New perspectives and old dilemmas in Latin American Literature from Daniel Alarcón's "Lost City Radio"

Abstract

Daniel Alarcón (Lima, 1977) literary work underlines two important aspects of Latin American literature which are the topics of this article. In the first part of my work I will compare Alarcón's novel Lost City Radio with Vargas Llosa's La casa verde. Both authors focused on the contrasts and similarities within the city and the jungle. This is the main reason for comparing the most important peruvian writer of the XX century and the one who represents the XXI on a crucial topic for Latin American literature, the opposition between civilization and barbarism. In the second part I will analyse the graphic novel Ciudad de payasos by Alarcón and Alvarado. In this text the peruvian writer faces the same topic of Lost City Radio, but through a literary form that integrates words and images. The comic is more direct with new generations and for this reason it underlines with more incisiveness a question which always divided Latin America.