Editing Mario Vargas Llosa (section)

==Style of writing==

===Plot, setting, and major themes===
[[File:IRPB-UNMSM Mario Vargas Llosa y otros intelectuales.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Vargas Llosa (fifth from the left), accompanied by several Peruvian intellectuals and members of the [[Academia Peruana de la Lengua|Peruvian Academy of Language]], during his visit to the [[Raúl Porras Barrenechea Institute]] of the [[National University of San Marcos]] in 2011]]

Vargas Llosa's style encompasses historical material as well as his own experiences.<ref>{{Harvnb|Booker|1994|p=48}}</ref> For example, in his first novel, ''The Time of the Hero'', his own experiences at the Leoncio Prado military school informed his depiction of the corrupt social institution which mocked the moral standards it was supposed to uphold.<ref name="Kristal32" /> Furthermore, the corruption of the book's school is a reflection of the corruption of Peruvian society at the time the novel was written.<ref name="Kristal33" /> Vargas Llosa frequently used his writing to challenge the inadequacies of society, such as demoralization and oppression by those in political power towards those who challenge this power. One of the main themes he explored in his writing is the individual's struggle for freedom within an oppressive reality.<ref>{{Harvnb|Morote|1998|pp=66–67}}</ref> For example, his two-volume novel ''Conversation in The Cathedral'' is based on the tyrannical dictatorship of President [[Manuel A. Odría]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Kristal|1998|p=56}}</ref> The protagonist, Santiago, rebels against the suffocating dictatorship by participating in the subversive activities of leftist political groups.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kristal|1998|p=59}}</ref> In addition to themes such as corruption and oppression, Vargas Llosa's second novel, ''The Green House'', explores "a denunciation of Peru's basic institutions", dealing with issues of abuse and exploitation of the workers in the [[brothel]] by corrupt military officers.<ref name="QC273" />

Many of Vargas Llosa's earlier novels were set in Peru, while in later work he expanded to other regions of Latin America, such as Brazil and the Dominican Republic.<ref name=castro-klaren19>{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|p=19}}</ref> His responsibilities as a writer and lecturer allowed him to travel frequently and led to settings for his novels in regions outside of Peru.<ref name="Williams60" /> ''The War of the End of the World'' was his first major work set outside Peru.<ref name="Cevallos273"/> Though the plot deals with historical events of the [[Canudos]] revolt against the Brazilian government, the novel is not based directly on historical fact; rather, its main inspiration is the non-fiction account of those events published by Brazilian writer [[Euclides da Cunha]] in 1902.<ref name="Booker75" /> ''The Feast of the Goat'', based on the dictatorship of [[Rafael Trujillo]], takes place in the [[Dominican Republic]];<ref name="Williams267"/> in preparation for this novel, Vargas Llosa undertook a comprehensive study of Dominican history.<ref name="Williams270">{{Harvnb|Williams|2001|p=270}}</ref> The novel was characteristically [[literary realism|realist]], and Vargas Llosa underscored that he "respected the basic facts,&nbsp;... I have not exaggerated", but at the same time he pointed out "It's a novel, not a history book, so I took many, many liberties."<ref>Qtd. in {{Harvnb|Gussow|2002}}</ref>

One of Vargas Llosa's later novels, ''[[The Way to Paradise]]'' (''{{lang|es|El paraíso en la otra esquina}}''), is set largely in [[Tahiti]] in [[French Polynesia]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Vargas Llosa|2003|p=}}</ref> Based on the biography of social reformer [[Flora Tristan]], it demonstrates how Flora and [[Paul Gauguin]] were unable to find paradise, but were still able to inspire followers to keep working towards a socialist [[utopia]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Heawood|2003|p=}}</ref> Unfortunately, Vargas Llosa was not as successful in transforming these historical figures into fiction. Some critics, such as [[Barbara Mujica (writer)|Barbara Mujica]], argue that ''The Way to Paradise'' lacks the "audacity, energy, political vision, and narrative genius" that was present in his previous works.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mujica|2004|p=}}</ref>

===Modernism and postmodernism===
The works of Mario Vargas Llosa are viewed as both [[modernist]] and [[postmodernist]] novels.<ref name="Booker32">{{Harvnb|Booker|1994|p=32}}</ref> Though there is still much debate over the differences between modernist and postmodernist literature, literary scholar M. Keith Booker claims that the difficulty and technical complexity of Vargas Llosa's early works, such as ''The Green House'' and ''Conversation in The Cathedral'', are elements of the modern novel.<ref name="Booker6"/> Furthermore, these earlier novels all carry a certain seriousness of attitude—another important defining aspect of modernist art.<ref name="Booker32"/> By contrast, his later novels such as ''Captain Pantoja and the Special Service'', ''Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter'', ''The Real Life of {{lang|es|Alejandro Mayta}}'', and ''[[The Storyteller (Vargas Llosa novel)|The Storyteller]]'' (''{{lang|es|El hablador}}'') appear to follow a postmodernist mode of writing.<ref>{{Harvnb|Booker|1994|p=3}}</ref> These novels have a much lighter, [[farce|farcical]], and comic tone, characteristics of postmodernism.<ref name="Booker33"/> Comparing two of Vargas Llosa's novels, ''The Green House'' and ''Captain Pantoja and the Special Service'', Booker discusses the contrast between modernism and postmodernism found in the writer's works: while both novels explore the theme of prostitution as well as the workings of the Peruvian military, Booker points out that the former is gravely serious whereas the latter is ridiculously comic.<ref name="Booker33"/>

===Interlacing dialogues===
[[File:MarioVargasLlosaAitanaSanchezGijon.jpg|thumb|Vargas Llosa acting in his play ''{{lang|es|Los cuentos de la peste}}'' in [[Teatro Español (Madrid)|Teatro Español]], 2015]]

Literary scholar M. Keith Booker argues that Vargas Llosa perfects the technique of interlacing dialogues in his novel ''The Green House''.<ref name="Booker33"/> By combining two conversations that occur at different times, he creates the illusion of a [[Flashback (narrative)|flashback]]. Vargas Llosa also sometimes used this technique as a means of shifting location by weaving together two concurrent conversations happening in different places.<ref name="Booker14">{{Harvnb|Booker|1994|p=14}}</ref>

This technique is a staple of his repertoire, which he began using near the end of his first novel, ''The Time of the Hero''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Booker|1994|p=13}}</ref> However, he did not use interlacing dialogues in the same way in all of his novels. For example, in ''The Green House'' the technique is used in a serious fashion to achieve a sober tone and to focus on the interrelatedness of important events separated in time or space.<ref>{{Harvnb|Booker|1994|p=35}}</ref> In contrast, ''Captain Pantoja and the Special Service'' employs this strategy for comic effects and uses simpler spatial shifts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Booker|1994|pp=35–36}}</ref> This device is similar to both [[Virginia Woolf]]'s mixing of different characters' [[Soliloquy|soliloquies]] and Gustave Flaubert's [[counterpoint]] technique in which he blends conversation with other events, such as speeches.<ref name="Booker14"/> This was seen to occur yet again in Vargas Llosa's penultimate novel, ''Tiempos recios'', as two dialogues, one between Trujillo and Castillo Armas, and another between Trujillo and Abbes García, are juxtaposed.

===Literary influences===
[[File:Mario Vargas Llosa090.JPG|thumb|Vargas Llosa in 2012]]

Vargas Llosa's first literary influences were relatively obscure Peruvian writers such as [[Martín Adán]], [[Carlos Oquendo de Amat]], and [[César Moro]].<ref name="Castro3">{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|p=3}}</ref> As a young writer, he looked to these revolutionary novelists in search of new narrative structures and techniques to delineate a more contemporary, multifaceted experience of urban Peru. He was looking for a style different from the traditional descriptions of land and rural life made famous by Peru's foremost novelist at the time, [[José María Arguedas]].<ref>{{Harvnb |Castro-Klarén|1990|p=4}}</ref> Vargas Llosa wrote of Arguedas's work that it was "an example of old-fashioned regionalism that had already exhausted its imaginary possibilities".<ref name="Castro3" /> Although he did not share Arguedas's passion for indigenous reality, Vargas Llosa admired and respected the novelist for his contributions to Peruvian literature.<ref>{{Harvnb |Kristal|1998|p=9}}</ref> Indeed, he published a book-length study on his work, ''La utopía arcaica'' (1996).

Rather than restrict himself to Peruvian literature, Vargas Llosa also looked abroad for literary inspiration. Two French figures, [[existentialist]] [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and novelist [[Gustave Flaubert]], influenced both his technique and style.<ref>{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|pp=6–7}}</ref> Sartre's influence is most prevalent in Vargas Llosa's extensive use of conversation.<ref name="Castro6">{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|p=6}}</ref> The epigraph of ''The Time of the Hero'', his first novel, is also taken directly from Sartre's work.<ref>{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|p=34}}</ref> Flaubert's artistic independence—his novels' disregard of reality and morals— was always admired by Vargas Llosa,<ref>{{Harvnb|Kristal|1998|p=25}}</ref> who wrote a book-length study of Flaubert's [[aesthetics]], ''[[The Perpetual Orgy]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|p=115}}</ref> In his analysis of Flaubert, Vargas Llosa questioned the revolutionary power of literature in a political setting; this is in contrast to his earlier view that "literature is an act of rebellion", thus marking a transition in Vargas Llosa's aesthetic beliefs.<ref name="Kristal81">{{Harvnb|Kristal|1998|p=81}}</ref> Other critics such as Sabine Köllmann argue that his belief in the transforming power of literature is one of the great continuities that characterize his fictional and non-fictional work, and link his early statement that 'Literature is Fire' with his Nobel Prize Speech 'In Praise of Reading and Writing'.<ref>Sabine Köllmann, A Companion to Mario Vargas Llosa. Woodbridge (Tamesis), 2014 {{ISBN|978-1-85566-269-8}}</ref>

One of Vargas Llosa's favourite novelists, and arguably the most influential on his writing career, was the American [[William Faulkner]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Kristal|1998|p=28}}</ref> Vargas Llosa considered Faulkner "the writer who perfected the methods of the modern novel".<ref name="Kristal26">{{Harvnb|Kristal|1998|p=26}}</ref> Both writers' styles include intricate changes in time and narration.<ref name="Castro6"/><ref name="Kristal26"/> In ''The Time of the Hero'', for example, aspects of Vargas Llosa's plot, his main character's development and his use of narrative time are influenced by his favourite Faulkner novel, ''[[Light in August]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kristal|1998|p=34}}</ref>

In addition to the studies of Arguedas and Flaubert, Vargas Llosa wrote literary criticisms of other authors that he admired, such as Gabriel García Márquez, [[Albert Camus]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]].<ref name="Castro116"/> The main goals of his non-fiction works are to acknowledge the influence of these authors on his writing, and to recognize a connection between himself and the other writers;<ref name="Castro116">{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|p=116}}</ref> critic Sara Castro-Klarén argues that he offers little systematic analysis of these authors' literary techniques.<ref name="Castro116"/> In ''The Perpetual Orgy'', for example, he discusses the relationship between his own aesthetics and Flaubert's, rather than focusing on Flaubert's alone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Castro-Klarén|1990|p=119}}</ref>