The Modern Novel

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Latin American Boom

The Boom is a period starting in the 1960s when a whole range of innovative novels were written by Latin American authors. The novels had certain things in common. They were invariably written by men. Many of the men were in exile, in Europe or the United States. They all tended to be highly literate and well-read in world literature. Many of them had strong left-wing views. Magic realism was used by many but certainly not all. Many of them owed a debt to the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. While there is much argument as to which writers were Boom writers, the ones below are generally agreed to be the core, though many other writers could lay claim to being part of the group. There was no manifesto and no formal grouping, the designation being primarily a journalistic and critical designation, rather than one chosen by the writers themselves. These and many other related writers, however, produced some of the finest writing in the second half of the twentieth century and are essential to appreciation of the literature of the period. The Boom more or less faded away in the 1970s/1980s, though many of the writers continued producing fine novels, and was replaced by an even vaguer grouping, called Post-Boom.

Authors

Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Julio Cortázar, José Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, García Márquez, Manuel Puig, Vargas Llosa

Other links

Latin American Boom
Boom Latinoamericano (in Spanish)
Boom Latinoamericano (in Spanish)