Guest of the ilb 2007
Mario Vargas Llosa
was born in Arequipa, Peru in 1936 and grew up in Bolivia, North Peru
and Lima where he studied literature and law before gaining a doctorate
in Madrid. From early on he worked as a journalist and writer;
alongside Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes he
is considered to be a part of the quartet of Latin American "Boom"
literature. He wrote his first three novels – "Conversación en La
Catedral" (1969; Eng. "Conversation in the Cathedral", 1975) singled
out as a masterpiece – in Europe, while living in Paris, London and
Barcelona. In 1975 he moved back to Peru where he became increasingly
involved in politics in the eighties and lost to Alberto Fujimori in
the presidential elections of 1990.
Since then he has devoted himself more intently to teaching at various
American and European universities, among them in Washington, Puerto
Rico, London, New York, Cambridge, Harvard and Princeton. He was
granted Spanish citizenship in 1993.
Vargas Llosa’s early novels are characterized by progressive literary forms and a precise
polyphonic structure. In his efforts to create the "total novel", a
kaleidoscope of Peruvian society is shaped from slices of historical
and geographical depiction, different plots and time periods as well as
from the memories, experiences, dialogues and fantasies from different
social classes. Reality appears as an artificial, fictitional
construct. An important source of inspiration for Vargas Llosa is his
own ever growing biography: his debut novel "La ciudad y los perros"
(1962; Eng. "The City and the Dogs", 1963), for instance, draws on his
traumatic experiences at a cadet school. "La tía Julia y el escribidor"
(1977; Eng. "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter", 1983), meanwhile, deals
with the author’s first, early marriage to his aunt who was 14 years
his senior. While the satirical tone and erotic depictions persevere in
his later writing, over time Vargas Llosa slowly reduced the narrative
complexity of his work, which also includes political essays and
literary criticism, speeches and memoirs. His most recent publication
is the novel "Travesuras de la niña mala" (2006; "The Bad Girl", Eng.
2007), which portrays obsessive love against the backdrop of political
developments in the cities of Lima, Paris, London and Tokyo over the
last half century.
With his advocacy of democracy and individual freedom, Vargas Llosa is
a most active intellectual with a wide public who is regarded as a
moral authority. Long before other representatives
of his generation, he recognized the totalitarianism in Cuba and turned
away from the erstwhile "high hopes" of social justice. A committed
supporter of Israel, he has recently addressed a critique towards the
country due to its current policy on the Palestinians.
Vargas Llosa was president
of international PEN and is member of the Real Academia Española as
well as honorary doctor from various American and European universities
(among them the Humboldt University in Berlin). His distinctions
include the Premio Cervantes, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade,
the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Premio Ortega y Gasset and
the PEN/Nabokov Award. The author lives in London, Paris, Madrid and
Lima.
© international literature festival berlin
Mario Vargas Llosa online: www.mvargasllosa.com | 
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