scholarly journals Faith, Liberation, and Revolution in Fire From the Mountain by Omar Cabezas

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (14) ◽  
pp. 221-248
Author(s):  
José María Mantero
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Imperative ◽  
Sandinista Revolution ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Omar Cabezas

Published in 1982, the testimonio Fire from the Mountain (La montaña es más que una inmensa estepa verde) by Omar Cabezas continues to generate interest in the field of Latin American literature, particularly amongst critics dedicated to the testimonio and post-testimonio. Considered one of the fundamental works of contemporary testimonio, Fire from the Mountain narrates the political and ideological coming of age of Cabezas during the years preceding the Sandinista revolution (1977-1979) in Nicaragua, the origins of his relationship with the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), and his efforts in the struggle against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. Throughout the text there are frequent references to his own faith, Catholicism, and God as he comes to terms with the plight of the Nicaragua people and considers the moral imperative of the revolution to depose Somoza. Our intention is to demonstrate that, in Fire from the Mountain, Cabezas implicitly considers the influence of his faith, Catholicism, and God on the revolutionary struggle. We will first contextualize our study within discussions on the Latin American testimonio and proceed to frame our study of Fire from the Mountain within a liberational perspective that references liberation theology as our theoretical touchstone.

A Case of Exploding Markets: Latin American and South Asian Literary “Booms”

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roanne L. Kantor
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
South Asian ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Anglophone Literature ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractThis article seeks to explain the recent popularity of South Asian Anglophone literature (beginning in 1981 and peaking between 1998 and 2008) in light of the boom in Latin American literature of the 1960s. It argues that the phenomenon of regional literary “booms” shares features across both eras, and that a unified theory of booms is increasingly important to understanding the way contemporary literature circulates around the globe. Scholarship about both eras has tended to coalesce around three types of boom-driving agents: “creators,” “contexts,” and “curators.” Within that broader agreement, however, scholarship about the South Asian boom has tended to overemphasize the political symbolism of recent South Asian Anglophone literature and its global popularity, while under-emphasizing the political realities that create the conditions under which that literature became popular. This line of criticism has come at the expense of attention to literature’s other dimensions as a cultural object, as well as contextual explanations of popularity involving the role of governments, demographics, and market flows. The more diverse scholarship on the Latin American boom offers a corrective with insights for both the future of South Asian Anglophone literature and the field of World Literature.

Uncommon Grounds

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
American Novel ◽  
Song Of Solomon ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
The Us

This chapter turns from a historical account of the development of the US literature of experience and the Latin American literature of reading to a textual analysis of the US and Latin American historical novel. Hemispheric/inter-American scholars often cite William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936), Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977) as exemplifying instances of literary borrowing across the North–South divide. As I demonstrate, however, each of the later texts also realigns its predecessor’s historical imaginary according to the dominant logics of the US and Latin American literary fields. Whereas the American works foreground experiential models of reconstructing the past and conveying knowledge across generations, García Márquez’s Latin American novel presents reading as the fundamental mode of comprehending and transmitting history.

Anxieties of Experience

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
First Century ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Leaves Of Grass ◽  
Literary Authority ◽  
The Us ◽  
New Interpretation

Anxieties of Experience: The Literatures of the Americas from Whitman to Bolaño offers a new interpretation of US and Latin American literature from the nineteenth century to the present. Revisiting longstanding debates in the hemisphere about whether the source of authority for New World literature derives from an author’s first-hand contact with American places and peoples or from a creative (mis)reading of existing traditions, the book charts a widening gap in how modern US and Latin American writers defined their literary authority. In the process, it traces the development of two distinct literary strains in the Americas: the “US literature of experience” and the “Latin American literature of the reader.” Reinterpreting a range of canonical works from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass to Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, Anxieties of Experience shows how this hemispheric literary divide fueled a series of anxieties, misunderstandings, and “misencounters” between US and Latin American authors. In the wake of recent calls to rethink the “common grounds” approach to literature across the Americas, the book advocates a comparative approach that highlights the distinct logics of production and legitimation in the US and Latin American literary fields. Anxieties of Experience closes by exploring the convergence of the literature of experience and the literature of the reader in the first decades of the twenty-first century, arguing that the post-Bolaño moment has produced the strongest signs of a truly reciprocal literature of the Americas in more than a hundred years.

Introduction to Latin American Literature: A Bilingual Anthology

Chasqui ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Evelio Echevarría ◽  
Jack Child
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American Literature

The Black Image in Latin American Literature

1977 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 598
Author(s):  
Charles M. Tatum ◽  
Richard L. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American Literature

The Black Image in Latin American Literature

Hispania ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 1026
Author(s):  
Gaston P. Fernandez ◽  
Richard L. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American Literature

The Teaching of Latin-American Literature

Hispania ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 263 ◽  
Author(s):  
James O. Swain
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Latin American Literature
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