Past of the Future: The Novelistic Cycle of Manuel Scorza

This book analyzes the five novels of «La guerra silenciosa» by Manuel Scorza (1928-83) and examines the cycle's underlying unity and development. In his chronicle Scorza describes an Andean peasant uprising which he witnessed in the 1960's. Although many of the names, places, dates, and events are real, the author novelizes them by adding humor, myth, and fantasy to his testimonial. Thematically his novels show affinities with works belonging to the Latin American literary tradition of social protest known as indigenismo. However, Scorza renovates and modernizes the genre by incorporating into his narrative the complex stylistic devices of such contemporary writers as Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Carlos Fuentes.