ART AND LITERATURE

 Peruvian literature has kept numerous quechua texts. From the Inca time, Ollantay, a drama at the Inca court, is perhaps the best-known work of Quechua literature. An unknown author composed it around 1470. Peruvian literature has its roots in the oral traditions of pre-Colombian Los Comentarios Reales de los Incas, published in 1609. After independence, Costumbrism and Romanticism became the most common literary genres, as exemplified in the works of Ricardo Palma. In the early 20th century, the Indigenismo movement produced such writers as Ciro Alegria, José Maria Arguedas, and César Vallejo. José Carlos Mariátegui’s essays in the 1920’s were a turning point in the political and economic analysis of Peruvian history. During the second half of the century, Peruvian literature became more widely known because of authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, a leading member of the Latin American Boom.