Guest of the ilb 2005
Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama City in 1928. The
son of a Mexican diplomat, he spent his childhood in the United States
and various Latin American countries. Despite literary leanings he
studied Law in Mexico City. Upon finishing he prepared for a career in
the diplomatic service at the Institut des Hautes Etudes
Internationales in Geneva upon which he successfully embarked – despite
criticising his own governments. He was Mexico’s Ambassador to Paris
between 1975 and 1977. Alongside his political activities he was active
in the cultural sphere and as a writer. He published short stories and
was the Editor of various magazines. His breakthrough came with the
publication of »La región más transparente« (Eng. »Where the Air is
Clear«, 1960) in 1958. His second novel, »La muerte de Artemio Cruz«
(1962; Eng. »The Death of Artemio Cruz«, 1964), contributed to the
international boom of Latin American literature, and since then Fuentes
has belonged to that stable. Like Vargas Llosa and García Márquez, his
opinion is often asked regarding developments in his country.
Politically and literarily, textually and formally, Fuentes stands
for an openmindedness towards foreign influences. He appropriates
European and Anglo-American ways of narration and integrates techniques
such as interior monologue, flashback and fragmentation. The
preoccupation with myth and history creates – through the use of
various narrative perspectives disrupted through leaps in time –
complex historical tableaux and spaces open to interpretation. Shaping
the style of Magical Realism, a zesty stream of consciousness unites
the historical and the fantastical together with a wealth of images and
allusions. The imposing »Terra Nostra« (1975), which deals with the
cultural influences of Mexico’s polyphony, could be called a standard
work of Mexican identity. Its arc spans from sixteenth-century Spain to
the conquest of the kingdom of the Incas to »another world« (as it says
in the book) of fantasy.
Fuentes has taught at several American universities, among them New
York University, Princeton, and Harvard. In 2002 he published »En esto
creo« (Eng. »This I Believe«, 2004), a kind of encyclopedia of
confessions. In 2004 he issued »Contra Bush«, an essay against the
policies of the current government of the United States. Fuentes has
published over fifty books, among them plays and film scripts. He has
won the Premio Villarutia (1975), the Premio Cervantes (1987) and the
Premio Príncipe de Asturias (1994), and has honorary doctorates from
various universities including the Free University of Berlin (2004). He
lives between Mexico City and London.
© international literature festival berlin
Carlos Fuentes online: http://carlos-fuentes.tripod.com | 
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