Mexico Literature from the 20th to 21st Century

Mexico Literature from the 20th to 21st Century

Northern America

The 20th century

In the twentieth century Mexican literature acquires a more autonomous physiognomy. Universities, cultural magazines, artistic movements give it a notable imprint: the Bergsonian philosopher A. Caso, J. Vasconcelos, P. Henríquez Ureña, A. Reyes, JT Acevedo become promoters, with E. González Martín, J. Torri and others, of the so-called Ateneo de la Juventud movement, to which we owe the great development of philosophical and pedagogical studies, as well as literary essays. In the years of the revolution the athenaeístas supported the need for an art which, overcoming modernist exoticism, becomes the interpreter of the social and political problems of the moment. In this same perspective, the work of two authors as extraneous to the group as the poet should also be read R. López Velarde and the novelist Mexico Azuela. Among the many magazines of this era (modern RevistaNosotrosPégasoMéxico modernEl MaestroThe antorchaThe phalanx) particular importance was Contemporáneos (1928-31), who introduced the Mexico ultraísmo and futurism said Estridentist. From its ranks came the poets J. Torres Bodet, B. Ortiz de Montellano, J. Gorostiza, J. Cuesta ; always from the group of contemporáneos, C. Pellicer, X. Villaurrutia, G. Owen, S. Novo temper the excesses of avant-garde trends with an intimate lyrical vein and pessimistic tones. Some of these poets, such as S. Novo and X. Villaurrutia, also undertook to renew the Mexican theater scene in the dual role of impresarios and playwrights, first with the experimental Teatro de Ulises, then with the more famous Teatro de orientación (1932-38) founded by C. Gorostiza; finally the playwright R. Usigli stands out as the most important author of this period.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Mexican fiction is distinguished by the variety of its production: between environmental novel and novel of revolutionary inspiration, social novel, ‘populist’ novel, ‘indigenist’ novel, ‘naturalist’ novel, etc., hold the field, in addition to Mexico Azuela, Mexico Luis Guzmán, JR Romero, G. López y Fuentes, RF Muñoz, A. Vela, Mexico Magdaleno.

According to sunglassestracker, the generation that began writing in the 1940s breaks with the realism of the previous era and with the contrasts and literary polemics that characterize the cultural climate of the post-revolutionary years, and indeed assimilates, amalgamates and freely transforms the different tendencies of the writers who ‘preceded, as the novels of A. Yáñez and J. Revueltas demonstrate. A similar reworking of the ancient and recent tradition, Hispano-American and Spanish with North American, European and Oriental influences, marks the lyric of A. Gutiérrez Hermosillo and E. Huerta, while an initial opening to surrealism is with O. Paz, prize Nobel 1990, and A. Chumacero. In the 1950s, the narrative was dominated by the figures of JJ Arreola and J. Rulfo, who were joined, in the years of the publishing success of the Spanish-American novel, by L. Spota, J. Ibargüengoitia and the more famous C. Fuentes ; the production of the latter presents the narrative structures and innovative linguistic traits, as well as the anti-realism, characteristic of the coeval Spanish-American novel.

In the 1960s, around the Revista méxicana de literatura, a group of young writers arose whose leading exponents were J. García Ponce, S. Elizondo and V. Leñero, also interested in the experimental tendencies of nouveau roman and North American novel. The spirit of innovation and experimentation also extends to the theater which, while re-elaborating experiences drawn from the theater of the absurd, from popular and existentialist theater, presents as its dominant feature the fantastic theme: E. Carballido is the most notable figure, while other authors are E. Garro, LJ Hernández, J. Ibargüengoitia and V. Leñero, creator of what was called documental theater. The lyric in recent years is characterized by the desire to overcome avant-garde poetry; the poetic context expands to include suggestions coming from oriental poetry, from classical greek-latin poetry, from medieval and renaissance lyric, not disdaining popular and satirical stimuli at the same time: examples are the work of B. Nuño, J. Garcí Terrés, R. Castellanos, J. Sabines, MA Montes de Oca.

In the 1970s and 1980s, opera, having assimilated the avant-garde trends and the break with the tradition of previous years, moves along the line of the destruction of poetry, of which one of the most original voices is that of JE Pacheco. The narrative confirms the trends of the previous years, and cultivates attempts to liberate the genre from the traditional ways of representation, evident in the works of the aforementioned Pacheco, G. Sainz and J. Augustín.

From the end of the 20th century. at the beginning of the 21st

In the last decades of the 20th century, the tumultuous urban and social transformations made Mexico City, with its different worlds, its borders, its laws, its languages, the cornerstone of Mexican fiction. The discovery of the multiple realities of the capital is combined with two other themes: the reinterpretation of the past, halfway between historicity and invention, and the question of Mexican identity, increasingly uncertain and mobile (PI Taibo II, S. Pitol, D. Sada, J. Villoro). This is also what the novels on the frontier indicate, which reflect a Mexico poised between the north and the south of the world. These fleeting and transforming frontiers find a counterpart in the style, in the admixture of languages ​​(known as spanglish), of juvenile jargons and genres, in heterodox syntax and punctuation. Among the authors who subscribe to this trend, we remember: the aforementioned J. Agustín, H. Hiriart, H. Aguilar Camín, G. Samperio, A. Castanón, F. Morábito, J. MorenoVillareal, and the writers Mexico Glantz, ML Puga, S. Molina, B. Jacobs, C. Boullosa. There is no shortage of writers, however, in which we observe a return to the fantastic tale, to the adventure novel, to the irreverent and ironic reinterpretation of the Conquest. Finally, one of the most interesting voices of the early 21st century is E. Serna.

Mexico Literature from the 20th to 21st Century