Cuban literature
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Please expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French Wikipedia. (April 2009) After translating, {{Translated|fr|Littérature cubaine}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance.Translation instructions · Translate via Google · Involve your language class |
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Please expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish Wikipedia. (April 2009) After translating, {{Translated|es|Literatura de Cuba}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance.Translation instructions · Translate via Google · Involve your language class |
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Cuban literature began to find its voice in the early 19th century. The major works published in Cuba during that time were of an abolitionist character. Notable writers of this genre include Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda and Cirilo Villaverde. Following the abolition of slavery in 1886, the focus of Cuban literature shifted. Dominant themes of independence and freedom were exemplified by José Martí, who led the modernista movement in Latin American literature. Writers such as the poet Nicolás Guillén focused on literature as social protest. Others like Dulce María Loynaz, José Lezama Lima and Alejo Carpentier dealt with more personal or universal issues. And a few more, such as Reinaldo Arenas and Guillermo Cabrera Infante, earned international recognition in the postrevolutionary era.
Most recently, there has been a so-called Cuban "boom" among authors who were born during the 50s and 60s. Many writers of this younger generation have felt compelled to continue their work in exile due to perceived censorship by the Cuban authorities. Many of them fled abroad during the 1990s. Some well-known names include Daína Chaviano (USA), Zoé Valdés (France), Eliseo Alberto (Mexico), Pedro Juan Gutiérrez (Cuba), Leonardo Padura (Cuba) and Abilio Estévez (Spain).
Cuban literature is one of the most prolific, relevant, and influential literatures in Latin America and in all of the Spanish-speaking world, with renowned writers like José Martí, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, José María Heredia, Nicolás Guillén (the National Poet of Cuba), José Lezama Lima, Alejo Carpentier (nominee for the Nobel Prize for Literature and previously the Premio Cervantes winner in 1977), Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Premio Cervantes 1997), Virgilio Piñera y Dulce María Loynaz (Premio Cervantes 1992), among many others.
[edit] Beginnings
Spanish-language literature in Cuban territory began with the Spanish conquest and colonization of the island. The conquistadores brought with them chronologists that recorded and described all the important events of the conquest, albeit from a Spanish point of view and for a Spanish audience. The most important chronologist to arrive in Cuba in the 16th century was Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, author of, among other works, “History of the Indies.”
The first literary work written on the island dates from the 17th century, when in 1608, Silvestre de Balboa y Troya de Quesada (1563 - 1647) published Espejo de Paciencia, a historical epic poem narrating the kidnapping of bishop Fray Juan de las Cabezas Altamirano by the pirate Gilberto Girón.
Poetry marks the beginning, then, of Cuban literature (not including other important non-literary texts from the 17th century).
[edit] See also
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