Latin American authors. Literature of Latin America. See what “Latin American literature” is in other dictionaries

LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE
The literature of Latin America, existing mainly in Spanish and Portuguese, was formed through the interaction of two different rich cultural traditions - European and Indian. Native American literature in some cases continued to develop after the Spanish conquest. Of the surviving works of pre-Columbian literature, most were written down by missionary monks. Thus, to this day the main source for the study of Aztec literature remains the work of Fray B. de Sahagún (1550-1590) History of Things of New Spain, created between 1570 and 1580. Masterpieces of Mayan literature written down shortly after the conquest have also been preserved: a collection of historical legends and cosmogonic myths of the Popol Vuh and the prophetic books of Chilam-Balam. Thanks to the collecting activities of the monks, examples of pre-Columbian Peruvian poetry that existed in the oral tradition have reached us. Their work was supplemented by two famous chroniclers of Indian origin - Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1516) and F.G. Poma de Ayala (1532/1533-1615). The primary layer of Latin American literature in Spanish consists of diaries, chronicles and reports of the pioneers and conquistadors themselves. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) outlined his impressions of the newly discovered lands in the Diary of his first voyage (1492-1493) and three letters of communication addressed to the Spanish royal couple. Columbus often interprets American realities in a fantastic way, reviving numerous geographical myths and legends that filled Western European literature from antiquity to Marco Polo (c. 1254-1324). The discovery and conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico is reflected in five letters of communication from E. Cortez (1485-1547), sent to Emperor Charles V between 1519 and 1526. A soldier from Cortez's detachment, B. Diaz del Castillo (between 1492 and 1496-1584), described these events in the True History of the Conquest of New Spain (1563), one of the most remarkable books of the Conquest era. In the process of discovering the lands of the New World, in the minds of the conquistadors, old European myths and legends, fused with Indian legends ("The Fountain of Eternal Youth", "Seven Cities of Sivola", "Eldorado", etc.) were revived and reinterpreted. The persistent search for these mythical places determined the entire course of the conquest and, to some extent, the early colonization of the territories. A number of literary monuments of the Conquest era are represented by detailed testimonies of participants in such expeditions. Among works of this kind, the most interesting is the famous book Shipwreck (1537) by A. Cabeza de Vaqui (1490?-1559?), who in eight years of wandering was the first European to cross the North American continent in a westerly direction, and the Narrative of the new discovery of the glorious great Amazon River (Russian translation 1963) by Fray G. de Carvajal (1504-1584) . Another body of Spanish texts from this period consists of chronicles created by Spanish and sometimes Indian historiographers. The humanist B. de Las Casas (1474-1566) was the first to severely criticize the conquest in his History of the Indies. In 1590, the Jesuit J. de Acosta (1540-1600) published the Natural and Moral History of the Indies. In Brazil, G. Soares de Souza (1540-1591) wrote one of the most informative chronicles of this period - Description of Brazil in 1587, or News of Brazil. At the origins of Brazilian literature is also the Jesuit J. de Anchieta (1534-1597), the author of chronicle texts, sermons, lyric poems and religious plays (auto). The most significant playwrights of the period under review were E. Fernandez de Eslaya (1534-1601), author of religious and secular plays, and J. Ruiz de Alarcon (1581-1639). The highest achievements in the genre of epic poetry were the poem The Greatness of Mexico (1604) by B. de Balbuena, Elegies on the Illustrious Men of the Indies (1589) by J. de Castellanos (1522-1607) and Araucan (1569-1589) by A. de Ercilla y Zúñiga (1533-1594), which describes the conquest of Chile. During the colonial period, Latin American literature was oriented towards the literary fashion of the metropolis. The aesthetics of the Spanish Golden Age, particularly the Baroque, quickly permeated the intellectual circles of Mexico and Peru. One of the best works of Latin American prose of the 17th century. - the chronicle of the Colombian J. Rodriguez Fraile (1556-1638) El Carnero (1635) is more artistic in style than a historiographical work. The artistic attitude was even more clearly manifested in the chronicle of the Mexican C. Siguenza y Gongora (1645-1700) The Misadventures of Alonso Ramirez, supposedly the true story of a shipwrecked sailor. If the prose writers of the 17th century. were unable to reach the level of full-fledged artistic writing, stopping halfway between a chronicle and a novel, then the poetry of this period reached a high degree of development. The Mexican nun Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695), a major literary figure of the colonial era, created unsurpassed examples of Latin American baroque poetry. In Peruvian poetry of the 17th century. philosophical and satirical orientation dominated over the aesthetic, as manifested in the works of P. de Peralta Barnuevo (1663-1743) and J. del Valle y Caviedes (1652/1654-1692/1694). In Brazil, the most significant writers of this period were A. Vieira (1608-1697), who wrote sermons and treatises, and A. Fernandez Brandon, author of the book Dialogue on the Splendors of Brazil (1618). The process of formation of Creole identity by the end of the 17th century. acquired a distinct character. A critical attitude towards colonial society and the need for its reconstruction are expressed in the satirical book of the Peruvian A. Carrio de la Vandera (1716-1778) Guide of the Blind Wanderers (1776). The same educational pathos was asserted by the Ecuadorian F. J. E. de Santa Cruz y Espejo (1747-1795) in the book New Lucian of Quito, or Awakener of Minds, written in the genre of dialogue. The Mexican H.H. Fernandez de Lisardi (1776-1827) began his career in literature as a satirist poet. In 1816, he published the first Latin American novel, Periquillo Sarniento, where he expressed critical social ideas within the picaresque genre. Between 1810-1825, the War of Independence unfolded in Latin America. During this era, poetry achieved the greatest public resonance. A notable example of the use of the classicist tradition is the heroic ode to the Song of Bolivar, or the Victory at Junin by the Ecuadorian J. H. Olmedo (1780-1847). The spiritual and literary leader of the independence movement was A. Bello (1781-1865), who strove in his poetry to reflect Latin American issues in the traditions of neoclassicism. The third of the most significant poets of that period was J.M. Heredia (1803-1839), whose poetry became a transitional stage from neoclassicism to romanticism. In Brazilian poetry of the 18th century. the philosophy of enlightenment was combined with stylistic innovations. Its largest representatives were T.A. Gonzaga (1744-1810), M.I.da Silva Alvarenga (1749-1814) and I.J.da Alvarenga Peixoto (1744-1792). In the first half of the 19th century. Latin American literature was dominated by the influence of European romanticism. The cult of individual freedom, the rejection of Spanish tradition and a renewed interest in American themes were closely associated with the growing self-awareness of developing nations. The conflict between European civilizational values ​​and the reality of the American countries that have recently thrown off the colonial yoke has become entrenched in the opposition “barbarism - civilization.” This conflict was reflected most sharply and deeply in Argentine historical prose in the famous book by D. F. Sarmiento (1811-1888) Civilization and Barbarism. The biography of Juan Facundo Quiroga (1845), in the novel by J. Marmol (1817-1871) Amalia (1851-1855) and in the story by E. Echeverria (1805-1851) The Massacre (c. 1839). In the 19th century Many romantic works were created in Latin American literature. The best examples of this genre are Maria (1867) by the Colombian J. Isaacs (1837-1895), the novel by the Cuban S. Villaverde (1812-1894) Cecilia Valdez (1839), dedicated to the problem of slavery, and the novel by the Ecuadorian J. L. Mera (1832- 1894) Cumanda, or Drama among the Savages (1879), reflecting the interest of Latin American writers in Indian themes. A romantic fascination with local color gave rise to an original movement in Argentina and Uruguay - Gauchista literature. An unsurpassed example of Gauchist poetry was the lyric-epic poem by the Argentinean J. Hernandez (1834-1886) Gaucho Martin Fierro (1872). The founder and largest representative of realism in Latin American literature was the Chilean A. Blest Gana (1830-1920), and naturalism found its best embodiment in the novels of the Argentine E. Cambaceres (1843-1888) Whistle of a Rogue (1881-1884) and Without a Purpose (1885) . The largest figure in Latin American literature of the 19th century. became the Cuban H. Marti (1853-1895), an outstanding poet, thinker, and politician. He spent most of his life in exile and died while participating in the Cuban War of Independence. In his works, he affirmed the concept of art as a social act and denied any forms of aesthetics and elitism. Martí published three collections of poetry—Free Poems (1891), Ismaelillo (1882), and Simple Poems (1882). His poetry is characterized by intensity of lyrical feeling and depth of thought with external simplicity and clarity of form. In the last decades of the 19th century. In Latin America, an innovative literary movement emerged - modernism. Formed under the influence of the French Parnassians and Symbolists, Spanish-American modernism gravitated towards exotic imagery and proclaimed the cult of beauty. The beginning of this movement is associated with the publication of the collection of poems Azure (1888) by the Nicaraguan poet R. Dario (1867-1916). Among his many followers, the Argentinean L. Lugones (1874-1938), author of the collection Golden Mountains (1897), the Colombian J.A. Silva (1865-1896), the Bolivian R. Jaimes Freire (1868-1933), who created a landmark for of the entire movement, the book Barbaric Castalia (1897), the Uruguayans Delmira Agustini (1886-1914) and J. Herrera y Reissig (1875-1910), the Mexicans M. Gutierrez Najera (1859-1895), A. Nervo (1870-1919) and S. Diaz Miron (1853-1934), Peruvians M. Gonzalez Prada (1848-1919) and J. Santos Chocano (1875-1934), Cuban J. del Casal (1863-1893). The best example of modernist prose was the novel The Glory of Don Ramiro (1908) by the Argentinean E. Laretta (1875-1961). In Brazilian literature, the new romantic consciousness found its highest expression in the poetry of A. Gonçalves Diaz (1823-1864). The largest representative of the realistic novel of the second half of the 19th century. became J. Maschado de Assis (1839-1908). The deep influence of the Parnassian school in Brazil was reflected in the work of the poets A. de Oliveira (1859-1927) and R. Correia (1859-1911), and the influence of French symbolism marked the poetry of J. da Cruz y Souza (1861-1898). At the same time, the Brazilian version of modernism is radically different from the Spanish American one. Brazilian modernism arose in the early 1920s at the intersection of national sociocultural concepts with avant-garde theories. The founders and spiritual leaders of this movement were M. di Andradi (1893-1945) and O. di Andradi (1890-1954). The deep spiritual crisis of European culture at the turn of the century forced many artists to turn to the countries of the “third world” in search of new values. Latin American writers who lived in Europe absorbed and widely disseminated these trends, which largely determined the nature of their work after returning to their homeland and the development of new literary trends in Latin America. Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was the first Latin American writer to receive the Nobel Prize (1945). However, against the background of Latin American poetry of the first half of the 20th century. her lyrics, simple thematically and in form, are perceived rather as an exception. Since 1909, when L. Lugones published the collection Sentimental Lunarium, the development of Latin American poetry has taken a completely different path. In accordance with the fundamental principle of avant-gardeism, art was considered as a creation of a new reality and was opposed to a mimetic (i.e., imitative) reflection of reality. This idea formed the core of creationism - a movement created by the Chilean V. Huidobro (1893-1948) after his return from Paris. The most famous Chilean poet was P. Neruda (1904-1973), Nobel Prize laureate (1971). In Mexico, poets close to avant-gardeism - J. Torres Bodet (b. 1902), J. Gorostisa (1901-1973), S. Novo (b. 1904) and others - grouped around the magazine "Contemporaneos" (1928-1973). 1931). In the mid-1930s, the greatest Mexican poet of the 20th century declared himself. O. Paz (b. 1914), Nobel Prize laureate (1990). The philosophical lyrics, built on free associations, synthesize the poetics of T. S. Eliot and surrealism, Indian mythology and Eastern religions. In Argentina, avant-garde theories were embodied in the ultraist movement, which saw poetry as a collection of catchy metaphors. One of the founders and the largest representative of this movement was H.L. Borges (1899-1986). In the Antilles, the Puerto Rican L. Pales Matos (1899-1959) and the Cuban N. Guillen (1902-1989) stood at the head of Negrism, a continent-wide literary movement designed to identify and establish the African-American layer of Latin American culture. The work of one of the most original Latin American poets of the 20th century was formed on an avant-garde basis. - Peruvian S. Vallejo (1892-1938). From his first books - Black Heralds (1918) and Trilse (1922) - to the collection Human Poems (1938), published posthumously, his lyrics, marked by purity of form and depth of content, expressed a painful sense of man's loss in the modern world, a mournful feeling of loneliness, finding comfort only in brotherly love, focus on the themes of time and death. The most significant representatives of Brazilian postmodernism are the poets C.D.di Andrady, M.Mendes, Cecilia Meireles, J.di Lima, A.Fr.Schmidt and V.di Moraes. In the second half of the 20th century. In Latin America, socially engaged poetry is developing widely. Its leader can be considered the Nicaraguan E. Cardenal. Other famous contemporary poets also worked in the vein of protest poetry: the Chileans N. Parra and E. Lin, the Mexicans H. E. Pacheco and M. A. Montes de Oca, the Cuban R. Retamar, R. Dalton from El Salvador and O. Rene Castillo from Guatemala, the Peruvian J. Herault and the Argentinean Fr. Urondo. With the spread of avant-gardeism in the 1920s, Latin American drama was guided by the main European theatrical trends. The Argentinean R. Arlt (1900-1942) and the Mexican R. Usigli wrote a number of plays in which the influence of European playwrights, in particular L. Pirandelo and J.B. Shaw, was clearly visible. Later, the influence of B. Brecht prevailed in the Latin American theater. Among modern Latin American playwrights, E. Carballido from Mexico, Argentinean Griselda Gambaro, Chilean E. Wolff, Colombian E. Buenaventura and Cuban J. Triana stand out. The regional novel, which developed in the first third of the 20th century, was focused on depicting local specifics - nature, gauchos, latifundists, provincial politics, etc.; or he recreated events in national history (for example, the events of the Mexican Revolution). The largest representatives of this trend were the Uruguayan O. Quiroga (1878-1937) and the Colombian H.E. Rivera (1889-1928), who described the cruel world of the selva; Argentinean R. Guiraldes (1886-1927), continuer of the traditions of Gauchist literature; famous Venezuelan prose writer R. Gallegos (1884-1969) and the founder of the Mexican novel of the revolution, M. Azuela (1873-1952). Along with regionalism in the first half of the 19th century. Indianism developed - a literary movement designed to reflect the current state of Indian cultures and the peculiarities of their interaction with the world of white people. The most representative figures of Spanish-American indigenism were the Ecuadorian J. Icaza (1906-1978), author of the famous novel Huasipungo (1934), the Peruvians S. Alegria (1909-1967), creator of the novel In a Big and Alien World (1941), and J.M. Arguedas (1911-1969), who reflected the mentality of modern Quechuas in the novel Deep Rivers (1958), the Mexican Rosario Castellanos (1925-1973) and the Nobel Prize winner (1967) Guatemalan prose writer and poet M.A. Asturias (1899-1974). Since the 1940s, F. Kafka, J. Joyce, A. Gide and W. Faulkner began to have a significant influence on Latin American writers. However, Latin American literature combined formal experimentation with social issues and sometimes with overt political engagement. If regionalists and Indianists preferred to depict a rural environment, then in the novels of the new wave an urban, cosmopolitan background predominates. The Argentinean R. Arlt showed in his works the inner failure, depression and alienation of the city dweller. The same gloomy atmosphere reigns in the prose of his compatriots - E. Maglie (b. 1903) and E. Sabato (b. 1911), author of the novel About Heroes and Graves (1961). A bleak picture of urban life is painted by the Uruguayan J.C. Onetti (1909-1994) in the novels The Well (1939), A Brief Life (1950), The Skeleton Junta (1965). H. L. Borges, one of the most famous writers of our time, plunged into a self-sufficient metaphysical world created by the play of logic, the interweaving of analogies, and the confrontation between the ideas of order and chaos. In the second half of the 20th century. Latin American literature has presented an incredible wealth and variety of fiction. In his stories and novels, the Argentine J. Cortazar (1924-1984) explored the boundaries of reality and fantasy. Peruvian M. Vargas Llosa (b. 1936) revealed the internal connection of Latin American corruption and violence with the “machista” complex (Spanish macho - male, “real man”). The Mexican J. Rulfo (1918-1986), one of the greatest writers of this generation, in the collection of stories Plain on Fire (1953) and the story by Pedro Paramo (1955), revealed a deep mythological substrate that determines modern reality. The world famous Mexican novelist K. dedicated his works to the study of national character. Fuentes (b. 1929). In Cuba, J. Lezama Lima (1910-1978) recreated the process of artistic creativity in the novel Paradise (1966), while A. Carpentier (1904-1980), one of the founders of “magical realism,” combined French rationalism with a tropical sensibility. But the most “magical” of Latin American writers is rightfully considered the author of the famous novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (19 67), the Colombian G. Garcia Marquez (b. 1928), Nobel Prize laureate 1982. Latin American novels such as The Betrayal of Rita Hayworth (1968) have become widely known ) by the Argentinean M. Puig (b. 1932), Three Sad Tigers (1967) by the Cuban G. Cabrera Infante, Indecent Bird of the Night (1970) by the Chilean J. Donoso (b. 1925), etc. The most interesting work of Brazilian literature in the genre of documentary prose - Sertana's book (1902), written by journalist E. da Cunha (1866-1909). Contemporary fiction in Brazil is represented by J. Amado (b. 1912), the creator of many regional novels marked by a deep sense of involvement in social problems; E. Verisimu (1905-1975), who reflected city life in the novels Crossroads (1935) and Only Silence Remains (1943); and the greatest Brazilian writer of the 20th century. J. Rosa (1908-1968), who in his famous novel The Trails of the Great Sertan (1956) developed a special artistic language to convey the psychology of the inhabitants of the vast Brazilian semi-deserts. Other Brazilian novelists include Raquel de Queiroz (The Three Marys, 1939), Clarice Lispector (The Hour of the Star, 1977), M. Sousa (Galves, Emperor of the Amazon, 1977) and Nelida Pinón (The Warmth of Things, 1980).
LITERATURE
Legends and tales of the Indians of Latin America. M., 1962 Poetry of the gaucho. M., 1964 History of the Literatures of Latin America, vols. 1-3. M., 1985-1994
Kuteishchikova V.N. Roman of Latin America in the twentieth century. M., 1964 Formation of national literatures in Latin America. M., 1970 Mamontov S. Spanish-language literature of Latin American countries in the twentieth century. M., 1972 Torres-Rioseco A. Great Latin American literature. M., 1972 Poetry of Latin America. M., 1975 Artistic originality of Latin American literature. M., 1976 Flute in the jungle. M., 1977 Constellation of the lyre: Selected pages of Latin American lyrics. M., 1981 Latin America: Literary almanac, vol. 1-6; Literary panorama, vol. 7. M., 1983-1990 Latin American story, vols. 1-2. M., 1989 Book of grains of sand: Fantastic prose of Latin America. L., 1990 Mechanisms of cultural formation in Latin America. M., 1994 Iberica Americans. Type of creative personality in Latin American culture. M., 1997 Kofman A.F. Latin American artistic image of the world. M., 1997

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

See what "LATINO AMERICAN LITERATURE" is in other dictionaries:

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Lecture No. 26

Literature of Latin America

Plan

1. Distinctive features of Latin American literature.

2. Magic realism in the works of G. G. Marquez:

a) magical realism in literature;

b) a brief overview of the writer’s life and creative path;

c) the ideological and artistic originality of the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

1. Distinctive features of Latin American literature

In the mid-twentieth century, the Latin American novel experienced a real boom. The works of Argentine writers Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, Cuban Alejo Carpentier, Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, and Peruvian prose writer Mario Vargas Lluos are becoming widely known not only outside their countries, but also outside the continent. Somewhat earlier, the Brazilian prose writer Jorge Amado and the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda won world recognition. Interest in Latin American literature was not accidental: there was a discovery of the culture of a distant continent with its own customs and traditions, nature, history and culture. But the point is not only the educational value of the works of Latin American writers. The prose of South America has enriched world literature with masterpieces, the appearance of which is natural. Latin American prose of the 60s and 70s compensated for the lack of epic. The authors listed above spoke on behalf of the people, telling the world about the formation of new nations as a result of the European invasion of the continent inhabited by Indian tribes, reflected the presence in the subconscious of the people of ideas about the Universe that existed in the pre-Columbian era, revealed the formation of a mythopoetic vision of natural and social disasters in conditions of synthesis various international cultures. In addition, turning to the novel genre required Latin American writers to assimilate and adapt genre patterns to specific literature.

Success for Latin American writers came as a result of the fusion of history and myth, epic traditions and avant-garde quests, the sophisticated psychologism of realists and the variety of visual forms of the Spanish Baroque. In the diversity of talents of Latin American writers, there is something that unites them, most often expressed by the formula “magical realism,” which captures the organic unity of fact and myth.

2. Magic realism in the works of G. G. Marquez

A. Magical realism in literature

The term magical realism was introduced by the German critic F. Roch in his monograph “Post-Expressionism” (1925), where the establishment of magical realism as a new method in art was stated. The term magical realism was originally used by Franz Roch to describe a painting that depicted an altered reality.

Magic realism is one of the most radical methods of artistic modernism, based on the rejection of the ontologization of visual experience characteristic of classical realism. Elements of this trend can objectively be found in the majority of representatives of modernism (although not all of them state their adherence to this method).

The term magical realism in relation to literature was first coined by the French critic Edmond Jaloux in 1931. He wrote: “The role of magical realism is to find in reality what is strange, lyrical and even fantastic in it - those elements thanks to which everyday life becomes accessible to poetic, surreal and even symbolic transformations.”

The same term was later used by Venezuelan Arturo Uslar-Petri to describe the works of some Latin American writers. Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier (a friend of Uslar-Petri) used the term lo real maravilloso (roughly translated - miraculous reality) in the preface to his story The Kingdom of the Earth (1949). Carpentier's idea was to describe a kind of heightened reality in which strange-looking elements of the miraculous could appear. Carpentier's works had a strong influence on the European boom of the genre, which began in the 60s of the 20th century.

Elements of magical realism:

• fantastical elements may be internally consistent but are never explained;
• the characters accept and do not challenge the logic of the magical elements;
• numerous sensory details;
• symbols and images are often used;
• the emotions and sexuality of humans as social beings are often described in great detail;
• the flow of time is distorted so that it is cyclical or appears to be absent. Another technique is the collapse of time, when the present repeats or resembles the past;
• cause and effect change places - for example, a character may suffer before tragic events;
• contains elements of folklore and/or legends;
• events are presented from alternative points of view, that is, the narrator's voice switches from third to first person, frequent transitions between the points of view of different characters and internal monologue regarding shared relationships and memories;
• the past contrasts with the present, the astral with the physical, characters with each other;
• The open ending of the work allows the reader to determine for himself what was more truthful and consistent with the structure of the world - fantastic or everyday.

B. Brief overview of the writer’s life and creative path

Gabriel Garcia Marquez(b. 1928) occupies a central place in the literature of the Latin American countries. Nobel Prize winner (1982). The Colombian writer, using specific historical material, was able to show the general patterns of the formation of civilization in South America. Combining the ancient pre-Columbian beliefs of the peoples who inhabited the distant continent with the traditions of European culture, revealing the originality of the national character of the Creoles and Indians, he, based on the material of the struggle for independence under the leadership of Simon Bolivar, who became the President of Colombia, created a heroic epic of his people. At the same time, based on reality, Márquez impressively revealed the tragic consequences of the civil wars that rocked Latin America over the past two centuries.

The future writer was born in the small town of Aracataca on the Atlantic coast into a family of hereditary military men. He studied at the Faculty of Law in Bogota and collaborated with the press. As a correspondent for one of the capital's newspapers, he visited Rome and Paris.

In 1957, during the World Festival of Youth and Students, he came to Moscow. Since the early 60s, Marquez has lived primarily in Mexico.

In the work, the action takes place in a provincial Colombian village. Somewhere nearby is the town of Macondo mentioned in the story, in which all the events of the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (1967) will be concentrated. But if in the story “Nobody Writes to the Colonel” the influence of E. Hemingway, who portrayed similar characters, is noticeable, then in the novel the tradition of W. Faulkner is noticeable, who thoroughly recreated a tiny world in which the laws of the universe are reflected.

In the works created after One Hundred Years of Solitude, the writer continues to develop similar motifs. He is still occupied with a topical problem for Latin American countries: “the tyrant and the people.” In the novel “The Autumn of the Patriarch” (1975), Marquez creates the most generalized image of the ruler of an unnamed country. By resorting to grotesque images, the author makes visible the relationship between the totalitarian ruler and the people, based on suppression and voluntary submission, characteristic of the political history of Latin American countries in the twentieth century.

V. Ideological and artistic originality of the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude”

The novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was published in 1967 in Buenos Aires. The writer worked on this work for 20 years. The success was stunning. The circulation amounted to more than half a million copies in 3.5 years, which is sensational for Latin America. The world started talking about a new era in the history of the novel and realism. The term “magical realism” appeared on the pages of numerous works. This is how they defined the narrative style inherent in Marquez’s novel and the works of many Latin American writers.

“Magical realism” is characterized by unlimited freedom, with which Latin American writers compare the sphere of grounded everyday life and the sphere of the hidden depths of consciousness.

The town of Macondo, founded by the ancestor of the Buenia family clan, the inquisitive and naive José Arcadio, has remained the center of action for a hundred years. This is an iconic image in which the local flavor of a semi-rural village and the features of a city characteristic of modern civilization have merged together.

Using folklore and mythological motifs and parodying various artistic traditions, Marquez created a phantasmagoric world, the history of which, refracting the real historical features of Colombia and all of Latin America, is also interpreted as a metaphor for the development of humanity as a whole.

The eccentric José Arcadio Buendia, the founder of the extensive Buendia family, in the village of Macondo he founded, succumbed to the temptation of the gypsy Melquiades and believed in the miraculous power of alchemy.

The author introduces alchemy into the novel not only to show the eccentricities of José Arcadio Buendia, who was alternately interested in the magic of magnetism, magnifying glasses, and spyglasses. In fact, José Arcadio Buendía, “the most intelligent man in the village, ordered the houses to be placed in such a way that no one had to spend more effort than the rest in going to the river for water; he laid out the streets so wisely that during the hottest hours of the day each dwelling received an equal amount of sunlight.” Alchemy in the novel is a kind of refrain of loneliness, not eccentricity. The alchemist is as eccentric as he is lonely. And yet loneliness is primary. It is quite possible to say that alchemy is the lot of single eccentrics. In addition, alchemy is a type of adventure, and in the novel, almost all the men and women belonging to the Buendia family are adventurers.

Spanish researcher Sally Ortiz Aponte believes that “Latin American literature bears the stamp of esotericism.” Belief in miracles and witchcraft, especially characteristic of the European Middle Ages, came to Latin American soil and was enriched by Indian myths. Magic as an integral part of existence is present not only in the works of Marquez, but also in other major Latin American writers - the Argentines Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, the Guatemalan Miguel Angel Asturias and the Cuban Alejo Carpentier. Fiction as a literary device is generally characteristic of Spanish-language literature.

Alchemists have been chasing the philosopher's stone for more than a millennium. After all, it was believed that the lucky person who possessed it would not only become fabulously rich, but also receive a panacea for all diseases and ailments of old age.

The hero of the novel needed a philosopher's stone, because he dreamed of gold: “Seduced by the simplicity of the formulas for doubling gold, José Arcadio Buendia courted Ursula for several weeks, luring her permission to take out ancient coins from the treasured chest and enlarge them as many times as possible. divide the mercury... José Arcadio Buendia threw thirty doubloons into a pan and melted them along with orpiment, copper shavings, mercury and lead. Then he poured it all into a kettle with castor oil and boiled it over high heat until a thick, foul syrup was obtained, reminiscent not of double gold, but of ordinary molasses. After desperate and risky attempts at distillation, melting with seven planetary metals, treatment with hermetic mercury and vitriol, repeated boiling in lard - for lack of rare oil - Ursula's precious inheritance turned into burnt cracklings that could not be torn from the bottom of the pot.

We don’t think that García Márquez deliberately contrasted chemistry with alchemy, but it turned out that adventurers and losers were associated with alchemy, and quite decent people were associated with chemistry. Latin American researcher Maria Eulalia Montener Ferrer reveals the etymology of the Buendia surname, which sounds like the usual greeting buen dia - good afternoon. It turns out that for a long time this word had another meaning: this was the name given to Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Old World - “losers and mediocre people.”

The novel continues throughout the 19th century. However, this time is conditional, since the author presents events as occurring in a given specific period of time and always. The contours of the dates are vague, which gives the impression that the Buendia family originated in archaic times.

One of the strange shocks in the novel is associated with the loss of memory of the old and young Buendia, and then all the inhabitants of Macondo. The loss of the past threatens the people with deprivation of self-worth and integrity. The function of historical memory is performed by the epic. In Colombia, as in other countries of this continent, there was no heroic epic. Marquez takes on an exceptional mission: to compensate for the lack of epic with his creativity. The author saturates the narrative with myths, legends, and beliefs that existed in Latin American society. All this gives the novel a folk flavor.

The heroic epics of different nations are dedicated to the formation of the clan, and then the family. The unification of individual clans into a single clan occurred as a result of wars that divided people into friends and foes. But Marquez is a writer of the twentieth century, therefore, while maintaining an ethically neutral manner of recreating battle events, he nevertheless convinces that war, and especially civil war, is the greatest disaster of modern civilization.

The novel traces the family chronicle of six generations of Buendia. Some relatives turn out to be temporary guests in the family and on earth, die young or leave their father's house. Others, like Big Mama, remain the guardians of the family hearth for a century. In the Buendia family there are forces of attraction and repulsion. Blood ties are indissoluble, but Amaranta’s hidden hatred for her brother’s wife pushes her to commit crimes. And a super-personal desire for family binds José Arcadio and Rebeca not only by family ties, but also by marriage. Both of them are adopted in the Buendia family and, by marrying, they cement their devotion to the family. All this happens not as a result of calculation, but on a subconscious intuitive level.

The role of the epic hero is played in the novel by Aureliano Buendia. What makes an amateur poet and a modest jeweler leave their craft, leave the workshop into the vast world to fight, having, in fact, no political ideals? In the novel there is only one explanation for this: it was written in his destiny. The epic hero guesses his mission and carries it out.

Aureliano Buendía proclaimed himself a civil and military ruler, and at the same time a colonel. He is not a real colonel; at first he has only twenty young thugs under his arms. Entering the sphere of politics and war, Marquez does not abandon grotesque and fantastic techniques of writing, but strives for authenticity in the depiction of political cataclysms.

The hero’s biography begins with the famous phrase: “Colonel Aureliano Buendia raised thirty-two armed uprisings and lost all thirty-two. He had seventeen male children by seventeen women, and all his sons were killed in one single night before the eldest of them was thirty-five years old.”

Colonel Aureliano Buendia appears in the narrative in various guises. His subordinates and those around him see him in the realm of a hero; his mother considers him the executioner of his own people and his family. Showing miracles of courage, he is invulnerable to bullets, poison and daggers, but because of his carelessly thrown word, all his sons die.

An idealist, he leads an army of liberals, but soon realizes that his comrades are no different from his enemies, since both are fighting for power and land ownership. Having gained power, Colonel Buendia is doomed to complete loneliness and personality degradation. Repeating in his dreams the exploits of Bolivar and anticipating the political slogans of Che Guevara, the colonel dreams of a revolution throughout Latin America. The writer limits revolutionary events to the framework of one town, where in the name of his own ideas, neighbor shoots neighbor, brother shoots brother. The civil war, as interpreted by Marquez, is a fratricidal war in the literal and figurative sense.

The Buendia family is destined to last a hundred years. The names of their parents and grandfathers will be repeated in their descendants, their destinies will vary, but everyone who at birth receives the names Aureliano or Jose Arcadio will inherit family oddities and eccentricities, excessive passions and loneliness.

Loneliness, inherent in all Marquez's characters, is a passion for self-affirmation through trampling on loved ones. Loneliness becomes especially obvious when Colonel Aureliano, at the zenith of his glory, orders a circle with a diameter of three meters to be drawn around him so that no one, not even his mother, dares to approach him.

Only the ancestress Ursula is devoid of selfish feelings. As it fades, the family also dies out. Buendia will touch the blessings of civilization, they will be affected by banking fever, some of them will get rich, some will go bankrupt. But the time for the establishment of bourgeois laws is not their time. They belong to the historical past and quietly leave Macondo one by one. The unrecognizably changed city founded by the first Buendia will be demolished by a hurricane.

The stylistic diversity of the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, the complex relationship between fantasy (the most important constructive element of the writer’s artistic world) and reality, the mixture of prosaic tone, poetry, fantasy, and grotesqueness reflect, in the author’s opinion, the “fantastic Latin American reality” itself, incredible and ordinary at the same time, most clearly illustrating the method of “magical realism” declared by Latin American prose writers of the second half of the twentieth century.

1. Bylinkina, M. And again - “One Hundred Years of Solitude” / M. Bylinkina // Literary newspaper. - 1995. - No. 23. - P. 7. 2. Gusev, V. Marquez’s cruel fearlessness / V. Gusev // Memory and style. - M.: Sov. writer, 1981. - pp. 318-323.

3. Foreign literature of the twentieth century: textbook. for universities / L. G. Andreev [etc.]; edited by L. G. Andreeva. - 2nd ed. - M.: Higher. school; Ed. Center Academy, 2000. - pp. 518-554.

4. Foreign literature. XX century: textbook. for students / ed. N. P. Michalskaya [and others]; under general ed. N. P. Michalskaya. - M.: Bustard, 2003. - P. 429-443.

5. Zemskov, V. B. Gabriel Garcia Marquez / V. B. Zemskov. - M., 1986.

6. Kobo, H. Return of Gobo / H. Kobo // Literary newspaper. - 2002. - No. 22. - P. 13.

7. Kofman, A.F. Latin American artistic image of the world / A.F. Kofman. - M., 1997.

8. Kuteyshchikova, V. N. New Latin American novel / V. N. Kuteyshchikova, L. S. Ospovat. - M., 1983.

9. Mozheiko, M. A. Magical realism / M. A. Mozheiko // Encyclopedia of Postmodernism / A. A. Gritsanov. - M.: Book House, 2001.

10. Ospovat, L. Latin America is reckoning with the past: “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by G. G. Marquez / L. Ospovat. // Questions of literature. - 1976. - No. 10. - P. 91-121.

11. Stolbov, V. “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Novel-epic / V. Stolbov // Paths and Lives. - M., 1985.

12. Stolbov, V. Afterword / V. Stolbov // One Hundred Years of Solitude. Nobody writes to the Colonel // G. G. Marquez. - M.: Pravda., 1986. - P. 457-478.

13. Terteryan, I. Latin American novel and the development of realistic form / I. Terteryan // New artistic trends in the development of realism in the West. 70s - M., 1982.

14. Shablovskaya, I. V. History of foreign literature (twentieth century, first half) ∕ I. V. Shablovskaya. - Minsk: Publishing house. Economic Press Center, 1998. - pp. 323-330.

Dictatorships, coups, revolutions, terrible poverty of some and fantastic wealth of others, and at the same time - exuberant fun and optimism of ordinary people. This is how most Latin American countries in the 20th century can be briefly described. And we shouldn’t forget about the amazing synthesis of different cultures, peoples and beliefs.

The paradoxes of history and the riotous color inspired many writers of this region to create genuine literary masterpieces that enriched world culture. We will talk about the most striking works in our material.

Captains of the sand. Jorge Amado (Brazil)

One of the main novels of Jorge Amado, the most famous Brazilian writer of the 20th century. “Captains of the Sand” is the story of a gang of street children who engaged in theft and robbery in the state of Bahia in the 1930s. It was this book that formed the basis of the film “Generals of the Sand Quarries,” which was extremely popular in the USSR.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina)

The most famous book by Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. A novel that deftly balances on the brink of mysticism and science fiction. The main character, fleeing persecution, ends up on a distant island. There he meets strange people who pay absolutely no attention to him. Watching them day after day, he learns that everything that happens on this piece of land is a holographic movie recorded a long time ago, virtual reality. And it is impossible to leave this place... while the invention of a certain Morel is working.

Senor President. Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala)

Miguel Angel Asturias - winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1967. In his novel, the author portrays a typical Latin American dictator - Señor President, in which he reflects the whole essence of cruel and senseless authoritarian rule, aimed at enriching himself through oppression and intimidation of ordinary people. This book is about a man for whom ruling a country means robbing and killing its inhabitants. Remembering the dictatorship of the same Pinochet (and other no less bloody dictators), we understand how accurate this artistic prophecy of Asturias turned out to be.

Kingdom of the Earth. Alejo Carpentier (Cuba)

In his historical novel “Earthly Kingdom,” Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier talks about the mysterious world of the Haitians, whose lives are inextricably linked with the mythology and magic of Voodoo. In fact, the author put this poor and mysterious island on the literary map of the world, in which magic and death are intertwined with fun and dancing.

Mirrors. Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)

A collection of selected stories by the eminent Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. In his short stories, he addresses the motives of searching for the meaning of life, truth, love, immortality and creative inspiration. Masterfully using symbols of infinity (mirrors, libraries and labyrinths), the author not only gives answers to questions, but makes the reader think about the reality around him. After all, the meaning is not so much in the search results, but in the process itself.

Death of Artemio Cruz. Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)

In his novel, Carlos Fuentes tells the life story of Artemio Cruz, a former revolutionary and ally of Pancho Villa, and now one of the richest tycoons in Mexico. Having come to power as a result of an armed uprising, Cruz begins to frantically enrich himself. To satisfy his greed, he does not hesitate to resort to blackmail, violence and terror against anyone who gets in his way. This book is about how, under the influence of power, even the highest and best ideas die out, and people change beyond recognition. In fact, this is a kind of answer to Asturias’ “Señor President”.

Julio Cortazar (Argentina)

One of the most famous works of postmodern literature. In this novel, the famous Argentine writer Julio Cortazar tells the story of Horacio Oliveira, a man in a difficult relationship with the world around him and pondering the meaning of his own existence. In “The Hopscotch Game,” the reader himself chooses the plot of the novel (in the preface, the author offers two reading options - according to a plan he specially developed or according to the order of the chapters), and the content of the book will depend directly on his choice.

City and dogs. Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)

"The City and the Dogs" is an autobiographical novel by the famous Peruvian writer, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa. The book takes place within the walls of a military school, where they are trying to make “real men” out of teenage children. The methods of education are simple - first, break and humiliate a person, and then turn him into a thoughtless soldier living according to the rules.

After the publication of this anti-war novel, Vargas Llosa was accused of treason and aiding Ecuadorian emigrants. And several copies of his book were solemnly burned on the parade ground of the Leoncio Prado cadet school. However, this scandal only added to the popularity of the novel, which became one of the best literary works of Latin America of the 20th century. It has also been filmed many times.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)

The legendary novel by Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian master of magical realism and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. In it, the author tells the 100-year history of the provincial town of Macondo, located in the middle of the jungle of South America. This book is recognized as a masterpiece of Latin American prose of the 20th century. In fact, in one work, Marquez managed to describe an entire continent with all its contradictions and extremes.

When I want to cry, I don’t cry. Miguel Otero Silva (Venezuela)

Miguel Otero Silva is one of the greatest writers in Venezuela. His novel “When I Want to Cry, I Don’t Cry” is dedicated to the lives of three young people - an aristocrat, a terrorist and a bandit. Despite the fact that they have different social backgrounds, they all share the same destiny. Everyone is in search of their place in life, and everyone is destined to die for their beliefs. In this book, the author masterfully paints a picture of Venezuela under military dictatorship, and also shows the poverty and inequality of that era.

The victory over fascism entailed disruptions and the collapse of the colonial system in a number of formerly dependent countries of the African continent and Latin America. Liberation from military and economic domination and mass migrations during the Second World War led to an increase in national self-awareness. Liberation from colonial dependence in the second half of the 20th century led to the emergence of new literary continents. As a result of these processes, such concepts as the new Latin American novel, modern African prose and ethnic literature in the USA and Canada entered into reading and literary usage. Another important factor was the growth of planetary thinking, which did not allow for the “silence” of entire continents and the exclusion of cultural experience.

It is noteworthy that in the 1960s. In Russia, the so-called “multinational prose” is emerging - writers from among the indigenous peoples of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Siberia.

The interaction of traditional literatures with new realities has enriched world literature and given impetus to the development of new mythopoetic images. Around the mid-1960s. It became clear that ethnic literatures, previously doomed to extinction or assimilation, could survive and develop in their own way within the dominant civilizations. The most striking phenomenon of the relationship between the ethnocultural factor and literature was the rise of Latin American prose.

Even in the first half of the 20th century, the literature of Latin American countries could not compete with the countries of Europe (and even the East), because were mostly aesthetic epigones. However, starting from the second half of the 20th century, many young writers began to build their creative path, focusing on local traditions. Having absorbed the experience of the European experimental school, they were able to develop an original national literary style.

For the 1960-70s. This is the period of the so-called “boom” of the Latin American novel. During these years, the term “magical realism” spread in European and Latin American criticism. In a narrow sense, it denotes a certain movement in Latin American literature of the second half of the 20th century. In a broad sense, it is understood as a constant of Latin American artistic thinking and a general property of the culture of the continent.

The concept of Latin American magical realism is intended to highlight and distinguish it from European mythology and fantasy. These features were clearly embodied in the first works of Latin American magical realism - the story by A. Carpentier “The Dark Kingdom” (1949) and the novel by M.A. Asturias "The Corn People" (1949).

In their heroes, the personal element is muted and does not interest the writer. The heroes act as carriers of collective mythological consciousness. It is this that becomes the main object of the image. At the same time, writers replace their view of a civilized person with that of a primitive person. Latin American realists highlight reality through the prism of mythological consciousness. As a result of this, the depicted reality undergoes fantastic transformations. Works of magical realism are built on the interaction of artistic resources. “Civilized” consciousness is comprehended and compared with the mythological one.

Throughout the 20th century, Latin America moved towards a flourishing of artistic creativity. A wide variety of trends have developed on the continent. Realism actively developed, an elitist-modernist (with echoes of European existentialism) and then a postmodernist direction arose. Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cartazar Octavio Paz developed techniques and methods of “stream of consciousness” borrowed from Europe, the idea of ​​the absurdity of the world, “alienation”, and playful discourse.

Elite Latin American writers - Octavio Paz, Juan Carlos Onetti, Mario Vergas Llos - had a conversation with themselves, trying to identify personal uniqueness. They sought national identity within the confines of well-established European storytelling techniques. This gave them very limited fame.

The task of the “magical realists” was different: they directly addressed their message to humanity, combining the national and the universal in a unique synthesis. This explains their phenomenal success around the world.

The poetics and artistic principles of Latin American magical realism were formed under the influence of European avant-gardeism. The general interest in primitive thinking, magic, and primitive art that gripped Europeans in the first third of the 20th century stimulated the interest of Latin American writers in Indians and African Americans. In the bosom of European culture, the concept of the fundamental difference between pre-rationalistic thinking and civilized thinking was created. This concept will be actively developed by Latin American writers.

From the avant-garde artists, mainly the surrealists, Latin American writers borrowed some principles of the fantastic transformation of reality. The European abstract “savage” acquired ethnocultural concreteness and clarity in the works of magical realism.

The concept of different types of thinking was projected into the area of ​​cultural and civilizational confrontation between Latin America and Europe. The European surreal dream was replaced by a real-life myth. At the same time, Latin American writers relied not only on Indian and South American mythology, but also on the traditions of American chronicles of the 16th and 17th centuries. and their abundance of miraculous elements.

The ideological basis of magical realism was the writer’s desire to identify and affirm the originality of Latin American reality and culture, which is combined with the mythological consciousness of an Indian or African American.

Latin American magical realism had a significant impact on European and North American literature, and especially on the literature of the Third World.

In 1964, Costa Rican writer Joaquín Gutiérrez wrote in an article “On the Eve of the Great Bloom” reflected on the fate of the novel in Latin America: “Speaking of the characteristic features of the Latin American novel, we should first of all point out that it is relatively young. A little more than a hundred years have passed since its inception, and in Latin America there are countries where the first novel appeared only in our century. During the three-hundred-year colonial period of Latin American history, not a single novel was published - and, as far as we know, not written!... Over the past twenty years, the Latin American novel has moved forward with great momentum... While remaining Latin American, our novel has recently become more universal. And I think we can safely predict that he is on the eve of an era of great prosperity... A colossal novelist has not yet appeared in our literature, but we are not trailing behind. Let’s remember what we said at the beginning - that our romance dates back a little over a hundred years - and let’s wait some more time.”.

These words became prophetic for the Latin American novel. In 1963, the novel “Hopscotch” by Julio Cortazar appeared, in 1967, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, which became a classic of Latin American literature.

Topic: Japanese literature.

In 1868, events took place in Japan called the “Meiji Restoration” (translated as “enlightened rule”). There was a restoration of the power of the emperor and the fall of the system of samurai rule of the shogunate. These events led Japan to follow the path of the European powers. Foreign policy is changing sharply, the “opening of doors” is announced, the end of external isolation that has lasted more than two centuries, and the implementation of a number of reforms. These dramatic changes in the life of the country were reflected in the literature of the Meiji period (1868-1912). During this time, the Japanese went from being overly enthusiastic about everything European to disappointment, from boundless delight to despair.

A distinctive feature of the traditional Japanese method is the author's indifference. The writer describes everything that comes into view in everyday reality, without giving judgment. The desire to depict things without introducing anything from oneself is explained by the Buddhist attitude towards the world as non-existent, illusory. One's own experiences are described in the same way. The essence of the traditional Japanese method lies precisely in the author’s non-involvement in what is being discussed, the author “follows the brush,” the movement of his soul. The text contains a description of what the author saw or heard, experienced, but there is no desire to understand what is happening. There is no traditional European analyticism in them. The words of Daiseku Suzuki about Zen art can be attributed to all classical Japanese literature: “They sought to convey with their brush what moves them from within. They themselves were not aware of how to express the inner spirit, and expressed it with a cry or a blow of the brush. Maybe this is not art at all, because there is no art in what they did. And if there is, it is very primitive. But is it? Could we succeed in “civilization,” in other words, in artifice, if we strived for artlessness? This was precisely the goal and basis of all artistic quests.”

In the Buddhist worldview, which underlies Japanese literature, there could be no desire to explore human life, to understand its meaning, because the truth lies on the other side of the visible world and is inaccessible to understanding. It can only be experienced in a special state of mind, in a state of highest concentration, when a person merges with the world. In this system of thinking there was no idea of ​​​​creating the world; Buddha did not create the world, but understood it. Therefore, man was not looked at as a potential creator. From the point of view of Buddhist theory, a living being is not a being living in the world, but a being experiencing the world. In this system of values, a method of analysis that presupposes separation could not appear. Hence the indifferent attitude towards what is depicted, when the writer feels himself both a participant and a spectator of the events described.

Therefore, traditional Japanese literature is not characterized by torment, lamentation, and doubt. There are no internal struggles in it, no desire to change fate, challenge fate, all that permeates European literature, starting from ancient tragedy.

For many centuries, the aesthetic ideal has been embodied in Japanese poetry

Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1975)- classic of Japanese literature. In 1968, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for “writing that expresses with great force the essence of Japanese thought.”

Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka into the family of a doctor. He lost his parents early, and then his grandfather, who raised him. He lived with relatives, feeling bitterly about being an orphan. During my school years I dreamed of becoming an artist, but my passion for literature turned out to be stronger. His first writing experience was “The Diary of a Sixteen-Year-Old,” which conveyed sentiments of sadness and loneliness.

His student years were spent at the University of Tokyo, where Kawabata Yasunari studied English and Japanese philology. At this time, an acquaintance with the works of the greatest Japanese and European writers and Russian literature took place. After graduating from university, he works as a reviewer, publishing reviews of published books. During these years, he was part of a group of “neosensualist” writers who were sensitive to new trends in the literature of European modernism. One of Kawabata Yasunari’s stories “Crystal Fantasy” (1930) was often called “Joycean”; in its structure and style of writing, the influence of the author of “Ulysses” was felt. The story is a stream of memories of the heroine, her whole life emerges in a series of “crystalline” moments flashing in her memory. Reproducing the stream of consciousness, conveying the work of memory, Kawabata was largely guided by Joyce and Proust. Like other writers of the 20th century, he did not ignore modernist experiments. But at the same time, he remains an exponent of the originality and originality of Japanese thinking. Kawabata maintains strong ties to the national Japanese tradition. Kawabata wrote: " Having become fascinated by modern Western literature, I sometimes tried to imitate its images. But I am fundamentally an Eastern person and have never lost sight of my own path ».

The poetics of Kawabata Yasunari's works are characterized by the following traditional Japanese motifs:

Spontaneity and clarity of conveying a heartfelt feeling for nature and man;

Merging with nature

Close attention to detail;

The ability to reveal enchanting beauty in everyday and small things;

Laconism in reproducing the nuances of mood;

Quiet sadness, wisdom bestowed by life.

All this allows you to feel the harmony of existence with its eternal secrets.

The originality of Kawabata Yasunari’s poetic prose was manifested in the stories “The Dancer from Izidu” (1926), “Snow Country” (1937), “A Thousand Cranes” (1949), “Lake” (1954), in the novels “The Moan of the Mountain” (1954), "Old Capital" (1962). All works are imbued with lyricism and a high level of psychologism. They describe Japanese traditions, customs, features of life and behavior of people. For example, in the story “A Thousand Cranes” the ritual of tea drinking, the “tea ceremony”, which is important in the life of the Japanese, is reproduced in every detail. The aesthetics of the tea ritual, as well as other customs that are always written out in detail, by no means isolate Kawabata from the problems of the modern era. He survived two world wars, the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bomb explosions, and the Japanese-Chinese wars in his memory. Therefore, traditions associated with the concept of peace, harmony and beauty, and not with the exaltation of military power and samurai valor, are especially dear to him. Kawabata protects the souls of people from the cruelty of confrontation

Kawabata's work developed under the influence of Zen aesthetics. In accordance with the teachings of Zen, reality is understood as an indivisible whole, and the true nature of things can only be comprehended intuitively. It is not analysis and logic, but feeling and intuition that bring us closer to revealing the essence of phenomena, the eternal mystery. Not everything can be expressed in words and not everything needs to be said to the end. A mention or a hint is enough. The charm of understatement has an impressive power. These principles, developed over the centuries in Japanese poetry, are also realized in the work of Kawabata.

Kawabata sees the beauty of the ordinary, his life surroundings. He depicts nature, the world of plants, and scenes of everyday life in a lyrical way, with the insightful wisdom of humanity. The writer shows the life of nature and the life of man in their commonality, in continuous interpenetration. This reveals a feeling of belonging to the absolute of nature, the universe. Kawabata has the ability to recreate the atmosphere of reality, for this he accurately selects authentic colors and smells of his native land.

One of the central aspects of the aesthetics of Japanese art is the idea of ​​the sad charm of things. The beautiful in classical Japanese literature has an elegiac tone, poetic images are imbued with a mood of sadness and melancholy. In poetry, as in a traditional garden, there is nothing superfluous, nothing unnecessary, but there is always imagination, a hint, a certain incompleteness and surprise. The same feeling arises when reading Kawabata’s books; the reader discovers the author’s complex attitude towards his characters: sympathy and sympathy, mercy and tenderness, bitterness, pain. Kawabata's work is full of traditional Japanese contemplation, humor, and a subtle understanding of nature and its impact on the human soul. It reveals the inner world of a person striving for happiness. One of the main themes of his work is sadness, loneliness, and the impossibility of love.

In the most ordinary, in a small detail of boring everyday life, something essential is revealed, revealing a person’s state of mind. Details are constantly in the focus of Kawabata's vision. However, his objective world does not suppress the movement of character; the narrative contains psychological analysis and is distinguished by great artistic taste.

Many chapters of Kawabata’s works begin with lines about nature, which seem to set the tone for the subsequent narrative. Sometimes nature is just the background against which the characters’ lives unfold. But sometimes it seems to take on an independent meaning. The author seems to encourage us to learn from her, to comprehend her unknown secrets, seeing in communication with nature unique ways of moral and aesthetic improvement of man. Kawabata's work is characterized by a sense of the grandeur of nature and the sophistication of visual perception. Through images of nature, he reveals the movements of the human soul, and therefore many of his works are multifaceted and have hidden subtext. Kawabata's language is an example of Japanese style. Brief, succinct, deep, it has imagery and impeccable metaphor.

The poetry of the rose, high literary skill, humanistic thought about caring for nature and man, for the traditions of national art - all this makes Kawabata’s art an outstanding phenomenon in Japanese literature and in the global art of words.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, “The City and the Dogs” by Mario Vargas Llosa, “The Aleph” by Jorge Luis Borges - these and other masterpieces of Latin American literature of the last century are in this selection.

Dictatorships, coups, revolutions, terrible poverty of some, and fantastic wealth of others, and at the same time the exuberant fun and optimism of ordinary people - this is how you can briefly describe most of the countries of Latin America in the 20th century. And we shouldn’t forget about the amazing synthesis of different cultures, peoples and beliefs.

The paradoxes of history and the riotous color inspired many writers of this region to create genuine literary masterpieces that enriched world culture. We will talk about the most striking works in our material.

"Captains of the Sand" Jorge Amado (Brazil)

One of the main novels of Jorge Amado, the most famous Brazilian writer of the 20th century. “Captains of the Sand” is the story of a gang of street children who engaged in theft and robbery in the state of Bahia in the 1930s. It was this book that formed the basis of the legendary film “Generals of the Sand Quarries,” which acquired cult status in the USSR.

"The Invention of Morel". Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina)

The most famous book by the Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares. A novel that deftly balances on the brink of mysticism and science fiction. The main character, fleeing persecution, ends up on a distant island. There he meets strange people who pay absolutely no attention to him. Watching them day after day, he learns that everything that happens on this piece of land is a holographic movie recorded a long time ago, virtual reality. And it is impossible to leave this place... while the invention of a certain Morel is working.

"Señor President." Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala)

The most famous novel by Miguel Angel Asturias, winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Literature. In it, the author depicts a typical Latin American dictator - Señor President. In this character, the writer reflects the whole essence of cruel and senseless authoritarian rule, aimed at self-enrichment through oppression and intimidation of ordinary people. This book is about a man for whom ruling a country means robbing and killing its inhabitants. Remembering the dictatorship of the same Pinochet (and other no less bloody dictators), we understand how accurate this artistic prophecy of Asturias turned out to be.

"Kingdom of the Earth". Alejo Carpentier (Cuba)

One of the most famous works of the greatest Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. In the historical novel “Earthly Kingdom,” he talks about the mysterious world of the Haitians, whose lives are inextricably linked with the mythology and magic of Voodoo. In fact, he put this poor and mysterious island on the literary map of the world, in which magic and death are intertwined with fun and dancing.

"Aleph". Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina)

The most famous collection of stories by the outstanding Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. In "Aleph" he addressed the motives of search - the search for the meaning of life, truth, love, immortality and creative inspiration. Masterfully using symbols of infinity (especially mirrors, libraries (which Borges loved so much!) and labyrinths), the author not only gives answers to questions, but makes the reader think about the reality around him. The point is not so much in the search results, but in the process itself.

"The Death of Artemio Cruz." Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)

The central novel of one of the most famous Mexican prose writers of the last century. It tells the life story of Artemio Cruz, a former revolutionary and ally of Pancho Villa, and now one of the richest tycoons in Mexico. Having come to power as a result of an armed uprising, Cruz begins to frantically enrich himself. To satisfy his greed, he does not hesitate to resort to blackmail, violence and terror against anyone who gets in his way. This book is about how, under the influence of power, even the highest and best ideas die out, and people change beyond recognition. In fact, this is a kind of answer to Asturias’ “Señor President”.

"Game of Hopscotch" Julio Cortazar (Argentina)

One of the most famous works of postmodern literature. In this novel, the famous Argentine writer Julio Cortazar tells the story of Horacio Oliveira, a man in a difficult relationship with the world around him and pondering the meaning of his own existence. In “The Hopscotch Game,” the reader himself chooses the plot of the novel (in the preface, the author offers two reading options - according to a plan he specially developed or according to the order of the chapters), and the content of the book will depend directly on his choice.

"The City and the Dogs" Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)

“The City and the Dogs” is an autobiographical novel by the famous Peruvian writer, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa. The book takes place within the walls of a military school, where they are trying to make “real men” out of teenage children. The methods of education are simple - first, break and humiliate a person, and then turn him into a thoughtless soldier living according to the rules. After the publication of this anti-war novel, Vargas Llosa was accused of treason and aiding Ecuadorian emigrants. And several copies of his book were solemnly burned on the parade ground of the Leoncio Prado cadet school. However, this scandal only added to the popularity of the novel, which became one of the best literary works of Latin America of the 20th century. It has also been filmed many times.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude." Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)

The legendary novel by Gabriel García Márquez, a Colombian master of magical realism and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. In it, the author tells the 100-year history of the provincial town of Macondo, located in the middle of the jungle of South America. This book is recognized as a masterpiece of Latin American prose of the 20th century. In fact, Marquez managed to describe the entire continent with all its contradictions and extremes.

“When I want to cry, I don’t cry.” Miguel Otero Silva (Venezuela)

Miguel Otero Silva is one of Venezuela's greatest writers. His novel “When I Want to Cry, I Don’t Cry” is dedicated to the lives of three young people - an aristocrat, a terrorist and a bandit. Despite the fact that they have different social backgrounds, they all share the same destiny. Everyone is in search of their place in life, and everyone is destined to die for their beliefs. In this book, the author masterfully paints a picture of Venezuela under military dictatorship, and also shows the poverty and inequality of that era.