Revisiting the past: trajectories of the dictator novel in Hispanic and American literature

Abstract

This article presents a historical timeline of the rise of the dictator novel in the Hispanic America from the nineteenth century, with the narratives whose theme is the tyrant, until the contemporary times, with the recovery of this subgenre after its peak in the 70s and 80s of last century. In addition, the text examines how the theme of the dictatorship and the figure of the dictator appear reformulated in the contemporary dictator novel in comparison to the similar literary production from the nineteenth century. For this, we will analyze the novel La fiesta del chivo, by the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who follows other Hispanic-American authors regarding this subgenre. Keywords: Contemporary Literature; Hispanic-American Literature; dictator novel.