Writing Revolution in Latin America: From Marti to Garcia Marquez to Bolano

274 Pages·2019·1.083 MB·English

by  Juan E. De Castro

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Writing Revolution in Latin America

Writing Revolution in Latin America
From Martí to García Márquez to Bolaño
Juan E. De Castro
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville
© 2019 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2019
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: De Castro, Juan E., 1959- author.
Title: Writing revolution in Latin America : from Marti to Garcia Marquez to
Bolano / Juan De Castro.
Description: Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, [2019] | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019010305 (print) | LCCN 2019020238 (ebook) | ISBN
9780826522603 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826522580 | ISBN
9780826522580 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780826522597 (paperback
: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780826522603 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Latin American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.
| Revolutionary literature, Latin American--History and criticism. |
Revolutions in literature.
Classification: LCC PQ7082.N7 (ebook) | LCC PQ7082.N7 D4 2019 (print) | DDC
863/.60998—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019010305
Para Magdalena

Contents
Introduction 1
1 Revolution before Revolution:
José Martí and José Carlos Mariátegui 11
2 Boom in the Revolution, Revolution in the Boom:
What Is Revolutionary about the Latin American
Novel of the 1960s? 44
3 The Fall of the Revolutionary and the Return
of Liberal Democracy:
Vargas Llosa’s The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (1984)
and Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) 86
4 Revolution after the Demise of Revolution:
Roberto Bolaño and Carla Guelfenbein on Social Change 134
Notes 173
Works Cited 231
Index 251

Acknowledgments
This book has benefitted from the comments made by friends and col-
leagues in various stages of its composition. In particular, I must single
out Nicholas Birns and Ignacio López-Calvo who generously read the
manuscript. Additionally, Wilfrido H. Corral and James Fuerst made
useful suggestions. Vanderbilt University Press’s two anonymous readers
made valuable comments. The book is infinitely better thanks to them.
Obviously, all remaining flaws are my responsibility.
I am particularly grateful to the Vanderbilt University Press editors
Zachary Gresham, for his enthusiasm for this project, and Joell Smith-
Borne, for her work on the manuscript.
Mariano Siskind generously provided me with the text of the lecture
he gave at the New School.
Earlier versions of sections of the fourth chapter, “Revolution af-
ter the Demise of Revolution: Roberto Bolaño and Carla Guelfenbein
on Social Change,” appeared in Roberto Bolaño as World Literature
(Bloomsbury, 2017).
Like everything worthwhile I do, this book would not have been
possible without the support of my wife Magdalena.
ix