Contemporary Peruvian Narrative and Popular Culture: Jaime Bayly, Iván Thays and Jorge Eduardo Benavides (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Contemporary Peruvian Narrative and Popular Culture: Jaime Bayly, Iván Thays and Jorge Eduardo Benavides Jean O'Bryan Knight Ruz, Robert . Contemporary Peruvian Narrative and Popular Culture: Jaime Bayly, Iván Thays and Jorge Eduardo Benavides. Woodbridge: Támesis, 2005. 130 pp. Given that Vargas Llosa is in his seventies, Bryce Echenique is not far behind, and Ribeyro is no longer with us, now is a good time to ask what's new in Peruvian [End Page 429] narrative. In Contemporary Peruvian Narrative and Popular Culture Robert Ruz offers us a well-structured response to this question based on the work of three successful novelists, all in their forties and all vibrant voices. Ruz situates his study of Peruvian narrative from 1994 to 2003 in a theoretical framework that includes perspectives from queer theory, postmodern thinking, and cultural studies. As the author explains, "a central preoccupation running through this book is to give a sense of the specificities of Peruvian cultural production and how theoretical readings might deal with them" (2). These two components of Ruz's project are apparent in the introduction, which incorporates phenomena from contemporary Peruvian culture (the baylyboom, vladivideos, and the "cholificación" of Lima), as well as theoretical concepts (Bourdieu's distinction between high and popular culture, García Canclini's understanding of the notion of teleparticipación, and various theorists' reflections on postmodernity). Readers in search of a more traditional literary studies approach may turn away at the introduction. Those who push on will discover that Ruz's book is as much about new approaches to narrative as it is about new narrative from Peru. The monograph consists of four chapters, the first two of which focus on the works of Jaime Bayly, the high profile talk-show host turned best-selling novelist, who is based in Lima and Miami. With seven novels, Bayly is by far the most productive of the group, so this extra attention is warranted. Chapter 1, which was published previously in the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, examines Bayly's portrayal of gay and bisexual identities in his early novels and the extent to which these works support or challenge the positions of queer theorists Butler, Sedgewick, and Bersani (all working outside the Latin American/Peruvian context). Ruz credits Bayly for being the first to introduce gay subject matter into mainstream Peruvian culture, albeit with the help of his Spanish publishers. He also suggests that this accomplishment has come at a cost, since the use of negative homosexual stereotypes and ambiguous sexual identities in Bayly's work may be seen as a sell-out to the demands of the Peruvian market. Chapter 2 takes a closer look at the evolution of Bayly's "postmodern narrative style" and its relationship with mass-marketing. Ruz proposes that in Bayly's narrative style trumps structure, and by style he means primarily the author's use of the edgy language of Lima's youth culture. Drawing on Hutcheon's idea that political engagement can take the form of "complicitous critique" in postmodern writing, Ruz argues that Bayly's populist style does not necessarily preclude social criticism in his works. He finds that beginning in the early novels and culminating in his fourth, La noche es virgen (1997), Bayly is capable of delivering some social critique in a light, consumer-oriented style. More recently, however, Ruz finds that complicity with popular culture outweighs critique in Bayly's writing as the marketing of his works has gone global. [End Page 430] A vocal critic of Bayly's literatura light, university lecturer and literary critic Iván Thays positions himself as an exponent of narrativa culta. Ruz's third chapter examines how Thays defines himself in opposition to the international baylyboom by writing and publishing inside Peru about decidedly intellectual themes. His three novels are an exploration of the writing process, the image of the writer, and the social status of literature, and all engage with the literary canon both inside and outside Peru. The title of Thays's third novel, for example—La disciplina de la vanidad (2000)—alludes to his preoccupation with the literary vocation. One might expect that this emphasis...