[Pongo el borrador de un largo trabajo bibliográfico que tuve que dejar inconcluso. Los lectores que no se lleven con el inglés pueden simplemente ir a las referencias bibliográficas, pues su compilación es lo positivo aquí]
INTRODUCTION
As it is the case of Ecuadorean poetry, prose from
this Andean country can also be divided into common Latin American literary
periods: Conquest, Colonial, 19th c., and Contemporary. It may also be read in accordance with
international writing styles —baroque, neoclassical, romantic, modernist, costumbrista, realist, and postmodern.
The latter integrates minor genres as detective novel, science-fiction, and
urban chronicles. While names such as
Eugenio Espejo, Juan Montalvo, Juan León Mera, and to a lesser extend colonial
female writers such as Madre Antonia Lucía Maldonado, Gertrudis de San Ildefonso,
or Catalina de Jesús María Herrera, may be familiar to the Latin American
readers of pre-20th century literature, it has been generally
accepted the idea that the so called Generación
del 30 remains the most powerful phenomenon of Ecuadorian letters. With the
backing of comments in its favor by national and international scholars, the Generación del 30 is a permanent topic
of debates entertained by writers and artists. Its influence also affected the
programs of education in Ecuadorian schools, which established it as the
national canon. During the last ten years, it has been the source of
discussions regarding nationality, racism, regionalism, centralist bureaucratization, ethnicity, gender diversity and social struggle.
The predominant style of this generation was social realism. Its main writers were José de la Cuadra, Enrique
Gil Gilbert, Demetrio Aguilera Malta, Joaquín Gallegos Lara, Angel Felicísimo
Rojas, Alfredo Pareja, and Jorge Icaza. Pablo Palacio and Humberto Salvador
were also members of this generation, but wrote in an experimental and
psychological style, which kept them isolated from their comrades. Some critics
also include later writers such as Adalberto Ortiz, and Pedro Jorge Vera.
GENERAL
OVERVIEWS
The Generación
del 30 literature appears in well known textbooks, histories and
anthologies of Latin America, as Franco’s, and Anderson Imbert and Florit’s,
but also in more recent introductions such as Kristal’s, Martin’s (141), and
Williams. It formerly received irregular backing in and out of its
country. For instance, Ecuadorian critic
Benjamín Carrión devoted a chapter to Pablo Palacio (1930) in an attempt to
make available the most cosmopolitan of Ecuadorian writers of his time to the
international reader. But others, like Hugo Barbagelata, in a book written in
Paris during the Nazi occupation, included a chapter Humberto Salvador, and
Fernando Chávez, two of the less known members of that generation. A clear,
simple yet warmly written article by Lilo Liken provides balanced information
on the social and literary context of Generación
del 30.
Anderson-Imbert, Enrique, and Eugenio Florit. Literatura Hispanoamericana. Vol. 2. Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1960.
Anderson-Imbert, Enrique.
Spanish-American Literature. A History. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1963.
Barbagelata,
Hugo D. La novela y el cuento en
Hispanoamérica. Montevideo, 1947.
Carrión,
Benjamín. Mapa de América. Madrid: Sociedad española de Madrid, 1930.
Franco, Jean. An Introduction to Spanish-American Literature. London: Cambridge
UP, 1975.
Kristal, Efraín, ed. The Cambridge Companion to The
Latin American Novel. Cambridge UP, 2005.
Martin, Gerald. Journeys
through the Labyrinth. Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century. London: Verso, 1989.
Menton,
Seymour. [1964] The Spanish American
Short Story: A Critical
Anthology. Los
Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center
Publications, University of California, 1980.
Donoso Pareja, Miguel. Los grandes
de la década del 30: estudio introductorio. Quito : El
Conejo, 1985.
Williams, Raymond Leslie. The Columbia Guide to the Latin American Novel since 1945. New York: Columbia UP, 2007.
Wishnia, KJA. Twentieth-century Ecuadorian narrative:
new readings in the context of the Americas. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1999.
OTHER
IMPORTANT STUDIES
It took one member of the Generación del 30 to write in a more organic way about his peers to
place them in a relevant position in Ecuadorian essay: Angel Felicísimo Rojas.
In a book called La novela ecuatoriana,
Rojas applies historical and generational methods to enhance a formal treatment
to the new literature (Rodríguez-Albán, Johnson). Years later, Miguel Donoso,
nephew of Alfredo Pareja, wrote the most important collection of short essay
and meditations about Generación del 30.
Donoso combines historical information, literary reception, and categories of
Russian formalism to analyze its most representative works. To avoid further
discussion about Pablo Palacio inclusion as a member (or not) of his
generation, Donoso implies that any generation of writers includes all of them
regardless of his/her predominant style or the critics’inclusion in it. Thus,
he mentions Humberto Salvador but avoids Adalberto Ortiz. Equally important
should be considered the prologues written by Jorge Enrique Adoum, and Raúl
Vallejo, as well as the testimony by Alfredo Pareja.
Adoum, Jorge
Enrique. “Prólogo.” Narradores
ecuatorianos del 30. Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho,
1980: IX-LXI
Pareja, Alfredo. Los
narradores de la generación del 30. El Grupo de Guayaquil. Discurso de ingreso
a la Academia de la Lengua. AFESE, No17, 1989. [http://revista iberoamericana.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/Iberoamericana/article/viewFile/4480/4647]
Rodríguez-Albán, Martha.
“Vigencia de la Novela ecuatoriana” de Angel F. Rojas”. Kipus. Vol. 25, I (2009):
151-164.
Rojas, Angel
Felicísimo. [1948]. La novela ecuatoriana,
2d edition. Guayaquil: Ariel, 1970.
Vallejo, Raúl. Vallejo, Raúl. “Prólogo.” Un hombre muerto a puntapiés: y otros textos.
Caracas:
Biblioteca Ayacucho, 2005: IX-LVII.
DEMETRIO
AGUILERA
While some lately research on this author is on his
theater, the material on his novels remains as more relevant. Despite this
fact, with the exception of very ambitious analysis by Rabassa, Granizo de
Valverde, Fama, Sacoto, and Bellini, not much criticism is available.
Aguilera’s novels Don Goyo, Siete Lunas y Siete Serpientes, Isla Virgen and Canal Zone, and his early short stories included in the book Los que se van are often the focus of
interest. There are also available reviews of his novels and interviews in
which magical realism and personal data are recurrent. His name also appears in articles of larger
scope (Reid, Fama 1978).
Angulo, María-Elena. Magic Realism: Social Context and Discourse. New York: Garland, 1995.
Bellini, Giusseppe . “El Señor Presidente y la temática de la dictadura en la nueva
novela hispanoamericana.” Anuario de
Estudios Centroamericanos. Universidad de Costa Rica, No. 3 (1977): 27-55.
--- Magia e realtá nella narrativa di Demetrio Aguilera Malta. Milano:
Cisalpino
Goliardica, 1972.
Carballo, Emmanuel. Protagonistas de la
literatura hispanoamericana. México: Santillana, 2007.
Diez, Luis A.
“The Apocalyptic Tropics of Aguilera Malta.” Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 10, No. 20 (Spring 1982): 31-40.
Fama, Antonio.
“Entrevista con Demetrio Aguilera-Malta.” Chasqui, Vol. 7, No. 3
(May 1978): 16-23.
--- Realismo
mágico en la literatura de Aguilera Malta. Madrid: Playor, 1977.
Granizo de
Valverde, María E. La narrativa de
Aguilera malta, un aporte a lo real maravilloso. Guayaquil: Casa de la Cultura, 1979.
Rabassa, Clementine
Christos. Demetrio Aguilera-Malta and Social Justice: The Tertiary Phase
of Epic Tradition in Latin
American Literature. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP,
1980.
--- En torno a Aguilera Malta: temas épicos y negros. Guayaquil:
Casa de la Cultura, 1981.
Reid, John T. “Literary Ecuador in 1943.” Hispania, Vol. 27, No. 3 (October 1944): 315-319.
Sacoto, Antonio.
Catorce novelas claves de la literatura
ecuatoriana. Cuenca: Universidad de Cuenca,
1990.
--- La
nueva novela ecuatoriana.
Cuenca: Universidad de Cuenca, 1981.
JOSE
DE LA CUADRA
Some of his stories have been translated into
English, French and German. José de La Cuadra is still little known by the
international reader. He is considered by some as the best writer of Grupo de Guayaquil (Gilard, Iduarte,
Nichols, Robles). His polished style and technique, framed in social and
historical contexts, can be seen in works such as Los Sangurimas and La Tigra. The former is an antecedent of
magical realism. The latter is a step forward in the construction of the
authoritarian female character of the tropics (Angulo, Carrión de Fierro). La Tigra has been adapted in a polemical
film by Jaime Luzuriaga (Handelsman 1997). De la Cuadra is also the author of
an essay in which he explains and elaborates on the montuvio, the countryside man of Coastal Ecuador (1937). At the present, his work is subject of new
publications and readings (De la Cuadra 2008, Gómez, Jackson), including some
undergraduate papers (Rodríguez-Arenas 97-111) that apply post-modern theory.
Humberto Robles remains the most devoted and specialized scholar on José de la
Cuadra.
Angulo,
María Elena. Magic realism: social
context and discourse. New
York: Garland: 1995.
Carrión de Fierro, Fanny Natalia. José de la Cuadra, precursor del realismo
mágico hispanoamericano. Quito: Pontificia Universidad
Católica del Ecuador, 1993.
De la Cuadra, José. El montuvio ecuatoriano. (ensayo
de presentación). Buenos Aires: Imán, 1937.
--- Noir
Équateur. Denis Amutio,
translator. Talence, France: L'arbre vengeur. 2008.
Gilard,
Jacques. Review of “Testimonio y
tendencia mítica en la obra de José de la Cuadra by
Humberto E. Robles”. Cahiers du monde hispanique et
luso-brésilien. No. 30 (1978): 212-214.
Gómez
Iturralde, José Antonio, ed. Historia,
Sociedad y Literatura en José de la cuadra. En el
Centenario
de su nacimiento (Septiembre 3, 1903). Guayaquil: Archivo Histórico del
Guayas, 2004.
Handelsman, Michael. “Trapped between Civilization
and Barbarism: Jose de la Cuadra's ‘The
Iduarte,
Andrés Iduarte. Review of “Los
Sangurimas” by José de la Cuadra.” Revista
Hispánica
Moderna. Año 7, No. ½ (January-April 1941): 85.
Lindstrom,
Naomi. Review of “Testimonio y
tendencia mítica en la obra de José de la Cuadra by
Rodríguez-Arenas,
Flor María, ed. Lecturas críticas de textos hispánicos. Pueblo: U of Southern
Colorado, 1998.
Robles,
Humberto E. El montuvio ecuatoriano: ensayo
de presentación. Humberto
E Robles, Introducción. Quito: Libresa-Universidad Andina Simón
Bolívar, 1996.
--- José de la Cuadra: tradición y
ruptura. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 2003.
--- Testimonio y
tendencia mítica en la obra de José de la Cuadra. Colección: Cuadernos de
la
Casa, 35. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1976.
Rodríguez-Arenas, Flor María. Lecturas críticas de textos hispánicos. Pueblo:
University of Southern Colorado,
1998.
JORGE
ICAZA
Author of Huasipungo,
Icaza is one of the founders of novela
indigenista, which captured the attention of readers of his time due to his
explicit denouncing of exploitation and victimization of the Andean peasant. He
is also the author of plays and the satirical novel El chulla Romero y Flores. Scholarship has largely focused on his
prose. While written in two very different periods, Garro’s and Sacoto’s analysis
offer balanced introductions to Icaza’s work. Dulsey and Ordóñez explore the
theatrical structure of his novels, and Borras elaborates on the concept of
“otherness”. Garcia (2009) offers a “reading in the margins” of Huasipungo
Borras,
Gérard. “Entre kenas et pututus : la représentation de « l'autre » dans la
littérature des
pays andins.” Caravelle (1988-)
, No. 76/77 (December 2001): 527-536.
Cevallos, Santiago. Las estéticas de Jorge Icaza y
Pablo Palacio bajo el signo de lo barroco y lo cinematográfico.
Quito: ABYA YALA ; Corporación Editora Nacional; Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, 2010
Corrales,
Manuel. “Las raices del relato indigenista ecuatoriano.” Revista de Crítica
Literaria
Latinoamericana. Año 4, No. 7/8 (1978): 39-52
Crooks,
Esther J. “Contemporary Ecuador in the Novel and Short Story.” Hispania.
Vol. 23, No.
1 (February 1940): 85-88.
Cueva,
Agustín. “En pos de la historicidad perdida (Contribución al debate sobre la
literatura
indigenista del Ecuador).” Revista de Crítica Literaria
Latinoamericana. Año 4, No. 7/8
(1978): 23-38.
Dulsey, Bernard. “Icaza sobre
Icaza.” The Modern Language Journal , Vol. 54, No.
4 (April
1970):
233-245.
--- “Jorge
Icaza and His Ecuador.” Hispania. Vol. 44, No. 1 (March 1961): 99-102.
García,
Antonio. “Sociología de la novela indigenista en el Ecuador: Estructura social
de la
novelística de Jorge Icaza.” Revista Mexicana de Sociología ,
Vol. 30, No. 4 (October- December
1968): 901-932.
García, G.V. “Maíz,
papas y carroña: La "identidad" alimenticia del "indio" de
“Huasipungo”. Neophilologus, 92(1)
(2009): 35-48 [doi:10.1007/s11061-007-9058-8].
Garro, J. Eugenio. “A través de las novelas de Jorge
Icaza.” Revista Hispánica Moderna. Año 12,
No. 3/4 (July-October 1946): 217-238.
--- “Jorge Icaza: Vida y obra.” Revista
Hispánica Moderna , Año 13, No. 3/4 (July-October
1947): 193-234.
Haidar,
Julieta and Hilda Tisoc. “El discurso de la identidad en la narrativa andina y
mesoamericana.” Boletín de Antropología Americana. No. 28 (December
1993): 17-30.
Lorente Medina, Antonio. La
narrativa menor de Jorge Icaza. Valladolid: Universidad de
Valladolid, 1980.
Nina, Fernando. La expresión
metaperiférica: narrativa ecuatoriana del siglo XX : José de
la
Cuadra, Jorge Icaza, Pablo Palacio. Madrid: Iberoamericana; Frankfurt am Main:
Vervuer, 2011.
Norman, James Earl. Ortiz' Juyungo and Icaza's Huasipungo; A
Comparative Study of Narrative and
Theme. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 1983.
Ojeda, Enrique. Elementos
picarescos en la novela "El Chulla Romero y Flores" de Jorge Icaza.
Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 1979.
Ordóñez Andrade. Huasipungo;
versión teatral de la novela de Jorge
Icaza. Quito: Casa de
la Cultura, 1970.
Ponce,
Néstor, Valeria Añón. Ecrire
la domination en Amérique latine: Balún-Canán [de] Rosario
Castellanos, Los rios profundos [de] José Maria Arguedas, El chulla romero y flores [de] Jorge Icaza. Paris:
Editions du Temps, 2004.
Sacoto, Antonio. Indianismo, indigenismo y neoindigenismo en
la novela ecuatoriana. Quito: Augusto Zúñiga Yánez Gemagrafic, 2006.
--- “Jorge Icaza: El indigenismo ecuatoriano.”
Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana.
Año 17, No. 33 (1991): 253-259.
Suárez, Modesta.
“El Chulla Romero y Flores: Icaza ou l'art de la mise en scène.” Caravelle
(1988-) No. 85 (December 2005): 223-236.
Vetrano, Anthony J. La problemática psico-social y
su correlación lingüística en las novelas de
Jorge Icaza. Miami, Florida: Ediciones Universal,
1974.
PABLO
PALACIO
In a short note published in 1931, the author writes
“[Pablo Palacio] is not so incoherent –he never is when compared to Joyce- but
is nevertheless confusing to the reader not accustomed to this genre- which
will be understood fifty years from now” (Sánchez 177). Indeed, ignored or
questioned by his own peers, who were not interested in his exploratory
psychological depths, nor in his narrative experiments, Pablo Palacio has
became the main topic of literary research in Ecuador. The first relevant
essays on Palacio by Latin American critics as Cornejo Polar or Jorge Rufinelli
are included in Miguel Donoso’s compilaton. Wilfrido Corral has produced an important
critical edition of Palacio’s complete works that includes an introduction of
one-hundred pages, and more than fifteen essays and notes by different authors.
Corral, Wilfrido, ed. Pablo
Palacio. Obras Completas. Madrid: ALLCA XX, 2000.
Donoso
Pareja, Miguel. Recopilación de textos sobre Pablo Palacio. Serie Valoración Múltiple.
Habana: casa de las América, 1987.
Handelsman,
Michael. “Joaquín Gallegos Lara y el ‘Síndrome de Falcón’: literatura,
mestizaje e
interculturalidad en el Ecuador”. Kipus.
No 25. I( 2009): 165-181.
--- “Una
doble y única lectura de "Una doble y única mujer" de Pablo Palacio.” Chasqui.
--- “Heterosexualidad
y diferencias generacionales en la literatura ecuatoriana.” Revista Iberoamericana. No 220 (Julio-Septiembre
2007): 595-613.
Robles,
Humberto E. “Pablo Palacio: el anhelo
insatisfecho.” Guaraguao. Año 12, No.
27
--- “Paradigmas
ecuatorianos (1920-1930): discordias, teorías, función de la literatura y
práctica narrativa. Guaraguao. Año 14, No 33 (2010): 17-30.
Sánchez, F.
“Pablo Palacio. Un hombre muerto a puntapiés” and “Débora.” Books
Abroad. Vol.
5, No 2 (April 1931): 177.
OTHER
WRITERS OF GENERACION DEL 30
The works by Enrique Gil, Alfredo Pareja, Joaquín
Gallegos Lara, and Angel F. Rojas have not been well searched out of Ecuador.
With a very few exception (Fernández, Molina, Schwartz) the amount of criticism
is limited to reviews, general introductions, and bibliographical indexes
around the publication years. More difficult yet is to find at the present
interest on them, maybe with the exception of Aguilera’s plays. Therefore, the
post-modern reader or scholar could embark in a pioneering exploration on
themes such as sexuality, race, territoriality, gender, and regional speech in
any of these writers, which will provide a more dynamic understanding of
Ecuadorian literature and cultures. With the exception of Afro-Ecuadorian
writer Adalberto Ortiz, whose novel Juyungo
was published in 1943, Pedro Jorge Vera and Humberto Salvador’s works still
wait to be re-discovered.
ENRIQUE GIL AND ALFREDO PAREJA
Most of the material written about Enrique Gil is
general and introductory, at the most. Sometimes, they make reference to his
awarded novel Nuestro Pan, or his
visit to the United States and his friendship with American writers of his
time, with emphasis on his political affiliation (Schwartz).
Donoso Pareja, Miguel. Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco: leyenda y realidad de un hombre de
reflexión. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 2010.
Fernández, Sergio. Cinco escritores hispanoamericanos. México: UNAM, 1958.
Molina, Gilberto. Enrique Gil
Gilbert: Notas para un ensayo. Ambato: Santa Marianita, 1974.
Schwartz, Kessel.
“Alfredo Pareja y Diez Canseco, Social Novelist.” Hispania,
Vol. 42, No. 2 (May 1959): 220-228.
--- Some
Aspects of the Contemporary Novel of Ecuador. Hispania , Vol. 38,
No. 3 (September 1955): 294-298.
JOAQUIN
GALLEGOS LARA
Not surprisingly, there is almost nothing published
(and available to the reader) about Joaquin Gallegos Lara as he was the most
radical and dogmatic writer of his generation. Physically handicapped, it is
only during the last ten years that, in Ecuador, his political ideas have
become reason of debate for some writers when revisiting the historical context
of his famous novel Las cruces sobre el agua, and the Generación del 30.
Gallegos Lara, Joaquín. Páginas
olvidadas de Joaquín Gallegos Lara, Alejandro Guerra
Cáceres, ed. Guayaquil: Universidad de Guayaquil,
1987.
Handelsman,
Michael. “Joaquín Gallegos Lara y ‘El síndrome de Falcón: literatura, mestizaje
e interculturalidad en Ecuador.” Kipus. 21. I (2009): 165-181.
Valencia, Leonardo. El síndrome de Falcón. Quito: Paradiso, 2008.
