Vilanova, Núria

Social Change and Literature in Peru (1970-1990)

1999 0-7734-8199-0
This volume studies the relationship between social change and literature in present-day Peru, arguing that the emergence in the 1970s and 80s of new fiction writers and poets from large social sectors historically excluded from Peruvian public life – lower classes, migrants, and women - was part of a dramatic process of social change by which those sectors were gaining an important role in the transformation of society. “this is an authoritative study, balancing a thoroughly researched presentation of the social and political background with detailed analysis of individual writers, specific works and textual extracts. One of its many merits is the fact that Vilanova demonstrates an infectious enthusiasm for the subject while retaining a critical distance. She is frank in acknowledging reservations about the quality of poetry during the 1970s, and willingly criticizes Jara’s novel Patíbulo para un caballo for simplifying complex social issues as a consequence of its commitment to the social group that it describes. However, the overall impression that the reader draws is of a dynamic literary scene, in which the social change is not only reflected in the literature but also produced by it.” – Bulletin of Hispanic Studies