Looking back on my first blog post, the only point that I really made is that I did not know anything about the content of this course. I definitely had no frame of reference for Latin American literature, and now I do. So, this course has definitely fulfilled my original curiosities and thoughts at the outset of the term. This may be just from the way the reading list was structured, but it is really difficult for me now not to see literature from Latin America as defined by Gabriel García Márquez. There is a distinctive style to literature from the texts we have read that definitely appears to revolve around García Márquez.
As to that distinctive style, I had a difficult time thinking of how to write about it without simply invoking the term magical realism. Obviously, the influences of García Márquez’s contributions to that genre have a lot to do with Latin American authors mimicking that style to a certain extent, but I found this course helped me with another way to communicate about this specific literary region. That is the concept of games. In some ways, I think the concept of games relates a lot to the fact that a lot of the texts we read this term take place from a child’s perspective. This includes texts like Mama Blanca’s Memoirs, Papi, and while I did not read it, Cartucho. Failing that, the main protagonist of a lot of texts tended to have a very youthful perspective, which lead to them growing up in a lot of ways throughout the narrative. Examples of this are Distant Star, and The Underdogs to an extent. So, games come up quite a lot in these types of perspectives as youthful eyes are more likely to comprehend the world around them through a more playful filter. On the other hand, I think the concept of games also relates to what a lot of the authors in this course do with the concept of literature itself. There is an almost playful nature to the amount to which authors will manipulate reality to suit the perspective they are writing in that is (somewhat) unique to the batch of authors we read for this term. I think this is an interesting way to regard authors of this region, as they seem among the most daring when it comes to breaking traditional conventions of representation in literature in favour of over-the-top imagery and symbolism to communicate deeper meaning.
My question then: how did the concept of games factor into your understanding and takeaways from this course?
Thanks for your comments Ben. We don’t talk about it much in class, but there is this idea that García Márquez is some kind of “center” of Latin American literature. Just a few days ago I read that he is already the most translated Spanish writer in the world. Many of those who came later want to distance themselves from his work, like Roberto Bolaño or Rita Indiana. That led them to use other literary and imaginative resources, as you say. I like that you were able to read the texts from a playful perspective.