Boom of the 1960s - Main Characteristics/Ideas

The Latin American “Boom” of the 1960s

Notes from class

-          Lasts from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s

-          Was considered a “fusion of the Latin American roots”

-          Was an explosion of literary work in Latin America that was recognized internationally during the same time in which it was written (rather than years later)

-          A literary phenomenon that can be considered or not be considered a movement depending on who’s considering it

-          The authors of the Boom are experimenting with different writing styles, they all have different “games”

o   For example, in La muerte de Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes, he’s playing with styles of communication; he mixes who speaks in the dialogues and he purposefully does so without clarity so that it’s difficult to follow

-          The most important authors of the boom:

o    All men – Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, and José Donoso

o   All from countries with more developed urban centers

o   Were frequently in exile, writing from outside of their countries

-          Influence of the Cuban Revolution

o   Idea/vision of utopia

o   Renewed thoughts about the effects of the conquest and Spanish colonization – the Cuban revolution becomes a symbol of what Latin America could be

o   All of the intellectuals of the Boom supported the Cuban revolution until the Padilla case (1979) – afterwards, the only continued supporter was/is Gabriel García Márquez

-          The Boom is also an editorial phenomenon

o   Start to publish several editions of new books directly since the publication; several more copies published than previously (for example, transition from 2000 copies to 10,000)

-          Two huge traits/characteristics of the Boom

o   The manner that the literature is enriched by the influence of the common state of exile and the Cuban revolution, and the high level of experimentation

o   The editorial phenomenon of starting to publish several more copies/editions of the books

Main ideas from Cambridge Companion: Latin America (Chapter 4)

-          Took place in the 1960s

-          Climactic reaction against the traditional realist and regionalist novel (81)

-          Development of “new novel” (which had been developing over the years, but came to a head here) (82)

-          “finite burst of commercial activity” – concentrated publication and sale of many of these “new novels” [in Europe] (82)

-          Writing style: experimentalism, complexity, fragmentation, tortuousness, tone of universality (83)

Prime examples from our Comps list:

-          Fuentes, Carlos – La muerte de Artemio Cruz, 1962

-          García Márquez, Gabriel – Cien años de soledad, 1967