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, Ivan 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 Ivan 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 Jose Maria 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 dinamico resurgimiento que ha experimentado la narrativa peruana desde finales de la decada de los noventa. Las siete novelas de Jaime Bayly, presentador de television, han escandalizado a la sociedad limena debido al tratamiento que en ellas se da al tema de la homosexualidad y han generado un record de ventas por todo el mundo de habla hispana debido a su apasionante recreacion del argot limeno y a su concentracion en los temas del grupo McOndo. El profesor de universidad Ivan Thays se ha opuesto firmemente a esta literatura light, ofreciendo en su lugar una alternativa culta. Sus tres novelas han desempenado un importante papel en la regeneracion de la cultura peruana desde la caida del poder del Presidente Alberto Fujimori. La narrativa de Jorge Eduardo Benavides, radicado en Madrid, ha presentado una alternativa esteticamente estimulante y explicitamente politizada. Por lo que respecta a la mediacion entre la cultura y la politica en el Peru desde la decada de los anos treinta, la labor de unificacion de la estetica y la politica de Benavides se halla, en cuanto a importancia, al nivel de Mario Vargas Llosa y Jose Mari