Bolivian literature

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The Bolivian literature is the literature of Bolivia in Spanish and a part of the Spanish-American literature. It is one of the less extensive and in Europe less well-known literatures of Latin America, because due to the tumultuous political history of Bolivia it was not able to develop as undisturbed as the literature in some other Latin American countries. The indigenous peoples, especially the Quechua and Aymara , make up at least 65 percent of the total population of the country. Their languages ​​(besides Quechua and Aymara there are about 30 others) influenced not only the colloquial language, but also the Spanish-language literature. But the class of the educated reading public in the poorest country in Latin America remained extremely narrow for a long time. In the years from 2006 to 2014 almost a million people were literate, so that a new literature is emerging here.

Quechua literature is the subject of a separate main article (see Quechua literature ). The Internet has recently contributed to its spread.

Early days, romance, costumbrismo

Before its independence, Bolivia, once a province of the Inca Empire , belonged to the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru and since 1776 to the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata . In the 18th century, the Creole oligarchy was based on the court culture of Spain. The indigenous oral literary traditions that were documented in the 17th century were forgotten. But Quechua was used in part in bilingual festive and liturgical chants based on the Spanish form of Villancicos . Roque Jacinto de Chavarría (1688–1719), church musician in Sucre , staged the missionary talks between the sanctimonious missionaries and the Indians in the form of bilingual chant.

Nataniel Aguirre

The liberal politician, historian, poet and playwright Nataniel Aguirre (1843–1888) can be regarded as the founder of a Bolivian literature after independence, who dealt with topics from Bolivian and Peruvian history and through the novel Juan de la Rosa (1885, English edition 1999), a major work of Bolivian Romanticism. This novel combines a melodramatic depiction of the events of the War of Independence from the perspective of a child with meticulous source analysis, social realism and a psychologically coherent depiction of the actions of historical characters. According to the judgment of the Spanish literary scholar Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo , it is still today one of the best Latin American novels of the 19th century. Also of the Generación de 1880 , which turned against the feudal upper class and fought for a new constitution, belonged to Adela Zamudio , an anti-clerical poet, teacher and campaigner for women's rights from Cochabamba with aristocratic roots. Catchy landscape descriptions and expedition reports from the Gran Chaco were written by Daniel Campos (1829–1902).

Creolism and Indigenism

Since the beginning of the 20th century, writers became more and more interested in the peculiarities of their country, the landscape, the population ( creolism ). Influenced by European symbolism and Nordic mythology as well as Americanismo Rubén Daríos , Ricardo Jaimes Freyre (1868–1933), who was born in Peru and lived in Argentina for a long time, wrote his poems, which were influenced by myths and located in dream worlds, in free verse. In cooperation with Darío, he published the influential but short-lived Revista de América . His story Faustrecht is one of the masterpieces of Latin American storytelling.

Alcides Arguedas (1879–1946), historian, sociologist, novelist, essayist and diplomat, explored the life of the indigenous population, the "bronze race", sensitively and precisely at the same time. He can be regarded as the founder of modern indigenism , a trend that, with an anthropological interest, turns to the peoples on the periphery and the victims of colonization. His novel Raza de Bronze (1919) deals with the bloody conflict between an Indian community and a brutal white landowner - a recurring basic motif in indigenous literature. Aruguedas, however, turned against cultural mixing and - influenced by the European discussion he received during his studies in Europe - drew partly racist consequences from the deep cultural and social divisions in post-colonial society ( Pueblo enfermo , 2009). The historian Porfirio Díaz Machicao (1909–1981) saw himself in his tradition .

The essayist, educator and politician Franz Tamayo Solares (1878–1956), a mestizo with Spanish and Aymara roots, also conjured up the different physical and psychological abilities of the two races. The mestizos - according to his thesis, which played a problematic role in later Bolivian politics - would combine the abilities of both races and were therefore created for leadership tasks; the Indians are only suitable for agriculture and military service.

Social realism, naturalism, Indianism

Around 1925/30 the romantic “Creole” phase of Bolivian literature ended. The authors now emphasized the intrinsic value of Indian culture and questioned the civilizational “successes” of colonialism. The Costumbrist Jesús Lara (1898–1980), probably the most frequently translated Bolivian author from the Quechua people , described the ancient traditions of the shepherds in his works, some of which he wrote in this language. In 1956 the politically persecuted person stood up as a candidate of the Communist Party for the office of Vice President. The work of the narrator and playwright Antonio Díaz Villamil (1897–1948) can also be assigned to the Costumbrian tradition. His novel La voz de la quena inspired José María Velasco Maidana for his film Wara Wara (1930), the most famous Bolivian silent film about an Inca princess.

El Yatiri . Painting by Arturo Borda (1918)

By instigated by international oil companies Chaco War , which went out in favor of Paraguay and ended with big loss of land for Bolivia, to spread a more realistic and naturalistic style , of a turning to the social realities, but also to the "literary nationalism" as Raúl Botelho Gosálvez ( 1917–2004). One of the most important works about the war is the novel Aluvión de Fuego by the Marxist poet, journalist and diplomat Óscar Cerruto (1912–1981) , who is active in all literary genres . Augusto Guzmán (1903-1994) wrote numerous novels, including from his own experience as a combatant Prisionero de guerra (1937). His poems have also been translated into English ( La noche 1984 , The Night , 2007). Raúl Leyton Zamora (1904–2001), who worked as a military chaplain in the war, described the effects of the war on the Indians many years later in Indio "bruto" . In the work of the narrator, playwright, businessman and diplomat Adolfo Costa du Rels (1891–1980), a holder of the Legion of Honor , who also wrote in French , the Chaco War and the cruel social realities in the countryside found their expression in mythically exaggerated form ( "La laguna H. 3"). Roberto Leitón (1903–1999) was the first Bolivian author to question the central role of the narrator in his novels and fragmented the flow of the narrative.

Don Javier del Granado y Granado

While many authors of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Costa du Rels, held public office, others had to emigrate. Augusto Céspedes (1904–1997), a co-founder of the Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario (MNR), who lived in exile in Argentina until 1952, wrote about the meteoric rise and wealth of the tin barons. His books on exploitation in the mines ("devil's metal") and the more than 80,000 Bolivian victims of the Chaco war ( Sangre des Mestizos ) were among others. a. translated into German. Also Ramírez Velarde (1913-1948) wrote about the hard and short life of the indigenous miners. The anarchist, labor leader and painter Arturo Borda (1883–1953) collected notes, observations, dialogues and poems for 50 years, which were published posthumously in 1966. Néstor Taboada Terán (1929–2015) wrote a. a. a historical novel about the love of a Catholic priest for an indigenous peoples in the times of the Inquisition (Eng .: "The love that God did not want").

Fernando Diez de Medina (1908–1980), at times Minister of Education, spent his life studying the traditions and values ​​of the Aymara and wrote over 80 books. The indigenous author Fausto Reinaga (1906-1994), descendant of the Indian leader Tomás Katari , who was murdered in 1781 , became the founder of Indianism in Bolivia. A turning point was the revolution of 1952, which ended the quasi-serfdom of the Indians on the haciendas. The movements of the indigenous peoples (especially the miners) were opposed by latifundistas and the military, but supported by the left-wing governments from 1952 to 1956 and since 2005.

A three-day state mourning was proclaimed on the death of Javier del Granado (1913-1996), an aristocrat and politician from the province of Cochabamba, who pulled out all the poetic registers in traditionally formed bucolic poems and ballads influenced by indigenous traditions and themes and became a popular favorite.

Modern, magical realism and neorealism

Modern literary criticism in Bolivia begins with the founding of the group of authors around the Gesta Bárbara newspaper in 1918, which was re-established for a short time in 1948. Modernism found its way into Bolivia with the work of the surrealist or, better, magical-realistic novelist, poet and playwright Jaime Sáenz (1921–1986), whose novels are populated by bizarre types, dead and ghosts. They reflect the life and superstitions of the ordinary people in the capital. Saénz's most important novel, Felipe Delgado (1979), is set in La Paz in the 1930s. A representative of the exotic tropical literatura was Alfredo Flores. The communist poet and journalist Oscar Alfaro (1921–1963) wrote books and songs for young people, many of which were set to music; some of his works have been translated into several languages, some posthumously. Armando Soriano Badani (* 1923), who later appeared as a narrator and novelist, and Yolanda Bedregal (1916–1999) should be mentioned as poets . Bedregal founded the Bolivian Poets Association and taught aesthetics; A poetry prize awarded by the Bolivian government since 2000 was named after her. Gastón Suárez (1929–1984), playwright and narrator, took up motifs from the fairy tales of the Aymara; his work Maliko (1974) stands for a philosophically reflected magical realism. Adolfo Cáceres Romero (* 1937) is a representative of fantastic literature.

Since the 1960s, rural people and miners found a mouthpiece in a neorealist literature; the guerrilla movement from 1966 to 1973, which many campesinos joined, became an important topic. The massacre of the Cataví miners in 1967 also became a literary theme, for example by Oscar Soria Gamarra (1917–1988), who also worked as a screenwriter for Jorge Sanjinés , as a director and documentary filmmaker.

Persecution and emigration

Bolivia experienced numerous phases of military rule, such as 1951, 1964–1969 and 1971–1982. In particular during the phase of the dictatorship under Colonel Hugo Banzer (1971–1978) and during the government's struggle against the guerrillas, several authors escaped abroad. The writer and semiotic Renato Prada Oropeza (1937–2011) emigrated to Mexico in 1976. His novel Los fundadores del alba is one of the most important works on the guerrilla; for this he received the literature prize of the Casa de las Américas . Néstor Taboada Terán (1929–2015), a co-founder of the Communist Party of Bolivia, who published numerous political and historical novels and essays, had to go to Argentina after his imprisonment. He later became Vice Minister for Culture. One of those persecuted as a student leader was Víctor Montoya (* 1958), who - who grew up in the miners' settlements near Potosí himself - wrote stories about the everyday oppression and strikes of the miners in the tin mines ( Cuentos violentos , 1991) and emigrated to Sweden. In the novel Khanaru: hacia la luz (1977), Waldo Cerruto Calderón de la Barca (1925-2006) and Oscar Vargas del Carpio (* 1926) presented their critique of the social development of Bolivia in carefully coded form.

The German Jew Werner Guttentag (1920–2008) was born in Breslau and fled the Nazis to Bolivia in 1939. As a bookseller and first Bolivian publisher, he played a key role in shaping the country's intellectual life for decades. In 1950, at the request of Jesús Lara, he brought out his novel Surimi in Cochabamba and subsequently another 1200 titles, including: a. also the 80-volume Enciclopedia Boliviana . Under the military dictatorships he published books produced underground. He saw himself as a socialist, was friends with Mario Vargas Llosa and in 1987 received the highest order in the country, the "Condor de los Andes".

The return to democracy since 1982

Edmundo Paz Soldán

Since the 1980s, a pluralism of narrative forms and themes has developed; at the same time, many authors turned away from magical realism. This is what the narrator and political scientist Edmundo Paz Soldán (* 1967), also known in the English-speaking world, stands for ; he deals with both the problems of adolescents ( Rio Fugitivo , 1998) and the technological world ( Sueños digitales , 2000), wrote a science fiction novel ( El delirio de Turing , 2003) and now teaches at Cornell University . Victor Hugo Viscarra (1958-2006) was referred to as the “Bolivian Bukowski ” . He analyzed the trauma of the “underworld” ( submondo ) of cities from the autobiographical point of view of an alcoholic. Today Giovanna Rivero (* 1972) can be considered the most successful Bolivian novelist and short story writer ( Las camaleonas 2001; 98 segundos sin sombra 2014). The lyric, however, lost its importance. Norah Zapata-Prill (* 1946) teaches in Cochabamba. She received for her linguistically very simple poems, which testify to a deep closeness to nature, spirituality and humanity, etc. a. twice the most important state award, the Gran Premio Nacional Franz Tamayo.

present

The diagnosis made by Sarah Murrenhoff in the time of the new Latin American literature: “With increasingly cynical and sober tones you are entering the global cult of individualism. The narration is getting tighter again: It doesn't have to be the all-embracing novel [...] Many no longer live in their homeland or even write in English, "obviously does not yet apply to Bolivian literature. The collective still plays a major role - especially after the election of the indigenous president Evo Morales in 2006: almost 70 percent of the population are indigenous. In the big city, too, it is what happens in the alley or in the neighborhood, or it is the self-organization in Indian communities, behind which the individual character drawing takes a back seat. The chronicle of social and political events is often more urgent than subjective reflection, even when militancy falls.

Rodrigo Hasbún (2011)

The university lecturer Juan Claudio Lechín (* 1956) is a versatile storyteller, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 2011 he published the essay volume Las máscaras del fascismo , in which he placed Evo Morales in the tradition of European fascism. He lives in Peru today. Rodrigo Hasbún (* 1981) became known throughout the Spanish-speaking world for his stories. Rodrigo Hasbún's semi-fictional novel Los afectos (German: “Die Affekte ”, 2017) about Leni Riefenstahl's first cameraman, the mountaineer Hans Ertl , who emigrated to Bolivia after the war and whose daughter Monika Ertl became a revolutionary, has been translated into ten languages. One of the authors whose works have been translated into German is Rodrigo Urquiola Flores (* 1986), who writes novels ( Lluvia de Piedra , German "Steinregen", 2011) and plays.

With Montoya's collection of short stories Cuentos de la mina (2000), a new form of the so-called literatura minera was created in Swedish exile , which can be understood as the literaryization of oral Andean traditions. Montoya allows many Aymara and Quechua words to flow into his stories. In Crónica Mineras (2017) he describes the miners' struggle against dictatorship and oligarchy and the numerous massacres of 1923, 1942, 1947, 1949, 1960, 1965, 1967 to 1980.

Clemente Mamani Laruta (* 1960) writes poems in Aymara .

Book market and reading culture

Measured by the small size of the reading public, the book market in Bolivia flourished in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the impoverishment of the middle classes in the 1980s, the number and circulation of new publications fell sharply. The multitude of languages, cultures and subcultures in Bolivia complicates the development of the book market and, above all, translation activities. As a result, not only is the foreign-language literature barely received, apart from English-language literature; the oral traditions of the smaller indigenous peoples are also in danger of being lost. Recently, however, in addition to the traditions of the Quechua and Aymara peoples, the myths and fairy tales of the Guaraní- speaking tribes of the Chaco have been noticed and documented in Spanish. In contrast to Peru and Ecuador, there are hardly any prose texts in Quechua apart from Bible translations in Bolivia.

The pedagogue Gaby Vallejo Canedo (* 1941) emerged as a children's book author and advocated the spread of reading culture among children and young people. Manuel Vargas (* 1941) edited several anthologies with modern Bolivian literature; one was also translated into German.

A book fair has been held in Santa Cruz since 1999 and at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón in Cochabamba since 2007. There are now around 15 book fairs in Bolivia, and the first e-books are also being published. In 2012, the country was represented for the first time with its own stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair . It had already been involved in collective exhibitions funded by the Federal Foreign Office .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benjamin Beutler: UNESCO declares Bolivia free from illiteracy. Amerika21.de, July 26, 2014 [1]
  2. ↑ Delina Aníbarro de Halushka: La narrativa oral en Bolivia: El cuento folklórico. Diss., University of California 1990.
  3. ^ Adolfo Cáceres Romero (ed.): Poésie quechua en Bolivie. Trilingual edition, Geneva 1990.
  4. ↑ Heinz Krumpel: Enlightenment and Romanticism in Latin America. 2004, p. 215.
  5. ↑ Printed in Zapata: Bolivia. Pp. 182-188.
  6. ↑ Rössner 2002, p. 339.
  7. ↑ Biography of Porfirio Díaz Machicao
  8. ↑ Zapata, Introduction to: Bolivien, 1973, p. 17 ff.
  9. ↑ Brief portrait of Cáceres. In: Amazing Stories 2015
  10. ↑ The German translation is: The love that God did not want. Berlin / Weimar 1987.
  11. ↑ A Life for the Bolivian Book. In: Latin America News , November 2002
  12. ^ Gert Eisenbürger: A Breslauer in Bolivia. In: Jüdische Allgemeine, February 14, 2013, online: [2]
  13. ↑ Stefan Gurtner: Guttentag: The life of the Jewish publisher Werner Guttentag between Germany and Bolivia. Edition AV, 2012.
  14. ↑ Spiegel Online, December 31, 2014
  15. ↑ Interview with the author on goethe.de
  16. ^ Franziska Näther: Víctor Montoya and "El Tío de la mina". In: Quetzal. Leipzig 2009
  17. ↑ The moon and the jaguar. In: bibmondo.it

literature

  • Michael Rössner: Latin American literary history. 2nd expanded edition. Stuttgart, Weimar 2002.
  • Adolfo Caceres Romero: Diccionario de la Literatura Boliviana. Segunda Edición. La Paz 1997.
Anthologies
  • José A. Friedl Zapata: Bolivia. Tübingen 1973 (= modern storytellers of the world , 41). (Anthology of works from around 1920 to 1970).
  • Manuel Vargas: The home of the Tío. Zurich 1995. (anthology of works from around 1980).