Augusto's Fans (7)

Augusto Roa Bastos

Author profile

born

June 13, 1917 in Asunción, Paraguay

died

April 26, 2005

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories

About this author

edit data

Augusto Roa Bastos was a noted Paraguayan novelist and short story writer, and one of the most important Latin American writers of the 20th century. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor. He is best known for his complex novel Yo el Supremo (I, the Supreme) and for his reception of the Premio Miguel de Cervantes in 1989, Spanish literature's most prestigious prize. Yo el Supremo is one of the foremost Latin American novels to tackle the topic of the dictator. It explores the dictations and inner thoughts of Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who ruled Paraguay with an iron fist and no little eccentricity from 1814 until his death in 1840.

Roa...more Augusto Roa Bastos was a noted Paraguayan novelist and short story writer, and one of the most important Latin American writers of the 20th century. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor. He is best known for his complex novel Yo el Supremo (I, the Supreme) and for his reception of the Premio Miguel de Cervantes in 1989, Spanish literature's most prestigious prize. Yo el Supremo is one of the foremost Latin American novels to tackle the topic of the dictator. It explores the dictations and inner thoughts of Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who ruled Paraguay with an iron fist and no little eccentricity from 1814 until his death in 1840.

Roa Bastos' life and writing were marked by experience with dictatorial military regimes. In 1947 he was forced into exile in Argentina, and in 1976 he fled Buenos Aires for France in similar political circumstances. Most of Roa Bastos' work was written in exile, but this did not deter him from fiercely tackling Paraguayan social and historical issues in his work. Writing in a Spanish that was at times heavily augmented by Guaraní words (the major Paraguayan indigenous language), Roa Bastos incorporated Paraguayan myths and symbols into a Baroque style known as magic realism. He is considered a late-comer to the Latin American Boom literary movement. Roa Bastos' personal canon includes the novels Hijo de hombre (1960; Son of Man) and El fiscal (1993; The Prosecutor), as well as numerous other novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays.

Roa Bastos was an exponent of the Neobaroque style that brought Latin American literature to the fore internationally in the mid-20th century. Among others, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is also associated with this school of writing. The style uses a complex system of metaphors that are often very closely tied to the land, flora and culture of the particular writer, especially in the case of Roa Bastos. Magic realism is a Neobaroque concept that applies such systems of metaphor to otherwise realistic settings (Yo, el Supremo being a notable example of the form). The Neobaroque style was used by many Paraguayan writers in exile after 1947 and until the 1980s. At the core of much of the work from this group are ideas of political freedom and the emancipation of their homeland.[33]

Roa Bastos started out writing poetry in the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque traditions. Later he took on "a new sensibility" in response to the poetry of Valle-Inclán, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and García Lorca. However, it is as a prose-fiction writer Roa Bastos has built his considerable reputation, through his novels and numerous short stories. Roa Bastos' novels blend the present and past by creating scenes with myths from pre-colonial times and Christian legends, developing a special kind of Magic Realism, although there are significant stylistic variations between his major novels.(less)

combine editions
Books by Augusto Roa Bastos

Average rating: 3.85 · 140 ratings · 11 reviews · 17 distinct works

	I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos, Helen Lane 3.87 avg rating — 67 ratings — published 1974 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Hijo de Hombre 3.97 avg rating — 37 ratings — published 1969 — 7 editions	My rating:
	El Trueno Entre Las Hojas 4.31 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1997 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Madama Sui 3.30 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 1996 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Contravida 3.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	El Fiscal 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1993 — 3 editions	My rating:
	El Baldio 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	My rating:
	Kurupi i inne opowiadania 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1984	My rating:
	Cuentos Completos 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Die Nacht Der Treibenden Feuer: Erzählungen Aus Paraguay 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1986 — 4 editions	My rating:

More books by Augusto Roa Bastos…

Quotes by Augusto Roa Bastos

“It is not by believing but by doubting that one can attain to the truth, which is ever changing form and condition.”
― Augusto Roa Bastos, I, the Supreme

tags: belief , change , truth

7 people liked it

“To write does not mean to convert the real into words but to make the power of the word real.”
― Augusto Roa Bastos, I, the Supreme

tags: words , writing

5 people liked it

“Forms disappear, words remain, to signify the impossible.”
― Augusto Roa Bastos, I, the Supreme

tags: content , form , words

3 people liked it

See all Augusto Roa Bastos's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Around the World ...: Paraguay	3	23	Dec 31, 2011 12:34pm