Latin American Literature: Major 20th-Century Poets & Novelists

Latin American Poetry: Postmodernist and Modern Poets

Latin America. Poetry. Postmodernist poetry.

Delmira Agustini

Agustini. Focusing on nature and love. Colors appear. The white paper and calyces are empty.

Juana de Ibarbourou

Juana de Ibarbourou. She had much success with her poetry. Presence of absolute nature.

Alfonsina Storni

Alfonsina Storni. Covers topics on the independence and freedom of women. Themes that appear include love and the struggle with nature.

Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral. In her poetry, she was strongly influenced by her personal life. Religious elements appear. Topics: nature, failed motherhood, infancy, love, death, and women.

Poetry Influenced by the European Avant-Garde

Poetry influenced by European avant-garde.

César Vallejo

César Vallejo. His work is of profound social and human commitment.

Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda. His great creative power and high sensitivity allowed him to write some of the most important Latin American poetry. He covers topics such as love, art, and social poetry. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.

Narrative: First Half of the Twentieth Century

Narrative. First half of the twentieth century. Stories.

Horacio Quiroga

Horacio Quiroga. Represents the beginning of the narrative of this century with stories that treat new subjects with drama and show interest in the fantastic. The themes are: death, madness, horror, mystery, the unstoppable force of nature, and the irrational. Tales of Love, Madness and Death.

Novels: Movements and Types

Novelas.

Realist Regionalist

Find the essence of the Hispanic in folklore and customs; identification with the landscape; the force of nature as powerful and overwhelming. The struggle to take control of the land from man.

Novel of the Mexican Revolution

NOVEL OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION. Vision of the revolution and personal interpretation of the problems relating to this event.

Novel of the Earth

NOVEL OF THE EARTH. The Latin American vision of nature as a character in novels whose strength can defy and defeat man.

Indian Novel

INDIAN NOVEL. Condemns the oppression and exploitation of indigenous people as part of the three traditional powers of the white world.

Narrative: Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Second half of the twentieth century.

• Use of fantasy and imagination.
• The omniscient narrator gives way to the protagonist, and there is a multiplicity of perspectives.
• Linear time is broken.

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges. Mythological themes from Arab culture or the reality of Argentina. Handling of history to include details of his own creation. Structure of nested narratives ("Chinese boxes").

Juan Rulfo

Juan Rulfo. Closed world, hostile and lonely characters burdened by guilt. Badlands landscape: remote villages and abandonment. Comala is a mythical world that is purgatory and death. Pedro Páramo, El llano en llamas.

Mario Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa. Misfits and violent characters. Stories that intersect. Uses a direct style and distinct linguistic registers. Uses humor and irony. Low use of magical realism.

Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez. Creating fictional worlds; use of language with humor; use of magical realism. Chronicle of a Death Foretold.