Connecting the Work of Mario Vargas Llosa to the Next Generation of Writers
Connecting the Work of Mario Vargas Llosa to the Next Generation of Writers
Americas Society’s programs dedicated to Mario Vargas Llosa’s legacy “ensure further study and discussion of his influence on a new generation of American and international writers.”
Fifty years ago, an obscure Peruvian writer published a novel in Barcelona, Spain. It was his first novel, a shocking account of the life of young cadets in a South American military school. The book broke away from the straightforwardly realistic style that had dominated Spanish-language novels until then and incorporated modernistic techniques and narrative tools from authors such as the acclaimed American writer William Faulkner.
The manuscript had been awarded the prestigious Biblioteca Breve Prize, and along with a couple of other novels published around those same years, it marked the beginning of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s. Its title was La ciudad y los perros, (in English, The Time of the Hero). Its author, Mario Vargas LLosa....
Recently, two fully packed events had him as the guest of honor in New York City: On November 4, the inauguration of the Cátedra Vargas Llosa at City College and three days later, a conversation on his books with scholar John King at the Americas Society....
On November 15, the Americas Society will also host a special event for the launch of the latest issue of its magazine Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas. This issue is dedicated to the analysis of Vargas Llosa’s work and its influence on the newest generation of writers from Peru and other Andean region countries, among them Liliana Colanzi, Rodrigo Hasbún, Esteban Mayorga, Giovanna Rivero, Carlos Yushimito and Edmundo Paz Soldán.
These events, as well as the creation of the Cátedra, will be a vehicle to ensure further study and discussion of the world-renowned literary giant, and his influence on a new generation of American and international writers....
