Contemporary Peruvian Narrative and Popular Culture

The first book-length study of modern Peruvian narrative and its resurgence in the 1990s, focussing on Jaime Bayly, Ivn Thays and Jorge Eduardo Benavides. This book provides the first look at the dynamic resurgence of Peruvian narrative since the late 1990s. Talk-show host Jaime Bayly's seven novels have scandalized Lima's society with their treatment of homosexuality and haveattracted record sales throughout the Spanish-speaking world with their exciting re-creation of Lima slang and focus on McOndo themes. University lecturer Ivn Thays has vigorously opposed this light narrative by providinga "high" cultural alternative. His three novels have played an important role in the regeneration of Peruvian culture since the fall from power of President Alberto Fujimori. Madrid-based Jorge Eduardo Benavides' narrative has offered an aesthetically challenging and explicitly politicized alternative. His marrying of aesthetics and politics stands in importance alongside Mario Vargas Llosa and Jos Mara Arguedas in terms of the mediation between cultureand politics in Peru since the 1930s.. ROBERT RUZ completed his PhD at Cambridge University under the supervision of Geoffrey Kantaris. En este libro se ofrece la primera perspectiva del dinmico resurgimiento que ha experimentado la narrativa peruana desde finales de la dcada de los noventa. Las siete novelas de Jaime Bayly, presentador de televisin, han escandalizado a la sociedad limea debido al tratamiento que en ellas se da al tema de la homosexualidad y han generado un rcord de ventas por todo el mundo de habla hispana debido a su apasionante recreacin del argot limeo y a su concentracin en los temas del grupo McOndo. El profesor de universidad Ivn Thays se ha opuesto firmemente a esta literatura light, ofreciendo en su lugar una alternativa culta. Sus tres novelas han desempeado un importante papel en la regeneracin de la cultura peruana desde la cada del poder del Presidente Alberto Fujimori. La narrativa de Jorge Eduardo Benavides, radicado en Madrid, ha presentado una alternativa estticamente estimulante y explcitamente politizada. Por lo que respecta a la mediacin entre la cultura y la poltica en el Per desde la dcada de los aos treinta, la labor de unificacin de la esttica y la poltica de Benavides se halla, en cuanto a importancia, al nivel de Mario Vargas Llosa y Jos Mar