“A Well-organized Disorder”. A Look at the Spanish American Neo-baroque

Abstract

The article consists of two parts: theory and artistic practice. The first part examines the history of the concept of Latin American Neo-Baroque. It begins in European art history, first, when J. Burkhard characterized the Baroque as a certain period in the development of art; then, when G. Wölfflin presented the Baroque as a kind of “great style” and singled out its constitutive features; finally, when E. d’Ors formulated the theory of “eternal” styles, “classical” and “non-classical” (baroque) cyclically replacing each other. D’Ors’ concept was accepted and developed by Cuban writers J. Lezama Lima, A. Carpentier and S. Sarduy. Two factors led to the formation of the theory of Latin American Neo-Baroque. The first one is the richest layer of colonial art that developed in the Baroque style; the second one is the peculiarity of Latin American imago mundi, which from the very beginning was the opposite to rationality, system, order. The peculiarity of this imago mundi is revealed in the section “Artistic Practice. Motives”. The citations show that in Latin American literature are embodied such constants of Latin American imago mundi as chaos, predominance of curved lines, violation of European norms and mystery. The final part of the article presents an analysis of the four famous Latin American Neo-Baroque novels that reveal the poetics of this literary current on the level of imagery and motives and, most expressively, in style.

Keywords

• spanish american literature
• neo-baroque
• lezama lima
• carpentier
• sarduy
• cabrera infante
• fuentes
• fernando del paso