Image and Reality of Latin American Writer in the Global Age

Abstract

This essay examines the evolution of the figure of the Latin American author as a "character" in his fictions and as a real person, involved in the issues of his time and affected by them. Beginning with the Boom period, when the dominant novels flaunted their impersonal writing style even as the novelists themselves were exalted as cultural heroes, the essay ends with early Twenty-First Century narrative, in which through the technique of self-fictionalization authors inscribe themselves more deeply into their fictions. Despite being ever-present in his works, this transformation of the author into a mere character, stimulated by the Internet, blogs, and social networks, erases the barriers between fiction and nonfiction and allows the author to portrays himself with self-critical humility, coming to terms with a new reality that forces him to live side by side on equal terms with his fellow citizens (and readers).