"It was like setting off fireworks in my head, feeling extremely happy and shocked. Since then, my reading and writing have never been able to escape the influence from there. Writer A Yi is still excited today when he recalls reading Latin American "explosive literature" for the first time 19 years ago.
From works such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by "Literary Youth", which is almost a copy of every hand, to the literary treatises, essays, and interviews of Latin American writers that have been translated and published in recent years, the image of Latin American "explosive literature" in China has become three-dimensional and vivid. Not only Ah Yi, but for many Chinese readers, the shock and impact of the Latin American "literary explosion" 60 years ago are still continuing.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Latin America produced a group of talented and world-influential writers, such as García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes, who created a large number of works that were popular around the world. Scholars have called this phenomenon a "literary explosion" in Latin America, and these works have been given the title of "explosive literature".
A popular view has set 1962 as the first year of latin America's "literary explosion", mainly because of the world congress of intellectuals held in Concepción, Chile, that year, and the participation of a large number of writers who began to show their talents at that time.
The occurrence of the "literary explosion" was closely related to the social and political climate in Latin America at that time, as well as the development of Latin American literature itself. Mexican sinologist and translator Riana Arsovska said: "Latin American land, climate, history, indigenous culture and European culture blended together to produce writers like García Márquez, resulting in literary genres including magic realism." ”
On April 18, Mexican sinologist and translator Liliana Arsovska was interviewed in Mexico City, mexico. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Francisco Canetto)
This "explosion" impressed the world with Latin American literature, and the writers of the "literary explosion" continued to write and become popular in the following decades. In this process, literary translations also played an important role in their success, giving their works a wider audience. Arsovska said that the relevant works have been translated and well received in China, further expanding the world influence of this group of writers.
Lou Yu, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Latin American "literary explosion" works have been favored by the Chinese publishing industry so far, and the Chinese translation works of relevant representative writers account for about 20% of all Latin American literature and Chinese translation works. "For most Chinese readers, Latin American 'explosive literature' introduced them to the temple of Latin American literature, constituting the 'background' of Latin American literature reading perception, and thus extending their attention to other periods of Latin American literature." Lou said.
"Literary Explosion" writers' works and related books published in China. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Jiarui
In recent years, in addition to continuing to publish or reprint works from the "literary explosion" period, many writers' own essays, essays and interviews have also been translated and disseminated in China. Lou Yu believes that through these books, Chinese readers have a deeper understanding of the creative experience, literary outlook and world view of Latin American writers, so as to better understand the classic works of the "literary explosion" period, as well as Latin American history, culture and social reality.
In addition to the impact on Chinese readers, the experimental narrative methods of Latin American "explosive literature", the novel structure and the overlapping narrative perspective of virtual and real are also profoundly influential on Chinese writers.
Arsovska said he has received many Chinese writers in Mexico who have come to exchange ideas, "and they have said that Latin American literature has had a huge influence on their creation." I also hope that in the future, more local writers will read and absorb the connotation of Chinese literature, and have more exchanges and mutual learning with Chinese writers."
-END-
Producer: Zhao Hui Yan Junyan
Reporter: Li Jiarui, Wu Hao, Chen Yao
Poster: Li Jiarui
Editors: Zhao Hui, Chen Junfeng, Jia Xiaohua, Jin Zheng, Wang Shen, Tang Zhiqiang