/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-LATAM: Images Drowning Out Words, Warns Author

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Andrés Cañizález

CARACAS, Jul 23 2002 (IPS) - The educational disaster spreading throughout Latin America, where the written word is losing ground to an image-based universe, is the greatest threat to the region’s literature, says Mexican intellectual and author Carlos Monsiváis.

The volume of publishing output and the quality of the literature have become secondary matters in the face of “functional illiteracy” — the loss of the ability to read and write due to lack of practice –, Monsiváis said during a recent visit to Caracas.

“We stand before the failure of the formal educational model and the domination of the empire of the electronic media,” he told the crowd gathered for a series of conferences at the Rómulo Gallegos Centre for Latin American Studies.

There is “a pessimism among the well-read” arising from the lack of social impact of the written word on Latin American societies, added Monsiváis, author of “Aires de Familia”, a book about the region’s culture that won the coveted Anagram prize for essays two years ago in Spain.

Monsiváis is among the region’s researchers who best understands the manifestations of popular culture. He is also the author of numerous works in a variety of literary genres and journalism.

Among the noteworthy writings by the Mexican intellectual, also winner of his country’s National Journalism Prize, are “Días de guardar” (Days for Saving), “Amor perdido” (Lost Love) and “Escenas de pudor y liviandad” (Scenes of Shame and Lightness), and the fables of “Nuevo catecismo para indios remisos” (New Catechism for Remiss Indians), as well as collections of poetry and essays on journalism.

“The functions of literature today are quite different from those of a generation ago, because we are now in a world that gives priority to images, while functional illiteracy is on the rise,” said Monsiváis, who visited Venezuela as a featured guest at a major book fair.

He also pointed out that there is “minimal or zero protection for the publishing industry” against the negative aspects of the globalisation of culture.

In his opinion, under globalisation and the predominant neo-liberal economic model, “culture has been minimised with respect to the economy and politics.”

In today’s world, where anything technology-based is highly prized, there is “a humanist deprecation,” he added.

Monsiváis told his Venezuelan audience that for the previous generations, although literature and reading were not widespread, they were a practice that was more highly valued by society. “Readers felt no sense of guilt,” he said with irony.

In commenting on the balance of exchange among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, he said that there is a “cultural disconnection”, which comes on top of greater dependence on the cultural output of countries like the United States.

The Mexican writer cited the example that Venezuelan or Colombian films are almost never shown in Mexican theatres, and pointed out the lack of joint cultural productions and the lack of knowledge about authors or literary trends in neighbouring nations.

Monsiváis reflected on literary creation and his own intellectual exercise in particular, in an interview with the Caracas newspaper El Nacional. “I write to read something of mine that doesn’t disgust me,” he stated.

“When I read, a futilely await the arrival of a legion of angels. The angels don’t come, perhaps as a precautionary measure. But because I am so caught up in searching the sky for them, I don’t realise that I am surrounded by demons,” he said, describing his role as a passionate reader.

“The page is an immense mirror of contradictions, amazements, enthusiasms, disappointments.”