20th Century Hispanic Novels and Short Stories

Posted on Oct 24, 2024 in Latin

The Hispanic Novels and Short Stories in the Second Half of the 20th Century

The Evolution of Latin American Fiction

The evolution of Latin American fiction during the 20th century can be described in five movements:

Initial Years of the Century: Remains faithful to 19th-century realism.
From 1920: Realism is consolidated with American themes and social interest.
Years 40 and 50: Follow one another refreshing experience, consistent with social stress.
Years 60 to 70: There is a boom of the new narrative, which places the authors in the forefront of the global narrative.
The Heirs of the Boom: Consolidate the commercial success of the Latin American novel.

The Realistic Novel: Regionalism and Social Problems

When poetry was renewed by Modernism, the novel was still inherited from the 19th century. Realism dominated the novel until the 40s.

Between 1910 and 1920 include works such as The Underdogs (1916) by Mariano Azuela, on the Mexican Revolution and Race in Bronze (1919) by Alcides Arguedas, on the exploited Indians. Indianism, socio-political approach, and the presence of nature are its main ingredients.

From 1920 to 1940, these trends consolidated, focusing on man’s struggle with nature, poverty, and dictatorship. The following novels are characteristic of this period: The Vortex (1924) by José Eustasio Rivera, set in the Amazon jungle, Don Segundo Sombra (1926) by Ricardo Güiraldes on the Argentine pampas and the gaucho, Doña Bárbara (1929) by Rómulo Gallegos, a large fresco of the Venezuelan territory, and The World is Wide and Alien (1941) by Ciro Alegría, on Indians stripped of their lands.

Towards Renewal: The Overcoming of Realism

From 1940, authors would look for other issues and other techniques to deal with traditional motifs.

Several developments can be seen:

Emergence of urban issues, along with the dominant rural.
It deals with human problems, not just social.
Fantasy appears beside reality; it is the so-called “magical realism”.
There is a growing concern about structures and style, thanks to the influx of large European and American novelists.

At this time, a very rich picture emerges in which the following authors stand out:

Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina, 1899-1986): One of the most amazing story writers of our time. His stories connect us with the unusual and exceptional, proposing subtle mind games full of intelligence. His stories are collected in volumes such as Ficciones and El Aleph.
Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala, 1899-1974): New approaches to very old themes. In Mr. President (1946), he deals with dictatorship using expressionistic and hallucinatory techniques. He won the Nobel Prize in 1967.
Alejo Carpentier (Cuba, 1904-1980): In The Lost Steps (1953) and Explosion in a Cathedral (1962), he advanced narrative renewal.
Juan Rulfo (Mexico, 1918-1986): Provides an exceptional collection of stories with El Llano en Llamas (1953). He is also the author of a masterful novel, Pedro Páramo (1955), where life and death, the real and the supernatural, the personal and the social are mixed, influencing younger authors decisively.

The New Latin American Novel: The Boom

In the 60s, European readers were fascinated by writers like Cortázar, Vargas Llosa, García Márquez, Sabato, Fuentes…, who, together with the authors mentioned earlier, brought Latin American narrative to a world-class level. These novelists continued the innovations undertaken by their predecessors, taking them further and bringing new resources, expanding the thematic universe, delving into “magical realism”, experimenting with structures, language, and style, with creativity abounding.

We will focus on the work of five authors, although the list of valuable narrators should include others such as Mujica Lainez, Onetti, Lezama Lima, Uslar Pietri, Roa Bastos, Arreola, Donoso, Sarduy, Cabrera Infante, etc.

Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia, 1928): His novels and short stories feature an imaginary town called Macondo, a carbon copy of his birthplace, Aracataca. In this environment, No One Writes to the Colonel and One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) take place. The latter tells the story of the Buendía family through several generations, mixing reality and fantasy in a singular way. Creative imagination and storytelling ability are the main virtues of García Márquez. Other notable works are Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1986). He received the Nobel Prize in 1982.
Julio Cortázar (Argentina, 1914-1984): Stands out as a wonderful storyteller (Cronopios and Famas) and as a novelist who shows the complexity of reality within everyday life. His novel Hopscotch (1963) is a display of stylistic and structural mastery (it supports multiple reading routes).
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru, 1936): Amazed with The Time of the Hero (1962), but perhaps his most important work is Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), an extensive novel where two people talk about their failed lives, managing to evoke an entire world. After an initial stage dominated by intense experimentalism, from the eighties he returned to the traditional narrative with works such as Captain Pantoja and the Special Service and Death in the Andes.
Ernesto Sabato (Argentina, 1911): Is the author of The Tunnel (1948), On Heroes and Tombs (1961), and Abaddon the Exterminator (1974). The last two offer an apocalyptic vision and critique of our world, with free and complex narrative structures.
Carlos Fuentes (Mexico, 1928): Combines technical virtuosity and critical load. Among his titles, Where the Air Is Clear (1958) and The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962) stand out. He received the Cervantes Prize in 1987.

In the Shadow of the Boom: Recent Novelists

After the internationalization of Latin American narrative, its best authors continued writing at the same time that new generations emerged.

The new storytellers have access to a market much more attentive to the news from Latin America, but they must strive to live up to, if not surpass, the shadow of their predecessors. Among the novelists are:

Manuel Puig (Argentina, 1932): With modern and culturally relevant works such as Betrayed by Rita Hayworth (1968), The Buenos Aires Affair (1973), and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976).
Alfredo Bryce Echenique (Peru, 1939): Amazed by his sense of humor and his ability to caricature characters and situations. Some of his most representative works are A World for Julius (1970), Tantas Veces Pedro (1977), and The Man Who Talked About Octavia Cádiz (1985).
Isabel Allende (Chile, 1942): Her work is a clear demonstration of García Márquez’s influence on later narrative. In it, we can appreciate magic, social engagement, and the desire for simplicity. Her novel The House of the Spirits (1982) was a global bestseller. Other notable narratives include Eva Luna (1987), Paula (1994), and Daughter of Fortune (1999).

As storytellers, besides those already mentioned, we should highlight the importance of the Guatemalan Augusto Monterroso (The Dinosaur), and the Uruguayans Mario Benedetti (Montevideans) and Eduardo Galeano (Memory of Fire), who gained recognition in Europe mainly from the 80s.