Latin American

Literature
M a gi c Realism
Reality of
Turns in History: Colonial Ideology
● The Spanish and Portuguese in South America had two goals: to increase their
wealth and convert native people to Christianity.
● Inspired by American Revolution, Latin America fought for independence in the
early 1800s.
● After having their freedom, still, they continue to export agricultural raw materials
and import consumer goods as it had before. Somehow, it still depends in Europe.
● Because of this, the power of the elite persisted and social standing were
implemented.
● This was seen in different ways through Latin American authors
Oswaldo Guayasamin
Movements in History: Modernismo
● This is when Brazilians tried to made their own culture out of the conventions of
Portuguese.
● This is movement where they explored their myths and folklore.
Movements in History: Vanguardia
● One of the movements in literature is the avant-garde or vanguardia in Spanish,
that promotes surrealism.
● Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of
experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy is being
combined.
 René
Magritte’s
Treachery of
Images
Movements in History: Magic Realism
● Magic Realism explores social and political ills in the society in the 20th Century.
● It has the same features with Surrealism, however, this treats the “unreal” events as
a “matter-of-fact”.
● Surrealism is more of the aspects that it explores are associated not with material
reality but with the imagination and the mind, and in particular it attempts to
express the 'inner life' and psychology of humans through art.
● Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Cien Años de Soledad (One Hundred Years of
Solitude) became the epicenter of novels in this period.
Differences

Magic
Realism Fantasy
Realism
Fantastic
Believable Realistic plot that is Takes
plot setting accepted by place in
characters
imaginary
world or
time
Fin.