these works have their own characteristics, their personalities are also outstanding, and it is difficult to say which genre or style they belong to. The period of "sensation" seems to have passed, but new works keep appearing, which takes time to test.
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Another feature of Latin American literature is that many works often appear around the same theme, and they often last for many years, and writers keep writing about the same theme. More important are: Gaucho literature, Indian literature, black poetry, mining novels, plantation novels, dictatorship novels and so on.
Especially Gaucho's literature. It started from folk literature, became a literature written by literati, and then returned to the folk. This is a very unique example, quite rare in world literature. Gaucho is a herder of Bombas grassland on both sides of the La Plata River, mostly mixed-race. They live on the prairie, associate with cattle, sheep and horses, graze for the owners of big estates, have a rough and bold nature, love music and are rich in folk songs, and many folk singers have emerged. In the19th century, some people began to collect this kind of folk songs and imitate their writing style, and then three major epics of Gaucho appeared, namely, Martin Fiero by jose hernandez, Faust by Esnislav del Campo and Santos Veigar by Hilario Ascasubi. Among them, "Martin Fiero" was written by a writer and returned to the folk, which was widely circulated in Argentina and almost became a household name. It is said that there isn't a Gabriel who doesn't have a Martin Fiero in his saddle bag. Even illiterate people can recite several paragraphs. The role of Martin Fiero became Gaucho's ideal hero. Besides poetry, there are many novels and plays about Chaucer's life. Later, due to the change of production mode and the gradual modernization of animal husbandry, Jia Wuqiao lost its legendary color. By the time Don Segundo Sanboura was published in 1926, it was almost the spiritual salvation of Gabriel.
As for Indian novels, the scope is wider and the time is longer. In romantic literature, Indians are idealized heroes, such as the novel Kumanda by Ecuadorian Juan Leon Mera and the novel enrich Covenant by Dominican Manuel de Jesus Garbin. The Indian heroes described in these works are actually Europeans wearing Indian costumes, and their thoughts and feelings are Europeanized. In Cuba, the poem "Sibagne" appeared. Praise the Siboni Indians who lived carefree in the primeval forest. /kloc-At the end of 0/9th century, Peruvian woman writer Clorinda Mato de Tournell published the novel Birds Without Nest, which described the real situation of exploitation and oppression of Indians and greatly changed the style of Indian literature. Later, important novels such as Bronze Race by Alcides argus Das of Bolivia, Wasipongo by Jorge Icaza of Ecuador, Open World by Ciro Alegria of Peru, Indian by Lopez I fuentes of Mexico and Ianacu Na by Jesus Lala of Bolivia strongly condemned the oppression and exploitation of Indians and described them in detail.
Black literature appears in countries with a black majority. Needless to say, Haiti is a black country. In Latin American literature, black poetry appeared in Antilles in 1930s. This is a novel poem, which breaks the traditional rhythm and expression of Spanish poetry. It is written with the rhythm and rhythm of black folk songs, music and dances, and some of it also absorbs black language, vocabulary and metaphor, and is full of black characteristics. Its representatives are: Palaez matos of Puerto Rico, Emilio Baragas of Cuba, Mingulas Gillian, Jorge Delima of Brazil, etc.
Mine novels are mainly set in mines. This is a work that exposes the miserable life of miners and condemns imperialist plunder. For example, the Son of Nitric Acid by Flordia Todl Boym in Chile, The Devil's Metal by Augusto Cespedes in Bolivia, Tungsten Mine by Cesar Vallejo in Peru, Our Oil by Jose Mansidore in Mexico, and Short Stories of Coal Miners by Baldomero Liyo in Chile. This kind of work has obvious political inclination, but its artistry is poor, which has not been seen since the 1960s. The same is true of plantation novels. The Children in Sugar Factory and Sausage written by Jose Lins Duo Pressure Relief Valve in Brazil wrote about sugar cane plantations, and Our Food written by Hill Hilbert in Ecuador wrote about rice plantations. The most famous novels are about banana plantations of Central American United Fruit Company, such as Mama Unai by Louis Carlos Fa Ya and Green Prison by Amayo Amado. Miguel á ngel Asturias's trilogy Strong Wind, The Green Pope and The Buried Eye are highly praised for their superb artistic skills. Due to the change of the situation, few people write plantation novels anymore.
In recent ten years, several novels about dictators have been published in succession. The works exposing dictators in Latin American literature are adapted from Mr. President written by asturias in 1946. By 1969, Vargas Lue Sa of Peru wrote Odelia, the dictator of Peru, and Capenti Ai of Cuba wrote The Roots of Law. As a result, such novels appeared one after another, including: The Decline of Parents by Colombian Garcí a Majes, I am supreme by Paraguayan Roya bastos, and Abaddon the Destroyer by Argentine ernesto sabato. Most of these novels are exaggerated, paying attention to satire and exposure.