Uruguayan literature
Encyclopedia
Beginnings
Literature properly speaking starts in UruguayUruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
with the country-flavoured poetry of Bartolomé Hidalgo, 1788-1822. The two leading figures of the Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
period are Adolfo Berro and Juan Zorrilla de San Martín
Juan Zorrilla de San Martín
Juan Zorrilla de San Martín was a Uruguayan epic poet - he is referred as "National Poet of Uruguay" -and political figure . He is featured on the 20-peso note.-Well-known poems:...
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Modernistas
Julio Herrera y ReissigJulio Herrera y Reissig
Julio Herrera y Reissig, was a Uruguayan poet, playwright and essayist, who began his career during the late Romanticist period and later became an early proponent of Modernism.-Background:...
was one of the great fin-de-siècle modernistas
Modernismo
Modernismo is Spanish for modernism, however the term Modernism also indicates a more specific art movement:* Modernismo refers to a Spanish-American literary movement, best exemplified by Rubén Darío...
, indeed one of the very greatest and subtlest of Latin American poets. Two leading women are Juana de Ibarbourou
Juana de Ibarbourou
Juana Fernández Morales Vd.ª De Ibarbourou, also known as Juana de América, was a Uruguayan poet of Galician origin. She was one of the most popular poets of Spanish America...
and Delmira Agustini
Delmira Agustini
Delmira Agustini , a Uruguayan poet, is considered one of the greatest female Latin American poets of the early 20th century.-Background:Born in Montevideo, the daughter of Italian immigrants, Agustini was a precocious child...
; indeed, Ibarbourou defined a whole period of Spanish-American sentiment towards the poetic and was immensely popular. Emilio Frugoni
Emilio Frugoni
Emilio Frugoni was a Uruguayan socialist politician, lawyer, poet, essayist, and journalist. He founded the Socialist Party of Uruguay in 1910 and was its first general secretary, as well as its first representative in the Chamber of Deputies.-Early activism:Born in Montevideo as one of the four...
and Emilio Oribe
Emilio Oribe
Emilio Oribe , was a Uruguayan poet, essayist, philosopher, and doctor.A professor at the University of the Republic, Uruguay, Oribe was dean of the university's Faculty of Humanities and Sciences and a member of the Uruguayan Academy of Letters.As a poet, he developed an avant-garde style...
were distinguished lyricists.
Other important figures
Outstanding among the prose and fiction figures are Juan Carlos OnettiJuan Carlos Onetti
Juan Carlos Onetti was an Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories.A high school drop-out, Onetti's first novel, El pozo, published in 1939, met with his close friends' immediate acclaim, as well as from some writers and journalists of his time...
, Carlos Martínez Moreno, Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Hughes Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego and Las venas abiertas de América Latina which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and...
, Mario Benedetti
Mario Benedetti
Mario Benedetti was an Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet....
, Tomás de Mattos
Tomás de Mattos
Tomás de Mattos Hernández is a Uruguayan writer and librarian. Being from Tacuarembó, de Mattos is one of the relatively few contemporary Uruguayan writers from the north of the country....
, Mauricio Rosencof
Mauricio Rosencof
Mauricio Rosencof is a well-known Uruguayan playwright, poet and journalist from Florida, Uruguay. Since 2005 he has been Director of Culture of the Municipality of Montevideo....
and Jorge Majfud
Jorge Majfud
-Life:He was born in Tacuarembó, Uruguay. He majored in and in 1996 graduated from the in Montevideo. He travelled extensively to gather material that would later become part of his novels and essays, and was a professor at the of Costa Rica and at , where he taught art and mathematics.In 2003...
.
Horacio Quiroga
Horacio Quiroga
Horacio Silvestre Quiroga Forteza was an Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer....
was an immensely popular as well as highly individual and flavourful short-story writer who has had vast influence. Constancio C. Vigil
Constancio C. Vigil
Constancio Cecilio Vigil was a Uruguayan-Argentine writer and prominent publisher.-Life and times:Constancio Vigil was born in Rocha, Uruguay, in 1876. His father, a local politician, was forced to relocate to the nation's capital, Montevideo, following a political dispute...
was once a beloved, if highly moralistic, children's writer.
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, while Argentine, was an avid commentator on the Uruguayan historical and cultural scene; some of his characters are realistically Uruguayan
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
.
Florencio Sánchez
Florencio Sánchez
Florencio Sánchez was a Uruguayan playwright, journalist and political figure. His artistic work unfolded in the River Plate region...
remains Uruguay's most famous theater writer.
Writers from Northern Uruguay
While many of UruguayUruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
's writers have been primarily connected with the capital Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, a number has been identified with the north of the country.