What Makes the Latin American Boom

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Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian novelist, short story writer, playwright, journalist and literary and political critic. He is the only still-living author of the 4-representatives of Latin American Boom. He shot to fame with his novel The Time of the Hero (1963), a scathing indictment of cruelty and corruption in a Peruvian military academy. Vargas Llosa also wrote The Green House (1966), the epic Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), Captain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973).

Unlike their previous, realism-based generation, Boom writers explored Latin American reality by means of experimental narrative forms. They were interested in breaking away from the traditional Latin American Literary scene. This break with traditional aesthetics introduced several radical elements. They are the fantastic and the magical realism movements, which are the most essential elements of Latin American literature. Latin American Boom writers depicted national historical events by means of narrative devices that used the fantastic. In a departure from realistic techniques, their approach was both experimental and symbolic. Rafael Ocasio in Literature of Latin America (2004) stated that the Boom writers display a strong interest in breaking away from narrative devices associated with highly traditional literature, especially a realistic approach, produced throughout most of the twentieth century. The Boom writers fully explored Latin American reality and history. They were fascinated by unrecorded native history from the point of view of the common people. The major appeal of the Boom writers was their documentation of native Latin American culture, particularly depiction of life in the countryside. As large cities became important technological centers in most Latin American countries, elements of rural life became literary themes.

A common criticism of the Boom is that it is too experimental and has a "tendency toward elitism”. Also often criticized is the Boom's emphasis on masculinity, both in the fact that all of the movement's representatives were male and the treatment of female characters within the novels. The Boom fiction's emphasis on history and the fantastic has also been the subject of criticism as it was claimed that it is too removed from the realities of Latin American political situations that it criticizes. That being said, the Boom movement had an immediate impact as it changed the way Latin American culture was viewed around the world. It opened the door for new Latin American writers in terms of the international scene. It is difficult to clearly situate the Post-Boom as many of its writers were active before the end of the Boom. The Post-Boom writers challenge the perceived elitism of the Boom by using a simpler, more readable style and going back to realism.

Since the 1940s and the "Boom" period of the 1960s, Latin American literature has become increasingly available to a worldwide audience. Writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Carlos Onetti, Juan José Arreola, Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Miguel Angel Asturias have been internationally recognized for their contributions to world literature. The often chaotic political atmosphere of contemporary Latin America continues to generate writing that is both artistic and activist in nature. Recent decades have seen an increase in works devoted to the specific struggles of blacks, indigenous peoples, and other minorities.

Latin American Literature – Rafael Ocasio (2004)