Representative writers of Latin American literature explosion

Latin America16th century to19th century was a colonial period, and Latin American literature was inevitably deeply influenced by the literature of the suzerain countries of Spain and Portugal. In the past 300 years, various literary trends of thought in the suzerain country have experienced ups and downs, which have caused profound repercussions in Latin America. The development of Spanish literature directly promoted or inhibited the development of colonial literature, the emergence and development of literary ideas and the pursuit of writers' creation, which made Latin American literature deeply bear the literary characteristics of the suzerain country. From Baroque to gongola's exaggeration to Neoclassicism in the middle of18th century, it was deeply influenced by Spanish literature. However, for more than three centuries, due to the strict ideological control exercised by the suzerain over the colonies and the fear of the inflammatory and destructive consequences that novels, a secular literary work, might have on the colonial people, Spain banned novels from being transported to the colonies and consciously pursued an obscurantism policy in Latin America. In addition, Latin America is sparsely populated and the publishing industry is extremely backward, which has led to the strange phenomenon of blank novels in Latin America for 300 years.

In addition, in the19th century, with the war of pursuing national independence sweeping the whole Latin American continent, new European aesthetic ideas were also introduced into Latin America. For example, the European Enlightenment began to spread to Latin America, inspiring the pioneers of Latin American independence movement. "Freedom and independence" and "scientific progress" were two exciting slogans at that time. The advanced intellectuals in Latin America are eager to establish a "rational kingdom". The independence movement and enlightenment promoted the birth of Latin American national literature. In Santiago, Mexico, an argument broke out whether to stick to the old Spanish classical aesthetics or accept the new French romantic aesthetics. Finally, they found a way out in French romanticism.

/kloc-at the end of 0/9 century, naturalism and critical realism were almost the same as entering Latin America. At that time, many Latin American writers had just got rid of sentimentalism and adopted an eclectic and indiscriminate attitude towards naturalism and realism. In the works of many Latin American writers, critical realism and naturalism go hand in hand and complement each other. The emergence of natural realistic novels in Latin America finally made Latin American literary novels and poems go their separate ways. Poetry is increasingly moving towards aestheticism of art for art's sake; But the novel is more realistic, focusing on practical functions and social benefits. Novelists began to pay attention to the social reality in Latin America and fully demonstrated it. Since then, the realistic expression of Latin American novels has become the mainstream of novel creation, which has continued until the "explosion" period of literature. The diversified creative themes that were constantly explored at that time were also widely used during the "explosion" period of literature.

Localism novel is the first climax of Latin American literature in the 20th century. At this time, Latin American literature has embarked on the road of developing national literature. From cutting off the national tradition to returning to the national tradition, from Europeanization as a whole to getting rid of the European model, from relying on others to being self-centered, we began to take an independent new road of nationalization. Because the essence of regionalism novel is realistic literature, it is not to seek new artistic flowers, nor to be unconventional in art, but to face reality, take social issues as the center and truly reflect real life. In addition to expressing the unique scenery of Latin America, localism literature has made another great contribution to the development and refinement of Indian mythology. The mythical description of nature and characters laid the foundation for the development of magical realism in the future. Kilaum's magical realism is different from European surrealism and absurd realism in that it combines magical techniques with local superstitious consciousness, legends and myths. Regionalism is the earliest mythological description of nature and characters, which combines truth with superstition and myths and legends, and finally develops a high achievement of magical realism in Latin American novels that is illusory, bizarre and fascinating, and at the same time can realistically reflect reality. The unique local color of Latin American regionalism literature has attracted the attention of the world; But in art, it did not reach the height that surprised the world. From the perspective of literary development, the rise of regionalism literature in Latin America is undoubtedly a great progress. Regionalism literature, based on local conditions, aims at innovation, boldly abandons the European model, and strives to express the unique features of Latin America, which has quickly attracted the attention of all walks of life in the world. People are impressed by the great power of primitive nature and fascinated by the ever-changing grasslands, forests, rivers and mountains in Latin America. However, there are obvious problems in the regionalism literature in Latin America. Their understanding of the road of nationalization is narrow, and they are opposed to nationalization and absorption of the essence of foreign culture. They advocate nationalization, so they reject foreign cultures, get rid of the European model, and make a clean break with European literature, thus moving from one extreme to the other. This closed-door approach obviously restricts the development of literature to a certain extent.

In the early 1940s, an epoch-making novel "The Invention of Morrel" appeared, which is a novel with a mixture of reality and fantasy. Borges discovered his value and made a preface to it, praising the novel for its ingenious integration of plot novels, psychological novels, fantasy novels and emerging science fiction. The following year, the novels of Argentine writer Marcel Dogniaux Fernandez, Eduardo Maya's All Green Will Wither, Borges's Garden with Crossing Paths and Uruguayan writer Onetti's No Man's Land broke the situation that Latin American regionalism literature dominated the world with ingenious skills, strange imagination, brand-new techniques or unique psychological descriptions.

Since then, Latin American novels have begun to diversify. Magic realism, the first original school in Latin America, emerged in large numbers during this period, and replaced indigenous novels in the 1950s, expressing the backwardness and magic of Latin American society through the collective unconsciousness of Indians or black or mixed-race farmers. In fantasy novel, Borges successively published short story collections such as Collection of Novels, Alef and Death and Compass, and made progress towards his ultimate goal of fantasy novel: metaphysics. At the same time, Abby casares published novels such as Escape Plan, Dream of Heroes and Anecdotes. In addition, another Argentine writer, Julio Cortázar's early works Animal Fables and The End of the Game, and Mexican writer juan jos arreola's collection of short stories Well, I think all kinds of fables are well-known fantasy novels.

In addition, the explosion of Latin American literature is related to the traditional ideas, religious beliefs, cultural traditions and backward living environment of indigenous Indians. Latin American countries have the same experience in history, and their cultural traditions have the same characteristics. There, ancient Indian culture is deeply rooted, and myths and legends, traditional customs and religious beliefs many centuries ago have always influenced people's thoughts and behaviors. For example, in the view of death, they think that there is no absolute boundary between life and death, and death is another kind of "life". Life can continue in disability, and the deceased also has feelings and the ability to listen, speak, recall and think. For example, the Aztecs believed in the immortality of the soul and various natural gods, such as the sun god. Indians also believe in animism and advocate harmony between man and nature. For example, the various natural factors described by asturias in Corn Man, such as flowers, trees, birds and animals, rivers and mountains, all have their own lives and characteristics, and they all play their own roles, not just set off the environment. All these have laid the foundation of magic realism in Latin American literature to a certain extent. However, the recent history of Latin America is full of violence. Since Columbus discovered the New World, Europeans have conquered Latin America by force. In about a century, a large number of indigenous Indians were wiped out. In some areas, such as some islands in the Caribbean, hundreds of thousands of Indians have not left and have to be shipped from Africa to fill the gap. Conquest left a complex society.

Cultural differences, cultural conflicts and cultural hybridity caused by colonialism and other historical reasons. Colombia, like other Latin American countries, suffered from colonial aggression and plunder. Latin America has been living under the iron claws of colonialism since16th century. They were not only plundered by colonists, but also infiltrated by strong culture. Colonialism also destroyed and discriminated against the cultural traditions of Latin American countries. Western culture and Indian indigenous culture are two completely different cultural traditions. One of the results of this cultural difference and cultural conflict is that there are more and more barriers between races and nations. With the development of society, the influx of foreigners, and the emergence of white and indigenous Indians, white and black people and other mixed-race children, the cultural differences in many Latin American countries are gradually narrowing, and multi-ethnic cultures are blending with each other. However, no matter how multi-racial and multi-ethnic cultures are mixed and integrated, the cultural traditions of Latin American nations will not be assimilated by western cultures, because this cultural integration, like Latin American hybrids, is the product of one nation ruling another nation and one nation invading and polluting another. The culture of the oppressed will never die out because of trampling and discrimination. On the contrary, the myths, legends, religious concepts and customs of Latin American people, influenced and dominated their thoughts and behaviors more tenaciously under the cultural infiltration of the invaders, and became an important part of Latin American national consciousness. Since the 20th century, in the face of imperialist control, extortion and aggression, Latin American countries have different regimes and different levels of economic development, but they have the same experience and destiny, the same cultural traditions and national characteristics, and the long-standing Americanism in the history of Spanish literature and art, all of which have condensed into a force that is United with the outside world. Latin American people are increasingly unwilling to endure the fate of being pushed around, and their sense of independence is gradually enhanced.

But even the later Latin American independence movement was not a people's revolution, but the "liberation" of the army. Because of the deep-rooted social division, it is difficult to launch the people's revolution, so we have to rely on the army to "liberate" the people. The specific process is: San Martin led an army from Argentina to Chile, and then from Chile to Peru; Simon Bolvar led another army to liberate Venezuela and Colombia, then marched into Peru, and finally eradicated the remnants of Spain. The passive state of the people makes "people's sovereignty" impossible, so the army, the most obvious violent authority, replaced the authority of the Spanish king and became the highest political power. In this regard, the "liberator" Bolivar had long anticipated it. As early as 18 15, at the beginning of the war of independence, he said to his motherland from abroad: "Our compatriots do not have the ability and political morality that our North American brothers are famous for. A complete and popular system will not bring us benefits ... but will only push us to extinction. " Therefore, he advocated the establishment of presidential tenure (that is, dictatorship) in South America to avoid the country falling into anarchy after "liberation".

However, the reality is much worse than Bolivar estimated. In the Latin American War of Independence, the army became the center of power. The army fought wars, liberated land, formed local governments, appointed its own officers as local governors, collected military taxes and recruited soldiers. Everything from military to civil affairs is decided by the army. The army is the government, and military orders are the law. Independent Latin America was controlled by soldiers from the beginning, and the will of officers ruled the country. But unfortunately, the real authority has not been formed in the army, and the social division is so deep that no one can establish authority beyond narrow regional interests. There are many factions in the army, officers are fighting with each other, and soldiers have no political ideals. They quickly competed for power and had no political principles. American scholar Tannenbaum said: Latin American independence "is not an organized movement with a central guiding body." It has no continental congress and no recognized leader, such as Washington. It doesn't have any institutions that can fund the movement or recruit troops. Every part of the continent is fighting in its own way. Without the guidance of the central government, there is no recognized central leadership, and there is no political theory accepted by everyone. " In a sense, the Latin American independence movement is an advanced movement, and the people are not ready for independence. It was only because Napoleon invaded Spain and detained the Spanish king that Latin America was disgusted: they didn't want to accept Napoleon's rule, and Latin America declared "independence". But once the authority of Spain was lifted, the power vacuum immediately appeared. The Spanish king was originally the only recognized authority in the western Latin American colonies. Once this authority is lost, all authority will cease to exist. So the army came in and "liberated" Latin America, which immediately became the source of unrest. The loss of military authority is manifested in the situation that generals don't buy each other and even the leaders of the independence movement can't control the internal evidence. In this regard, the supreme leader of the independence movement actually realized that the last piece of advice left by "lord protector of Peru" San Martin to this country was: "A lucky soldier ... is in power, which is terrible for the newly established country." After fighting for his country for 20 years, Bolí var, the "liberator", said disappointedly: Latin America is "ungovernable" and "a thousand upheavals will inevitably lead to a thousand usurpations of power". He predicted: "Many tyrants will rise from my grave ... and the civil war will be bloody." . Unfortunately, this prediction soon came true. Due to the loss of authority, Latin America pushed the army to an inappropriate position when it fought for independence, which led to Latin America stumbling and struggling in its later development. After nearly 20 years of independence, he is still kicking around in the "third world". The role of the army has greatly hindered the normal development of social life and caused major mistakes in Latin American modernization. Later, this kind of turmoil was reflected everywhere in Latin American literary works, and even became an unchangeable social background. In this context, the main slogan of romantic literature is to oppose monopoly rule and strive for national equality and social civilization.

The third reason is that the modernization of Latin America is extremely bumpy. Although Latin America is nominally independent, it has not achieved real peace after getting rid of colonial rule, and a series of political measures by European powers still oppress Latin America. In the Latin American independence movement, the colonies in western Latin America were equivalent to the governor's area and governor's area in the original colonial period, and there were more than a dozen fragmented countries. The national consciousness of the people of all countries has been gradually enhanced, and the conflicts and competitions between countries have had a great impact on the political and economic life of these countries. Conflicts between countries are mostly due to the competition for resources, the sovereignty of no-man's land, border issues and uncompromising nationalism, and the hegemonism of big countries against their neighbors. Even though there have been many negotiations between countries, some wars are still inevitable. Coupled with the military and political invasion of Latin America after the independence of the United States, Latin America was in turmoil and could not form a unified and stable situation. For example, the conflict between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party described in One Hundred Years of Solitude, the crushing by the impressive United Fruit Company, and the banana plantation massacre in the1920s. These events are not fabricated by Marquez out of thin air, but historical events with roots to follow. These are inseparable from the long-term oppression of Latin America by big countries.

In the modern history of Latin America, of course, American intervention is indispensable. 1898 After the end of the Spanish-American War, the victorious United States began to intervene in Latin American affairs on a large scale, holding dollar investment and free trade in one hand and a war stick in the other, and expanded rapidly in Latin America. After World War I, the United States became the most powerful country in America. 1899, Vaccaro Brothers of the United States shipped the first batch of bananas from Honduras to New Orleans, and the infamous United Fruit Company of the United States was established that year. As an American multinational monopoly and a model of "imperialism", it once played a very disgraceful role in Latin American history. In Latin America, many countries are called "banana countries", which is a derogatory term for countries with single economic system, unstable government, widespread corruption and powerful foreign forces. United Fruit Company secretly manipulated some countries for more than half a century. Every manor in Latin American countries is not only economically self-contained, but also has its own laws and military camps. It can even arrest and shoot workers at will and become a local "country within a country".

With the advent of World War I, Europe relaxed its control over Latin America, but the United States took the opportunity to strengthen its oppression of Latin America. However, the demand of European countries for Latin American resources still promotes the economic development of Latin America. At the same time, due to the victory of Russian October Revolution and the spread of Marxism, capitalist forces in Latin American countries began to appear, and capitalist political parties were established one after another. At the same time, a large-scale anti-American movement broke out in Latin America, and military intervention began to appear. In the middle of the 20th century, military coups took place in most countries in Latin America, which changed from "populism" to "bureaucratic authoritarianism". These military governments pursued a high-handed political policy and committed many large-scale human rights violations during their rule. Corruption among senior officials is very common, and it is impossible to take effective measures economically. Faced with the debt crisis, they did nothing. Coupled with the influence of 1929- 1933 capitalist economic crisis, social contradictions in Latin America are more acute. Due to the domestic situation, some military governments have to hand over political power and "return politics to the people." In the late 20th century, left-wing politics rose rapidly in Latin America, left-wing political parties came to power and made a series of adjustments to the current policies in Latin America.

Therefore, in the1960s and1970s, the whole of Latin America was in turmoil, and the cold war strongly affected the political and diplomatic environment in Latin America. This political climate has become the background of the explosion of Latin American literature, making radical ideas sometimes inevitable. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the American attempt to intervene through the invasion of the Bay of Pigs can be regarded as the beginning of this era. Cuba completely fell to the Soviet Union in diplomacy, which led to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war. Throughout the 1960 to 1970, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and many other countries were ruled by military dictatorships. For example, in September of 1973 and 10, Chile's democratically elected President salvador allende was overthrown and replaced by General Augusto Pinochet, whose rule lasted until the end of 1980. Chile under Pinochet was "notorious for trampling on human rights and attacking political opponents", while a dirty war broke out in Argentina in the 1970 s, which was notorious for violating human rights and the inexplicable disappearance of a large number of Argentine citizens. Many of these governments (supported by the United States) cooperated with each other to attack and cut off political opponents and "destroy their bodies" in the so-called vulture operation.

From 1950 to 1975, dramatic changes took place in Latin America, and literary creation was increasingly close to social and historical reality. The self-orientation of Hispanic novelists in the United States has also changed. The development of cities, the rise of the middle class, the Cuban revolution, the progressive alliance, the increase of exchanges between Latin American countries, the growing influence of mass media, and the increasing attention of Europe and the United States have all contributed to this drastic change. The most important political events in this period were 1959 Cuban revolution and 1973 coup in Chile. The downfall of General Peron of Argentina, the persistent violent struggle of urban guerrillas, the brutal repression of Argentina and Uruguay, and the endless violent conflict in Colombia have also influenced writers, so their works are full of fierce attacks and accusations against the turbid world. Therefore, Marquez summed up the influence of literary creation in Latin American society in his later speech "Loneliness in Latin America": "I dare say that it is not just its literary expression but the unusual reality in Latin America that has aroused great concern of the Swedish Academy of Literature. Reality is not an armchair strategist, it is all around us, affecting countless lives and deaths every day. At the same time, it also nourishes an inexhaustible source of creation full of beauty and misfortune. "

1959 after the success of the Cuban revolution, the nationalist sentiment in Latin America was unprecedentedly high. The voice of independence and liberation resounded through the new world. This makes not only the United States, but also Europe and other countries in the world pay attention to the politics, economy and culture of Latin America. Because the progressive political parties and people with lofty ideals in Latin American countries have tried to emulate Cuba, which has promoted the awakening of "Latin American consciousness." In literature and art, it eulogizes the fighting spirit against imperialism and feudalism, criticizes social injustice and protests against military dictatorship. In short, they should faithfully and vividly describe the true face of this stormy era and make people realize that this society must change. 1982 The words of the Nobel Prize winner Garcia Marquez are very representative. He said: "This extraordinary reality is not an armchair strategist. It accompanied us all day and caused many deaths. At the same time, this reality has become an inexhaustible creative source full of beauty, ugliness, goodness and evil. " Peruvian writer Vargas Luesa put it more clearly: "We must warn those societies that crowd out and chase writers: literature is a fire. Literature means uncompromising and resisting. The writer became a writer because he wanted to protest oppression, expose contradictions and criticize darkness. " A writer was, is and will be dissatisfied with the status quo. It is impossible for a contented person to write; People who steal peace can only write nonsense. Literary genius is produced among those who are dissatisfied with reality and realize that there are abuses, lack of plaques and decline around them. Literature will always be a weapon against oppression, and it will never accept the powerful coat imposed on it; Any attempt to bring his unruly character to its knees is doomed to failure. Literature may suffocate, but it will never compromise. "

The success of the Cuban Revolution from 65438 to 0959 played a decisive role in promoting the awakening of Latin American consciousness. Fidel Castro's speech to intellectuals, Che Wagla's revolutionary theory with Regis and Debray are undoubtedly deeply influenced by Latin American writers. Cuba after the success of the revolution is regarded as a beacon of Latin America, attracting writers who pursue light and truth. The Cuban literary magazine "House of Literature" organizes various activities to attract writers from all over the world to visit. This has promoted the communication and understanding among writers and promoted the development of Latin American new novels. 1962, the "World Intellectuals Conference" was held in Concepcion, Chile, and many famous writers participated. At the conference, everyone unanimously supported the Cuban revolutionary cause led by Castro and denounced the aggressive policy of American imperialism. An academic conference turned into a political conference. At the conference, everyone proposed that Latin American writers unite and communicate with each other to overcome their previous isolation and helplessness. Sure enough, since then, writers from all over the world have worked harder to promote the national independence and liberation movement in their own way. It is they who have cultivated new novels in Latin America. Therefore, some people regard the year when the Concepció n Congress was held, 1962, as the year when the Latin American literature "exploded", and regard the Congress as one of the sources of the "literary explosion".