Major Movements in 20th Century Hispano-American Literature

Hispano-American Literature in the 20th Century

The first decades of the twentieth century saw political stability and economic growth, largely thanks to the United States. A significant middle class developed, alongside the rise of the workers' movement. The financial crisis of 1929 broke this stability, but during World War II, exports dramatically increased. This period highlighted social and political shortcomings. U.S. control grew, fostering nationalist sentiment and populism.

The sixties brought new political and social instability with the triumph of revolutionary movements in Cuba, the reforms of Salvador Allende in Chile, and the Nicaraguan revolution. Dictatorships emerged, suppressing the most elementary human rights and originating the drama of the 'missing' (desaparecidos). All these circumstances influenced Latin American literature, developing popular themes and compelling writers to take sides and actively engage with their time.

Regionalism: The Novel of the 1920s and 1930s

In the late twenties and during the thirties, American narrators reacted against modernist exoticism and cosmopolitanism, becoming conscious of the originality of their natural environment. They are the representatives of the regionalist novel.

The most important authors and works are:

• Rómulo Gallegos: Doña Bárbara. This realistic novel dramatizes the conflict between civilization and barbarism.
• Ricardo Güiraldes: Don Segundo Sombra.
• Ciro Alegría: The World Is Wide and Strange (El mundo es ancho y ajeno). This book lyrically describes an idyllic community of Indigenous people that is destroyed by the white man.

Overcoming Regionalism: The Novel of the 1940s and 1950s

From the forties onward, narrators began to abandon regionalism to create a vibrant novelistic style that would peak during the 'Boom' years of the 1960s. Its salient features are as follows:

• Overcoming the limitations of regionalism.
• Focus on the troubles of modern man.
• Assimilation of the achievements of European and American art.
• A new poetic style focusing on the 'marvelous real' (lo real maravilloso).

The most outstanding authors of this period are:

• Jorge Luis Borges: Ficciones, El Aleph, The Book of Sand. (Note: These are collections of short stories.)
• Juan Rulfo: Pedro Páramo.
• José Lezama Lima: Paradiso.
• Ernesto Sábato: The Tunnel (El Túnel).

Post-Boom and New Directions: The Novel of the 1970s Onward

Starting in the mid-1960s, other authors began to publish, facing the challenge of opening new directions without denying the contributions of their predecessors, which were so popular with readers. Notable authors include:

• Manuel Puig: The Betrayed by Rita Hayworth (La traición de Rita Hayworth).
• Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus).
• ... among others.

The issues addressed are new, and previous structures are often deemed invalid. Linguistic experimentation is very important in these works; they often incorporate styles from mass communication media and give input to colloquial language and slang.