Latin American Narrative: Boom, Post-Boom, and The House of the Spirits

Critics lack a clear definition for the concepts of "Boom" and "Post-Boom" in Latin American literature. For some authors, the "Boom" signifies serious postmodernism. This identification is justified because both Euro-American modernist literature and the Latin American Boom exhibit a common rejection of traditional realistic style.

The most important feature of the Post-Boom is its return to storytelling and narrative. However, the relationship between these two pairs of terms (Boom/Post-Boom and Modern/Postmodern) is not identical: the term "postmodern" refers specifically to a particular genre—the literary narrative—and a region, particularly Latin America.

Most critics admit no clear dates or precise limits for these movements. One can only say that from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Latin American literature began to take a new direction, often called the Post-Boom. If we can establish a boundary between the Boom and Post-Boom, we can set three levels of analysis:

Three Levels of Analysis: Boom vs. Post-Boom

1. Level of Knowledge Sought

• Boom Literature: Had an ambition to write the "total work," an encyclopedic "Great Novel of America." This totalizing novel aimed to unravel the truths of the continent's overall destiny.
• Post-Boom Literature: Seen in young writers taking everyday life as inspiration.

One of the hallmarks of the Boom has been its tendency to abandon the linear, orderly, logical structure typical of the traditional realist novel. It replaced this with experimental structures that reflect the multiplicity of reality.

By contrast, Post-Boom literature demonstrates greater confidence in the ability to perceive reality and in language's capacity to transmit it. In fact, the structures of these texts tend to be simpler than those of Boom novels, and their contents are often more rooted in local experiences and shared realities.

Another important difference lies in the varying attitudes towards the relationship between high culture and mass culture. In Post-Boom literature, there is a clear intention to break from the Boom's approach, resorting to cultural figures and paraliterary mass genres—i.e., commercial genres without high aesthetic ambitions, such as melodrama.

2. Thematic Level

• Post-Boom Themes: Since the beginning of the 1970s, a constant theme has emerged: the desire to preserve, enhance, or restore Latin American identity, whether continental, national, regional, or local. What distinguishes Post-Boom narrative is a more direct and simpler treatment of Latin American cultural and socio-political reality.
• Boom Themes: In contrast, in Boom novels, the Latin American role often lost its prominence or was subordinated to a quest for universality.