TALK / POETRY “Representation(s) of the Past: The “Counter-Histories” of Augusto Roa Bastos” by Vijaya Venkataraman at Instituto Cervantes, 48, Hanuman Road, Connaught Place (CP) > 11:30am on 27th May 2017

Augusto Roa Bastos

Time : 11:30 am Add to Calendar 27/05/2017 11:30 27/05/2017 13:00 Asia/Kolkata TALK / POETRY “Representation(s) of the Past: The “Counter-Histories” of Augusto Roa Bastos” by Vijaya Venkataraman Event Page : http://www.delhievents.com/2017/05/talk-poetry-representations-of-past.html Instituto Cervantes, 48, Hanuman Road, Connaught Place (CP), New Delhi - 110001 DD/MM/YYYY

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Venue : Instituto Cervantes, 48, Hanuman Road, Connaught Place (CP), New Delhi - 110001
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Metro : Nearest Metro Station - 'Rajiv Chowk' (Yellow Line and Blue Line)
Area : Connaught Place (CP)

Event Description : TALK / POETRY “Representation(s) of the Past: The “Counter-Histories” of Augusto Roa Bastos” by: Vijaya Venkataraman
Tribute to Augusto Roa Bastos

As part of 'Literature and Thinking' Series. 

Synopsis: On the occasion of the birth centenary of Augusto Roa Bastos – one of Paraguay’s best known writers of the 20th century – it would be opportune to understand the significance of his works in his times and for us today. Hence, in this talk, I propose to examine some of the narrative strategies that Augusto Roa Bastos takes recourse to in his novels to construct what he calls a “counter-history” with the purpose of questioning the representations of history. The aim would be to read Augusto Roa Bastos’ works against some theoretical formulations on the interactions between history and fiction in postcolonial contexts while situating them within the specific circumstance of the writer’s political exile during Alfredo Stroessner’s long dictatorship in Paraguay.

About the writer: Augusto Roa Bastos (June 13, 1917 – April 26, 2005) was a Paraguayan novelist and short story writer. 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 winning the Premio Miguel de Cervantes in 1989, Spanish literature's most prestigious prize. Yo el Supremo 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 magical realism. He is considered a late-comer to the Latin American Boom literary movement. Roa Bastos' 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. 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 

About the speaker: Dr. Vijaya Venkataraman is Associate Professor in Hispanic Literature in the Department of Germanic & Romance Studies. She was awarded a Doctoral Degree from Jawaharlal Nehru
University for her thesis on the “Narrative Strategies in the Works of Augusto Roa Bastos”. She has
published several research articles on the Latin American Historical Novel and the works of Augusto Roa Bastos, the Detective novel and its contemporary manifestations in Argentina, India and Spain. She has also published two books for learners of Spanish in co-authorship with Roser Noguera. Her creative pursuits run parallel to her academic ones. Writing short stories is a passion for her and the themes she writes on reflect her concerns for the lives of women in India. She has won awards for stories written in Spanish and English. 
Her other interests include music and theatre.

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