The dictator novel is a genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society, examining the relationships between power, dictatorship and writing through the theme of caudillismo, the regime of a charismatic political strongman. Although mostly associated with the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, the genre traces its roots to Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's nineteenth-century nonfiction work Facundo (1845), and a dictator novel often functions as an allegory for the writer's own role in Latin American society.
Facts
Place of Origin Notable ExampleI, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos (1974) 1 Defining TraitStrong political themes drawn from history examining the dictator's power and reflecting on authoritarianism 1 Defining Trait FAQs
Which novel is considered the first real dictator novel?
Gerald Martin names El Señor Presidente by Miguel Ángel Asturias, written in 1933 and published in 1946.
The critic Gerald Martin calls El Señor Presidente by Miguel Ángel Asturias "the first real dictator novel." Asturias wrote it in 1933, but it was not published until 1946.
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Source Dictator novel, Wikipedia
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Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Dictator novel, Wikipedia
Sources
1. Dictator novel, Wikipedia
Lead section
the dictator novel is a genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society
Classic dictator novels section
I, the Supreme (Yo, el Supremo, 1974) is a fictionalized account of the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia.
Definition section
To be considered a dictator novel, a story should have strong political themes drawn from history, a critical examination of the power held by the dictator, the caudillo, and some general reflection on the nature of authoritarianism.
Lead paragraph, defining sentence
The dictator novel (Spanish: novela del dictador) is a genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society.
Subgenre Of: The Novel, Lead paragraph, sentence naming the parent genre
Alternatively, the novelist might create a fictional dictator to achieve the same narrative end, as in Reasons of State (1974), by Alejo Carpentier, in which the dictator is a composite man assembled from historical dictators.
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