José María Arguedas

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José María Arguedas (18 January 1911 – 28 November 1969) was a Peruvian novelist (writing in Spanish) although he also wrote poetry in Quechua.

Generally considered one of the greats of 20th century Peruvian letters, Arguedas was born in the province of Andahuaylas in the southern Peruvian Andes. He was brought up in poverty amongst the Quechua Indians, and learned Quechua before he learned Spanish. Eventually he ended up going to the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos where he studied anthropology. He worked as an anthropologist for the rest of his life.

Arguedas began by writing short stories about the Indian environment he was brought up in, in a Spanish highly influenced by Quechua syntax and vocabulary. By the time of his first novel, Yawar Fiesta, he had begun to explore the theme that would obsess him for the rest of his career: the clash between (white) 'civilised' civilisation, and the Indian, 'traditional' way of life. In this he was part of the Indianista movement in South American literature. He continued to explore this theme in his next two books Los Ríos Profundos (trans. "Deep Rivers") (1961) and Todas las Sangres (1964). Despite the continued influence of Indian grammar on his style, these remained more or less in the realist tradition. Arguedas had remained moderately optimistic about the possibility of a rapprochement between the forces of 'tradition' and the forces of 'modernity' up until this point, but as the 'sixties developed he became more pessimistic. In his last work El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo (Trans. "The Fox From Up Above and the Fox From Down Below") (1969) he abandoned realism for a more postmodern approach. This novel expressed his despair that the 'primitive' ways of the Indians could survive against the onslaught of modern technology and capitalism. In a deep depression, Arguedas committed suicide in 1969 while he was writing "El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo".

[edit] Works Available in English

Deep Rivers (2002) Waveland Press. ISBN 1-57766-244-X

Yawar Fiesta (2002) Waveland Press. ISBN 1-57766-245-8

The Fox from Up Above and the Fox from Down Below (2000) University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5718-3

[edit] Critical Studies

Elena Aibar Ray, Identidad y resistencia cultural en las obras de José María Arguedas. (1992) Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Ciro A. Sandoval and Sandra M. Boschetto-Sandoval (eds), Jose Maria Arguedas. (1998) Ohio University Press. ISBN 0-89680-200-0

Antonio Corjejo Polar, Los universos narrativos de José María Arguedas. (1997) Editorial Horizonte.

Roland Forges, José María Arguedas: Del pensamiento dialéctico al pensamiento trágico, historia de una tragedia. (1989) Editorial Horizonte.

Sergio R. Franco, editor, José María Arguedas: hacia una poética migrante. (2006) Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana. ISBN 1-930744-22-6

Wilfredo Kapsoli (compliador), Zorros al fin del milenio: actas y ensayos del seminario sobre la última novela de José María Arguedas. (2004) Universidad Ricardo Palma/Centro de Investigación. ISBN 9972-885-75-5

Misha Kokotovic, The colonial divide in Peruvian narrative: social conflict and transculturation. (2005) Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1-84519-029-7

Aymará de Llano, Pasión y agonía: la escritura de José María de Arguedas. (2004) Centro de Estudios Literarios 'Antonio Cornejo Polar'/Editorial Martin. ISBN 0-9747750-1-0

Amy Nauss Millay, Voices from the fuente viva: the effect of orality in twentieth-century Spanish American narrative. (2005) Bucknell University Press. ISBN 0-8387-5594-1

Melisa Moore, En las encruciadas: Las ciencias sociales y la novela en el Perú. (2003) Fondo Editorial Universiad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. ISBN 9972-46-211-0

Alberto Moreiras, The exhaustion of difference: the politics of Latin American cultural studies. (2001 ) Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-2726-0 (cloth) 0822327244 (pbk.)

Silverio Muñoz, José María Arguedas y el mito de la salvación por la cultura. (1987) Editorial Horizonte.

Thomas Ward, "Arguedas: su alabanza del mestizo cultural", La resistencia cultural: la nación en el ensayo de las Américas. (2004) Universidad Ricardo Palma/Editorial Universitaria. ISBN 9972-885-78-X