Categories of modernity in Chimbotan novels

Abstract

The present work is a critical review of three novels that are based on Chimbotan modernity and that recreate its universe: El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo by José María Arguedas, Hombres de mar, by Óscar Colchado and Llora Corazón by Fernando Cueto. Its objective is to show and explain the basic categories that have determined modernity, such as migration, the idea of progress, identity, individualism, the rise and crisis of capitalism, utopia and centrality. The importance of the context as a generator of meanings and the systemic view will be decisive for drawing conclusions. For this, two texts will be discussed: “Intención historiográfica y sujetos de relato en Hombres de mar, de Óscar Colchado Lucio”, by Estefanía Peña and Mito y modernidad en “El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo” de José María Arguedas, by Henry Rivas, which show the relationship between the systemic and the narrative process of Chimbote. Likewise, the novel Llora Corazón by Fernando Cueto appears as a project of identity imprint, which follows the line of Arguedas and Colchado Lucio, of showing the emblems of modernity through the social remnants that are expressed in the characters and subthemes. In the same way, the historiographical subjects and the subjects of the story become important to explain that modernity.