Venezuelan literature can be traced to pre-Hispanic times with the myths and oral literature that formed the cosmogonic view of the world that indigenous people had. Some of these stories are still known in Venezuela. Like many Latin American countries, the Spanish conquerors have had the greatest effect on both the culture and the literature. The first written documents by the Spanish colonizers are considered to be the origin of Venezuela's written literature. This has included chronicles, letters, acts, etc. Venezuela's first major writer was Andrés Bello. Venezuelan literature developed in the 19th century with the formation of Venezuela as a nation state and the political conflicts of the time between conservatives and liberals. In the 20th century, with the modernization and urbanization of Venezuela thanks to the economic boom provided by the petroleum, some of its finest writers were: Rómulo Gallegos, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Salvador Garmendia.
Rafael Cadenas and Eugenio Montejo are among the best known poets of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.
|
||||||||||||||||||||