Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:01:25.114Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The critical reception of García Márquez

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2010

Philip Swanson
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Get access

Summary

Serious criticism of Gabriel García Márquez began in the late 1960s, with a particular breakthrough in 1967, the year of One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad). Before that critical date, however, Volkening, Loveluck and Harss (who is said to have introduced the term 'Boom') had already recognised that a potentially important new figure had emerged in Spanish American fiction. Early criticism of the Boom tended to approach early Boom fiction from standpoints associated with readings of older regional novels by writers such as Ricardo Güiraldes and Rómulo Gallegos in the 1920s. Thus Volkening begins by lamenting the tendency to relate contemporary Spanish American fiction to European and North American models (Joyce, Faulkner) and demanding that the 'criollo (i.e. Spanish American) author' be evaluated on his own terms. He goes on to suggest that García Márquez (before One Hundred Years of Solitude, of course) continues the creative pattern of the regional novel but with 'new means of expression'. At the same time, however, like Ángel Rama in the following year, he emphasises the 'dry realism' of García Márquez's style and his tone of social protest. This was not how much future criticism would develop. Loveluck, on the other hand, immediately emphasises García Márquez's newness and associates it right away with 'overcoming outworn nativist and costumbrist formulae'. It is noteworthy that at this point the idea of the Boom had not yet gelled, and Loveluck places García Márquez correctly alongside Carlos Fuentes, José Donoso and Mario Vargas Llosa, but allows Rosario Castellanos, Enrique Lafourcade and David Viñas to get into the act.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×