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| The Time of the Hero | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Time of the Hero |
| Original title | La ciudad y los perros |
| Author | Mario Vargas Llosa |
| Country | Peru |
| Language | Spanish |
| Publisher | Seix Barral |
| Pub date | 1963 |
| Genre | Novel |
| Pages | 296 |
The Time of the Hero is a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa first published in 1963, set in the Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Lima, Peru. The book interweaves the lives of cadets with episodes that evoke references to José María Arguedas, Alejo Carpentier, and the Latin American literary debates of the Boom era, reflecting contests of authority among institutions such as the Peruvian Army and social forces in Peru. The narrative's reception engaged critics associated with the Casa de las Américas and reviewers in periodicals like La Nación and El Comercio.
The novel follows cadets at the Leoncio Prado Military Academy through interlocking episodes that culminate in a trial and moral reckoning, threading individual crises with institutional pressures reminiscent of incidents tied to historical figures like Francisco Pizarro and episodes in Peruvian history. The main strand charts Alberto and Ricardo, whose conflicts and alliances recall archetypes found in works about Napoleon Bonaparte and young protagonists in texts by Ernest Hemingway, while secondary narratives trace the consequences of a theft, a staged revenge, and a death that triggers inquiries involving figures analogous to investigators in Edgar Allan Poe tales or judicial actors in the tradition of Franz Kafka. Subplots reference rituals and hierarchies that echo episodes surrounding military academies in France and Spain, and scenes play out against a cityscape bearing allusions to landmarks in Lima, Callao, and the Andean highlands shaped by histories of Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín.
The ensemble centers on cadets and authority figures whose arcs reflect tensions found in portraits of youth by Gustave Flaubert, Stendhal, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Jaguar, a leader among cadets, confronts peers and superiors in ways that resonate with leaders depicted in narratives about Mussolini and Che Guevara; the Snake functions as an antagonist with echoes of antagonists from works by Graham Greene and Albert Camus. Senior officers and teachers evoke bureaucrats and disciplinarians similar to characters in texts by George Orwell and Herman Melville, while civilian relations—parents, lovers, and local residents—bring to mind figures in novels by García Márquez, Isabel Allende, and Julio Ramón Ribeyro. Recurring minor characters include a judge-like authority and a school concierge whose presences parallel secondary roles in works by Vladimir Nabokov and John Steinbeck.
Central themes include authority and rebellion, the rites of passage of adolescence, and the corruption of institutions, linking discussions to essays by Antonio Gramsci and analyses of power in texts about Max Weber and Michel Foucault. Motifs of violence, secrecy, and ritual humiliation recur as they do in literature addressing colonial legacies tied to Conquest of the Americas narratives and in cultural studies about social hierarchies examined by Pierre Bourdieu. The novel interrogates masculinity and honor, echoing portrayals in works associated with Homeric epics, Shakespearean tragedies, and modernist examinations by T. S. Eliot and James Joyce. Memory and narrative reliability are explored through shifting perspectives, invoking methodological debates similar to those involving Roland Barthes and Mikhail Bakhtin.
Vargas Llosa employs a fractured narrative with multiple viewpoints, flashbacks, and shifting tenses, techniques comparable to narrative experiments in novels by William Faulkner, Julio Cortázar, and Vladimir Nabokov. The prose alternates terse dialogue and expansive description, reflecting influences attributed to Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Mann, while the intercalation of interior monologues and episodic reportage recalls practices in works by Truman Capote and Joseph Conrad. Structural decisions—nonlinear chronology, polyphonic voice, and scene juxtaposition—situate the book within formal innovations championed during the Latin American Boom alongside contemporaries like Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez.
Published by Seix Barral in 1963, the novel provoked controversy in Peru: military authorities and public figures such as officers in the Peruvian Army criticized its portrayal of the academy, prompting debates in outlets including El Comercio and international reviews in The New York Times Book Review and The Times Literary Supplement. The book garnered literary prizes and critical attention that aligned Vargas Llosa with Boom figures Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes, influencing award committees associated with the Rómulo Gallegos Prize and discussions in institutions like The British Council and Instituto Cervantes. Scholars in departments at universities such as Harvard University, Oxford University, and the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos produced studies linking the work to national identity, censorship, and the role of military institutions in Latin American fiction.
Adaptations include a 1985 film directed by Francisco José Lombardi and stage productions performed in theaters in Lima, Buenos Aires, and Madrid, with productions presented at festivals associated with Teatro Nacional and companies collaborating with the Festival de Cannes circuit. The novel influenced writers across generations, cited by authors like Isabel Allende, Roberto Bolaño, and Alberto Fuguet, and it informed academic inquiry into representations of adolescence in Latin American literature at centers such as the University of California, Berkeley and the Juan March Foundation. Its motifs and structural experiments contributed to subsequent novels addressing institutional critique in works studied in courses sponsored by organizations like UNESCO and literary series curated by Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Category:Novels by Mario Vargas Llosa Category:1963 novels Category:Peruvian literature