Editing Mario Vargas Llosa (section)

===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>