Wellsprings

Inbunden, Engelska, 2008

Del 4 i serien Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature

179 kr

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Beskrivning

When a master novelist, essayist, and critic searches for the wellsprings of his own work, where does he turn? Mario Vargas Llosa—Peruvian writer, presidential contender, and public intellectual—answers this most personal question with elegant concision in this collection of essays. In “Four Centuries of Don Quixote,” he revisits the quintessential Spanish novel—a fiction about fiction whose ebullient prose still questions the certainties of our stumbling ideals. In recounting his illicit, delicious discovery of Borges’ fiction—“the most important thing to happen to imaginative writing in the Spanish language in modern times”—Vargas Llosa stands in for a generation of Latin American novelists who were liberated from their sense of isolation and inferiority by this Argentinean master of the European tradition.In a nuanced appreciation of Ortega y Gasset, Vargas Llosa recovers the democratic liberalism of a misunderstood radical—a mid-century political philosopher on a par with Sartre and Russell, ignored because “he was only a Spaniard.” And in essays on the influence of Karl Popper and Isaiah Berlin, the author finds an antidote to the poisonous well of fanaticism in its many modern forms, from socialist utopianism and nationalism to religious fundamentalism. From these essays a picture emerges of a writer for whom the enchantment of literature awakens a critical gaze on the turbulent world in which we live.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2008-05-01
Mått:111 x 181 x 19 mm
Vikt:272 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature
Antal sidor:208
Förlag:Harvard University Press
ISBN:9780674028364

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Essäer inom Skönlitteratur

Mer om författaren

Mario Vargas Llosa’s many novels include The Feast of the Goat, The Storyteller, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and, most recently, The Bad Girl. In 2006 he presented the Richard A. Ellmann lectures at Emory University, entitled “Three Masters,” which were adapted for this volume.

Recensioner i media

In seven incisive essays, novelist and Peruvian political aspirant Vargas Llosa reflects on literature and history, the crucial role of fiction in human society and the link between totalitarianism and nationalism. Lucidly and elegantly, he explores the sources of inspiration for his literary oeuvre, analyzing the significance for Latin American writers of Borges, whose works served to "dispel a kind of inferiority complex...that kept us imprisoned in a provincial outlook." His social consciousness protests the suppression of the Catalans and the Basques in modern Spain, as well as the treatment of indigenous Indians in Latin America. He conjectures that it's the uneasy blend of two cultures, "one Western and modern, the other aboriginal and archaic," that accounts for the prevalence of surrealism in Latin American fiction. Among the greatest influences on his intellectual development he cites his mentor, Porras Barrenechea, a professor of history who illuminated the myths and legends that underlie Peruvian fiction, and the political theorist Ortega y Gasset...The relationship between history and fiction is convincingly explained: "the most fertile moments for fiction are those when collective certainties...break down," because then people "look to the order and coherence of the fictional world."