The Fusion of History and Fiction in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Latin American Narrative

Abstract

This article reaches beyond the normal boundaries of the history of humanities disciplines to exemplify how interaction between history and literature—and especially the employment of the former by the latter—has played out in a modern context, that of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Latin American fiction. The analysis focuses on three major uses of historical sources and documents: First, history is used to create a dialogue on important historical figures, such as Simón Bolívar, sometimes presenting a revisionist perspective of them. Second, history is examined from the perspective of memory, in terms of individual and collective trauma. Third, the article shows how novels attempt to fill in the gaps of history using historical facts to portray forgotten figures largely omitted from history. Finally, the article examines magical realist fiction as a variant of historical fiction and concludes with a consideration of the role of historical fiction in Latin America.