World Literature Research Project

Donald Li
Donald Li
Sep 8, 2018 · 12 min read

Country Overview

Peru is a country situated in Western South America with a population of over 31 million people. Its capital city is Lima, being South America’s largest city. The official languages they speak in Peru is Spanish, although there are some other languages they speak such as Quechua and Aymara. Peru is a very diverse country, with ethnicity background from all over the world. This diversity has allowed Peru to have a wider variety of culture, art and dining. Peru is a very prosperous country, ranking high in different aspects such as Human Development Index (HDI) stretching to having a high economical growth rate. This is why Peru is considered such a suitable country to be in.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/peru

Historical Overview

Some of the world’s most famous and inspiring writers come from Peru. A leading writer and a very influential figure comes from Peru, his name Mario Vargas Llosa. Llosa writes some of Latin Americas most prestigious novels and essays. Some of his most famous works are ‘The Time of the Hero’ and ‘The War of the End of the World’. Mario is a very successful man, completing his doctorate at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Not only has he completed his doctorates, he has received many awards such as a place in the Peruvian Academy of Language as a member and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010.

https://www.biography.com/people/mario-vargas-llosa-37161

Another one of the world’s most successful poets comes from Peru. His name was César Vallejo. His poems are translated all over the world, with comprehensive studies into them. Not only is he highly praised in the world, he is considered the best poet in Peru. Having a title such as this is unarguably successful. Some of his most famous works are ‘Black Stone of Top of a White Stone’ and ‘Black Messengers’. The way Vallejo wrote his books and poems were often considered ‘one step ahead’, creative and smart. As quoted from the leading authority regarding world literature, Martin Seymour-Smith, “…the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language.”

https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/a-fan-of-cesar-vallejo-peruvian-poet-s-work-now-in-indian-languages/story-aIToTMvj7zCi84KSrUhHHL.html

Very few people can be as successful as this man named Abraham Valdelomar. Valdelomar was one of Peru’s leading storytellers, having talents in areas such as being a journalist, poet, writer and playwright. Abraham went to go study at the University of San Marcos, but then left to go into the field of politics and journalism. Some of his best works include short story collections such as ‘El caballero Carmelo’ and ‘Los hijos del sol’. His success also has enabled himself to be printed on the 50 banknote in Peru.

Short Story Examination

Voices by Fernando Ampuero (translated by Anna Heath)

The short story talks initially talks about this man and his friend that is a doctor. One day the man goes to the doctor to report a problem with his ears. The doctor pointed out that his cartilage has grown in size and not because he is deaf. This point made the link between the main part of the short story. The doctor starts to recall a past patient, this lady with her son. The lady came to tell the doctor that her son cannot hear certain things, much like the doctor’s friend, however as the doctor and the lady discussed, it was soon found out that the child didn’t have any problems, it was a psychological issue with the mother, where her parents died a year before and then she was divorced. This caused her to hallucinate and talk to her grandparents.

I did a bit of research into Fernando and he is a writer and journalist. He has investigated and put people away in jail which can be seen and represented in his work. A lot of the themes in this story are towards the darker side of things but there are some very important ones such as family and friendship.

Distant by Jorge Eduardo Benavides

This short story talks about two young boys. They are almost completely opposite. Jorge first starts off by talking about Raul, a boy who lives in Peru but wants to visit Spain to see the snow. He was split from his family from when he was very young, now trying to make a living. He makes his living off selling cigarettes and chewing gum. He misses his mother and constantly gets letters from her. There is a pun at the end of the letter Raul receives from this mother, which comes into play at the end of the other letter from the other boy’s dad. Jorge then talks about the other boy Paco. He lives in Spain and it is pouring with snow. It is almost Christmas time which Jorge represents as a very happy time. Paco is part of a very wealthy family and can have all the presents he wants. He has interesting parents as well as opportunities from them. He is quite the opposite of Raul. Jorge ends off the story with the same pun as written in the first letter which concludes the story very nicely.

Jorge has explained some parts about Peru as well as Spain, giving some context and information about some of the countries traditions. The themes relate to family again, which can be seen as the most important theme in this piece.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/questions-to-ask-the-school-about-snow-days-3106757

Poem Examination

Distant Yet Never So Close by Blanca Varela:

The poem is written in Spanish and then translated into English. It basically talks about the world and life, in quite a meta way, using an extensive amount of analogies. It also tells us about perception and the way we can see things. Although not really telling us anything about Peru, it explores themes of darkness and light as well as touching on darker themes, enabling us to think quite meta about the things she is trying to say.

Distantes y nunca tan próximos
caminamos sobre una tierra que zozobra
acostados en ella o simplemente de pie
sentimos el corcoveo del tiempo

no se trata de llamas temibles
ni de mares ingobernables
en esta tierra la mente y el cuerpo
tienen el mismo vaivén
en el aire que carece de peso
ya que nada es diferente en la memoria
de lo que hemos visto o imaginado

soñamos como vivimos
esperando sin certeza ni ciencia
lo único que sospechamos definitivo
el acorde final en esta vaga música
que nos encierra

a veces la duda
explícita como una flor
con pétalos y señales nos induce
a girar en nuestros ejes
a tener sed
a beber entintado labios imaginados
en el odre más viejo y mortal

lugar oscuro sitio de luz
sería el cielo en el ojo que se mira
en la mano que se cierra
para asirse a sí misma
en lo inmensamente abierto

a la postre como quien cierra un ataúd
o una carta
un rayo de sol
como una espada asomará para cegarnos
y abrir de par en par la oscuridad
como una fruta asombrosamente herida
como una puerta que nada oculta
y sólo guarda lo mismo

Black Stone on Top of a White Stone by Cesar Vallejo

Cesar talks about how he will die in Paris, but how he does not care. He talks about how it will be on a Thursday, as on Thursday this is when he had changed. It first starts off with it being spoken in first person, but on the last paragraph it is written in third person. The title might be referring to yin and yang because the stones represent the traditional black and white that yin and yang has, but also could be referring to themes which relate to death and loneliness.

I shall die in Paris, in a rainstorm,
On a day I already remember.
I shall die in Paris — it does not bother me —
Doubtless on a Thursday, like today, in autumn.

It shall be a Thursday, because today, Thursday
As I put down these lines, I have set my shoulders
To the evil. Never like today have I turned,
And headed my whole journey to the ways where I am alone.

César Vallejo is dead. They struck him,
All of them, though he did nothing to them,
They hit him hard with a stick and hard also
With the end of a rope. Witnesses are: the Thursdays,
The shoulder bones, the loneliness, the rain, and the roads…

https://www.colourbox.com/image/black-shiny-zen-stones-with-water-drops-over-black-background-image-3331866

Nostalgia by José Santos Chocano

José talks about how he has been travelling the world for ten years now. In one stanza, he talks about how he would rather be something worse than the other, this could be representing his want to go back home, as he is quite nostalgic at the moment. In another stanza, he talks about terrain, which this he could be talking about features of Peru, but also on the other hand he could be talking about where he is travelling. In the second last stanza, he talks reinforces how badly he wants to go home and see his family. He ends off the poem with the exact same words he started off with, how he has only lived a little, but is already tired. This can refer to the burden that life has, how there are so many things to do, but only yourself can limit what you can do.

Hace ya diez años
que recorro el mundo.
¡He vivido poco!
¡Me he cansado mucho!

Quien vive de prisa no vive de veras:
quien no hecha raíces no puede dar frutos.

Ser río que corre, ser nube que pasa,
sin dejar recuerdos ni rastro ninguno,
es triste, y más triste para el que se siente
nube en lo elevado, río en lo profundo.

Quisiera ser árbol, mejor que ser ave,
quisiera ser leño, mejor que ser humo,
y al viaje que cansa
prefiero el terruño:
la ciudad nativa con sus campanarios,
arcaicos balcones, portales vetustos
y calles estrechas, como si las casas
tampoco quisiesen separarse mucho…

Estoy en la orilla
de un sendero abrupto.
Miro la serpiente de la carretera
que en cada montaña da vueltas a un nudo;
y entonces comprendo que el camino es largo,
que el terreno es brusco,
que la cuesta es ardua,
que el paisaje mustio…

¡Señor!, ya me canso de viajar, ya siento
nostalgia, ya ansío descansar muy junto
de los míos… Todos rodearán mi asiento
para que les diga mis penas y triunfos;
y yo, a la manera del que recorriera
un álbum de cromos, contaré con gusto
las mil y una noches de mis aventuras
y acabaré con esta frase de infortunio:

-¡He vivido poco!
¡Me he cansado mucho!

https://essayvictory.biz/blog/25-facts-traveling-around-world/

Sea and Shell by Martín Adán

You can interpret this poem in many ways, due it being quite metaphysical, which is represented in a lot of Martín’s works. At first, I thought the poem could be referring to a seashell and its contents, maybe a pearl, but after reading it over a couple times I thought it was about the power of his words, it was how the poem was created, which could refer to how the shell can’t be without the sea. The poem explores themes which are quite metaphysical and deep.

A woman and a ball: out of a sudden agreement
the world forms, in its inane rotation.
It begins with the fish, which inhabits the wasteland.

A curve sighs. Nothing swells immediately.
A mathematical point: the sphere,
void, terrestrial, a cloud of breath.

If the chimera doesn’t declare itself
in service and pure verse,
it will wail its words of truth.

The world revolves in an animal rush.
The most humble fish, of all the mud,
mired in the eye, bearing the colure.

A leg, or terror, arises, expands:
the air is the passion of the bather:
light, in recess, flashes and dies out.

A woman and a ball drop from a bristle,
a thin line of ice in which everything concludes,
matter the hand raises into view.

World in the air, simple being and aspect:
algae rising boldly within the descent.
A fish that bites its own tail bleeds mud.

Fabio, this passage and flow and writhing I’m thinking of
is the world: element, eruption: everything, nothing,
in the immense power.

From the rhythm: figures and the first creed,
and happiness, a lesson for the universe as it rolls
into time, pulling along its shell and ancient verse.

The Ice Guardian by José Watanabe

José writes a simple but pure poem. It first starts off by a supposed someone who is looking after an ice-cream man’s cart. He explains that the sun is out as well, melting the ice-cream. He dedicates a full stanza to describing how to ice-cream is melting, giving analogies as far as quartz crystals and mountains. He ends the poem quite enjoyable. He starts off with a quote, then an act of personification which leads to a funny last line, which could refer to him eating the ice-cream as a last act of saving it. Some themes explored are love and life.

Y coincidimos en el terral
el heladero con su carretilla averiada
y yo
que corría tras los pájaros huidos del fuego
de la zafra.
También coincidió el sol.
En esa situación cómo negarse a un favor llano:
el heladero me pidió cuidar su efímero hielo.

Oh cuidar lo fugaz bajo el sol…

El hielo empezó a derretirse
bajo mi sombra, tan desesperada
como inútil.
Diluyéndose
dibujaba seres esbeltos y primordiales
que sólo un instante tenían firmeza
de cristal de cuarzo
y enseguida eran formas puras
como de montaña o planeta
que se devasta.

No se puede amar lo que tan rápido fuga.
Ama rápido, me dijo el sol.
Y así aprendí, en su ardiente y perverso reino,
a cumplir con la vida:
yo soy el guardián del hielo.

https://tietheknot.scot/ice-cream-cart/

Concluding comments

This project has allowed me to immerse myself in Peruvian literature. It was very interesting finding out different Peruvian short stories, poems and famous writers. Some other things I found interesting were that practically all of the writers and poets were predominantly male. This obviously could be argued that it was because I researched a lot of older poets and writers. I enjoyed researching a lot of these stories and poems because it enabled me to read stories and poems, considering different aspects of the works, as well as see how different writers produce completely different works. Overall, it was a beneficial project that allowed me to expand my horizon and knowledge of Peruvian literary works.

Bibliography

VARELA, B.

Distant Yet Never So Close

(Varela, 2018)

Varela, B. (2018). Distant Yet Never So Close. [online] Poetrytranslation.org. Available at: http://www.poetrytranslation.org/poems/distant-yet-never-so-close [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

AMPUERO, F.

Peruvian Short Stories: An Anthology

(Ampuero, 2018)

Ampuero, F. (2018). Peruvian Short Stories: An Anthology. [online] Issuu. Available at: https://issuu.com/storiesf/docs/antologia [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

VALLEJO, C.

Black Stone on Top of a White Stone — Poem by Cesar Vallejo

(Vallejo, 2018)

Vallejo, C. (2018). Black Stone on Top of a White Stone — Poem by Cesar Vallejo. [online] Famouspoetsandpoems.com. Available at: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/cesar_vallejo/poems/5376 [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

CHOCANO, J. S.

Nostalgia Poem by Jose Santos Chocano — Poem Hunter

(Chocano, 2018)

Chocano, J. (2018). Nostalgia Poem by Jose Santos Chocano — Poem Hunter. [online] PoemHunter.com. Available at: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/nostalgia-73/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

ADÁN, M.

Poetry: Martín Adán (translated by Katherine Silver and Rick London) | OmniVerse

(Adán, 2018)

Adán, M. (2018). Poetry: Martín Adán (translated by Katherine Silver and Rick London) | OmniVerse. [online] Omniverse.us. Available at: http://omniverse.us/poetry-martin-adan-translated-by-katherine-silver-and-rick-london/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

DUPRE, B.

An Introduction to Peruvian Literature in 7 Writers

Dupre, 2017)

Dupre, B. (2017). An Introduction to Peruvian Literature in 7 Writers. [online] Culture Trip. Available at: https://theculturetrip.com/south-america/peru/articles/an-introduction-to-peruvian-literature-in-7-writers/ [Accessed 8 Sep. 2018].

PAGE, B.

Mario Vargas Llosa: Five essential novels

(Page, 2010)

Page, B. (2010). Mario Vargas Llosa: Five essential novels. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/07/mario-vargas-llosa-five-essential-novels [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

STAFF, World bank.

Peru Overview

(World Bank Staff, 2018)

Staff, WORLD BANK. (2018). Overview. [online] World Bank. Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/peru/overview [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018]

NEWS, BBC.

BBC News — Peru country profile

(BBC News, 2012)

News, BBC. (2012). BBC News — Peru country profile. [online] News.bbc.co.uk. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1224656.stm [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

PLANAS, E.

Fernando Ampuero: “Yo vivía con fecha de vencimiento”

(Planas, 2018)

Planas, E. (2018). Fernando Ampuero: “Yo vivía con fecha de vencimiento”. [online] El Comercio. Available at: https://elcomercio.pe/luces/libros/impreso-fernando-ampuero-entrevista-bruja-lima-noticia-515409 [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].

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