Costa Rican Literature

The Costa Rican literature is that which has been written by Costa Rican authors. Historically, Costa Rican literature has antecedents in the colony and a marked European influence, which is why most of its works have been produced mainly in the Spanish language, although numerous works have also been written in other languages, such as English and French. Being Costa Rica a young country, its literature is also young, and its history can begin towards the end of the 19th century. Among its greatest exponents are Aquileo Echeverría, Carmen Lyra, Carlos Luis Fallas, Joaquín García Monge, Carlos Salazar Herrera, Joaquín Gutiérrez Mangel, Fabián Dobles, Isaac Felipe Azofeifa, Jorge Debravo, José León Sánchez and Anacristina Rossi, among many others.

Periodization

The periodization of the literature has caused confusion in some cases, due to the criteria used to define the periods and the names that have been used. For this article, an attempt has been made to match the same names given by different scholars (among them Carlos Francisco Monge, Rogelio Sotela, Carlos Rafael Duverrán), this in order to achieve harmony between the criteria.

Currently, the most valid periodization of Costa Rican literature is the one proposed by Professor Álvaro Quesada Soto. According to this author, from the first literary publications made in Costa Rica at the end of the XIX century, up to the present, five periods, which are traditionally known as generations', although, strictly speaking, these groupings do not constitute a generation in the sense that this term has been given in literature term.

It should be taken into account that the different literary movements in the Hispanic world arrived in Costa Rica late, to continue even when they had been surpassed in the rest of America; they also overlap with the new fashions and it is common for the same writer to participate in several of them.

Background

As stated by the literary theorist Álvaro Quesada: "The formation of a national literature in Costa Rica is similar, in general terms, to the formation of other national literatures in Latin American countries and particularly Central American ones. That process is part of a larger effort, the building or invention of the 'nation', as an 'imagined community' of the world. more than a substantive reality: an effort that, in turn, responds to a project of unification and centralization of economic, political and ideological power, around a Creole hegemonic group linked to the export of agricultural products for the international market." (One and the Others, San José: EUCR, 1998: 17.) According to this, then, the conformation of Costa Rican literature was similar to that of the rest of Latin America, especially that of Central America. And although from the XIX century there are examples of authors who are still recognized today, specifically those belonging to the &# 34;Costa Rican lira" (compiled by Máxximo Fernández between 1890-1891), such as Aquileo J. Echeverría or Lisímaco Chavarría; or those of the "Olympus generation", such as Carlos Gagini and Ricardo Fernández Guardia, it is not until the 20th century that one can speak of a more coherent and consolidated literature.

During the colonial period, little can be collected from the literature at that time, most of the texts do not go beyond a mere epistolary character and administrative prose. In this colonial period, by decree of Felipe II, the inhabitants of the West Indies were prohibited from writing about any matter related to life in the colony. Later, Carlos V, in 1543, censored the reading of "romance books, which deal with fabulous profane matters, and fake stories, because many inconveniences follow".

The first serious appearances of literary activity appear in 1813 when the Casa de Enseñanza Santo Tomás was founded, whose first rector, the Nicaraguan, José Francisco Osejo, created the first manuscript newspaper in 1824. The first texts also appeared in this period of teaching written in the country.

In 1830, several years after independence, the first printing press arrived and the newspapers appeared: El Noticioso Universal and La Tertulia. With the university activity in 1844, the importation of books increased and 15 years later San José had two bookstores.

The works of fiction by Manuel Argüello Mora (1834-1902), a forerunner of Costa Rican narrative, are published. He wrote several novels: An honest man, A drama in the prison of San Lucas, The two twins of the Mojón (1860) and The love of a leper (1900). In these novels he tried to take advantage of historical reality.

At the end of the XIX century, it is possible to find, although scarce, costumbrista literature, picturesque anecdotes, chronicles and sentimentalist poems of romantic trend. Some poems were compiled in the book "La lira costarricense" (1890-1891) compiled by Máximo Fernández.

The Olympus generation or Generation of 1900 (1890-1920)

Acquileo Echeverría (1866-1909). Writer and journalist, called the "Poeta de Costa Rica", his work Conch (1905) is considered to be one of the classics of crustaceanism and national literature. Among his best-known poems stand out Mercy wood, The healer, Vela of an angel and frustrated treatmentin which the colloquial language of the Costa Rican peasant stands out.

Literary production in Costa Rica was not very important during the colonial era and much of the 19th century. The first printing press arrived in the country in 1830 and most of the books published were didactic, political or religious texts, with sporadic literary productions in newspapers, predominantly the picture of customs with humorous, picturesque or satirical characteristics, in the image of Spanish costumbrismo.

At the end of the XIX century, with the declaration of the Republic (1848), and the coming to power of the liberal ideology (1870), the nascent Costa Rican State is concerned with the elaboration of a project of national identity associated with the construction of the nation, a project that was viable thanks to the new resources contributed by the economic boom resulting from the export of coffee to England. With the insertion of the country in the international market, capitalist progress and European modernity entered the country, consolidating a coffee oligarchy that consolidated its hegemonic position by controlling the financing, processing and export of coffee.

The elaboration of this oligarchic national model covered all areas of Costa Rican society: laws, codes, education, daily life, the collective imagination, infrastructure. The production of heroes and feats, patriotic hymns, monuments and institutions, the formation of a national history, mythology, culture and literature is consolidated. The monuments to the memory of the National Campaign of 1856-1857 are inaugurated: the statue of Juan Santamaría (1891), the National Monument (1895). The institutions in charge of promoting national culture and heritage are founded: National Archive (1881), National Museum (1887), National Library (1888), National Theater (1897). The city of San José, capital of the country, is urbanized, which already by the end of the 19th century had electric lighting and tram, telegraphs, telephones, railways, etc

This national model process was promoted by a group of intellectuals, politicians, teachers, historians and writers that Costa Rican authors have called "El Olimpo", a group to which the first generation of Costa Rican writers belongs, who They have come to be considered as the classics of national literature.

Customs

The first literary movement will be costumbrismo. This movement will be in force from the middle of the XIX century and will continue until several decades of the XX. Initially the writers of that time, will make a descriptive and focused narrative about their neighbors and agricultural life; This is because the central region where the capital is located is not an urban and industrial center, but a series of small neighborhoods surrounded by solar and coffee plantations. Then costumbrismo will show more maturity with works like "La propia" by Manuel González Zeledón (Magón) and "El moto" by Joaquin Garcia Monge. The latter manages to amalgamate realism with costumbrismo, the elegance of literary language with the local language of the peasants.

The controversy

In 1894, a controversy over the identity of Costa Rican literature took place in Costa Rica, known as "the controversy over nationalism in literature". Ricardo Fernández Guardia considered that the themes of the national writers could well be inspired by the foreign, basically European, tradition; while Carlos Gagini considered that "ethical" it had to focus on issues proper to Costa Ricans.

Writers from Olympus

Born between 1850 and 1860, among these writers are:

• Manuel Argüello Mora (San José, 1834-1902) was narrator, essayist, journalist, politician and lawyer. His literature is part of literary realism. He is considered the founder of the Costa Rican novel and was one of the great promoters of national literature. He published short stories, short novels, historical chronicles, historical novels and coastal novels, and has been considered a romantic writer. Among his works are Elisa Delmar and The trench (1899), The beautiful heir, The love of a leper (1900) and A drama in the San Lucas prison. He was nephew and protected from Juan Rafael Mora.

• Pio Víquez (Cartago, 1850-1899) was a poet and journalist. His writings address different genres: epitalamios, descriptions of nature, necrology, political articles, polemics, social chronicles, travel stories and poetry, which are characterized by their wit, humor and irony. He was founder of the newspaper El Heraldo, of great influence during the century xix. Costa Rica's National Journalism Award bears its name.

• Manuel de Jesús Jiménez Oreamuno (Cartago, 1854-Alajuela, 1916) was a politician and historian, professor of history, geography, literature, religion and morals, and highlighted in the fields of history, oratory, writing, politics and literature. He wrote mainly historical accounts, patterns of customs and short stories. He also wrote a novel, Doña Ana de Cortabarría (1902), set in Cartago in 1644 and where he uses as a pretext the love triangle to describe the customs of the Creoles and Spaniards of the time. He also wrote a good number of chronicles. He was the son of Jesus Jiménez Zamora and brother of Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno, both presidents of the republic.

• Jenaro Cardona (1863-1930), was a writer, diplomat and public employee. He began his literary career as a poet but finished it with two of the most important novels of the generation: The cousin (1905) and The sphinx of the path (1906), works in which he exposes the erotic motive as a threat to the national oligarchic traditions and customs of the time.

• Manuel González Zeledón (San José, 1864-1936), known as Magón, he was a remarkable accountant and author of customs paintings, which reflect the life and personality of the Costa Rican people of the end of the century xix. Among its main works are Her own (1909), a modernist novel where he proposes the rupture of the peasant idilio, and The sun clis (1871), his best-known story. Costa Rica's national cultural prize is named.

• Carlos Gagini (San José, 1865-1925) was a philologist, educator and writer of novels, stories, theatre and zarzuelas. He distinguished himself in the linguistic and narrative field, although he also wrote poetry. He was a defender of anti-imperialist positivism. His novels The fall of the eagle (1918) and The sick tree (1920) warn of the danger of foreign influence and predict its end. It is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the literary, philological and intellectual history of the country.

• Acquileo Echeverría (San José, 1866 - Barcelona, 1909), was a writer, poet, journalist, public employee and bohemian, is considered the National Poet of Costa Rica. His most recognized work is Conch (1905), collection of coastal poems that seek the stylization of oral language and popular and peasant traditions, where it reflects the soul of Costa Rican peasant life, and which is considered to be one of the most important literary works in the country's history, which emerged in an era where the consolidation of national identity was sought. Costa Rica's national art awards bear its name.

• Ricardo Fernández Guardia (Alajuela, 1867- San José, 1950) was a historian, writer, politician and diplomat. He wrote numerous historical works (The Discovery and Conquest, Historical Cartilla of Costa Rica, Colonial Chronicles, Historical Review of Talamanca, Morazán in Costa Rica, etc.), literary (Hojarasca, Cuentos ticos), trials (The message of 1916) and one of the first plays of the history of Costa Rica, Magdalena (1902), which raises the conflict between the country and abroad, and links it to the issues of family, marriage and women. His works are part of literary realism. He is considered one of the parents of Costa Rica's modern historiography.

Although this narrative coexists during modernism, writers such as Carlos Gagini and others propose a narrative of opposite character, form and content: with a strong nationalist (anti-imperialist) character, it does not seek remote landscapes, nor characters from fable and its content makes them the first works of social denunciation, against the moral and ethical attitude of the old values of the oligarch period and the new values imported by businessmen, especially Americans, and the 'sendreguismo' of the local rulers, who begin to feel back then. All this criticism does not reach, however, to take the body of political opposition.

The generation of the American Repertory or Avant-garde (1920-1940)

So named because it is linked to the magazine Repertorio Americano by Joaquín García Monge. During this period the crisis of the liberal oligarchic regime occurred, which is why the literature of this period is characterized by presenting new discursive forms, such as the grotesque style, fierce and corrosive humor, parody and satire. The youth of this generation coincides with the maturity of the writers of the previous generation. Various historical events occur in this period that will influence the themes of the writers of the American Repertoire: the formation of the Banana Enclave in the Atlantic of Costa Rica at the hands of the United Fruit Company; the crisis of 1914 and the First World War; the tax reforms promoted by the government of Alfredo González Flores (1914-1917) and the dictatorship of Federico Tinoco (1917-1919) after the latter overthrew the former; various revolutions in other latitudes of the world, such as the Mexican Revolution and the Russian Revolution; and the growing interventionism of the United States in the countries of Central America and the Caribbean.

It is also during this period, around the 1930s and '40s, that a new generation of writers, especially poets, will set new directions for letters. Such is the case of the poets Isaac Felipe Azofeifa and Eunice Odio. In general, critics of Latin American letters had ignored the fact that there was also a vanguard movement in Costa Rica, although less far-reaching than those in other latitudes and with little international influence. Along with the names of Azofeifa and Odio there are also some important names: Max Jiménez, José Marín Cañas, Francisco Amighetti among others. His literary production coincides with the avant-garde in the visual arts, carried out by artists such as Francisco Zúñiga, Amighetti himself, Juan Manuel Sánchez, Juan Rafael Chacón.

Modernist writers

The literature of the beginning of the century will mark a new stage in Costa Rican production. At this time, the Spanish-American modernist influence was not very strong despite Rubén Darío's very brief stay in the country, where he worked, wrote outstanding poems and published articles in the local press. Modernism was not as decisive as in other Latin American countries; in any case, it was late, especially in poetry.

Modernism is perceived mixed with nationalist themes both in writers who were in favor of modernism (Fernández Guardia) and in those who were against it (Gagini and Magón for example).

It is possible to notice a shift in the discourse of modernist literature in Costa Rica from the 1920s, when the new writers set aside the idealization of a Europeanized world, which the generation preached. above and focus on a more immediate and interior reality. Thus began the "post modernism" or "late modernism". This results in it becoming more and more difficult to find settings and characters from Greco-Roman, Germanic, etc. mythology, which were previously so common. The new modernists (post modernists) continued using the well-known precious style, this time with another content.

Poets such as Roberto Brenes Mesén, Rogelio Sotela, Lisímaco Chavarría, Rafael Cardona, Rafael Estrada, Carlos Luis Sáenz and Julián Marchena stand out in this period. The latter one of the most remembered despite having written a single book, called "Alas en fuga", published in 1941 and republished in 1965, when modernism had lost its validity. in the rest of Hispanic countries.

• Rafaela Salvadora Contreras Cañas (San José, 1869 - San Salvador, 1893), the first writer Modernista Costarricense, was a singer and poet. He published narrative stories (The Ondinas, Humanzor, Violets and Doves, Look the Oriental, The Turquoise, Gold and Copper) and poetic prose (The Winter Song, Sonata). His literature follows the guidelines of modernism: the beauty of the language, the poetic imagery, the taste for the exotic, the fantastic treatment of the subject, with personal preference to incorporate the music as an integral part of the argument. She was Rubén Darío's first wife.
• Rafael Ángel Troyo (Cartago, 1870-1910) was a poet, novelist, cuentist and musician. He is considered the introduction of modernism in Costa Rica, at a time when national literature was influenced by the nationalist tradition. From a comfortable economic position, he traveled through Europe and the United States living a bohemian life, and then settled in his native Cartago, where he shared with other artists such as Darío and José Santos Chocano. Romantic poet of lyric poetry and poetic prose, among his works are Young heart (1904) and Poems of the soul (1906). He is considered one of the most excellent figures of Costa Rican culture.
• Lismaco Chavarría (San Ramón, 1878-1913) was a poet, painter and sculptor. Of humble origins, it was a watchmaker, librarian and schoolmaster. His life was very difficult: he faced the poverty and contempt of his congeners for his peasant origin, This struggle is reflected in his poems, of clear and excellent language, in which he reflects the deepest of the Costa Rican being and the national soul. Among his poems stand out Orchids (1904), Nomads (1906), Water Poem (1909) and The tree of the path.
• Roberto Brenes Mesén (San José, 1874-1947) was an educator, poet, novelist and journalist, considered one of the most influential intellectuals in the national culture of his time. His poetry is lyric and philosophical. His literature is part of modernism, due to the chosen language of his works. They stand out among themselves In silence (1907), Towards new thresholds (1913), Voices of the Angelus (1916), Pastoral and Jacinth (1917), The gods return (1928) and Poems of love and death (1943). His only novel was Betania Lazarus.

Realistic Writers

• Joaquín García Monge (Desamparados, 1881-1958), was a writer and educator. He wrote the first novels of Costa Rican literature: The Moto and The daughters of the field, published in 1900, in which the old rural and oligarchic society of the Gamonales is skinned. He was founder of the American Repertoire magazine, which became an important forum for discussion for Latin American intellectuality of the period, and whose influence was continental.
• Omar Dengo (San José, 1888 - Heredia, 1928) was a writer, philosopher, journalist, humanist, lawyer and educator. Author of essays and articles where he exposes his thought about poverty, social injustices, goodness, vices and limitations of Costa Rican society. As a trainer of the first teachers of Costa Rica, it is one of the most outstanding figures of national culture.
• Carmen Lyra (San José, 1887 - Mexico City, 1949) was a writer, politician, activist and educator. She is the founder of the realistic trend in the literature of Costa Rica. His most important work, Tales of my Aunt Panchita (1920) is one of the classics of the national literature, since, based on tales of the universal oral tradition, but adapted to the Costa Rican culture and reality of the time. Other important works of yours are Bananas and men and In a wheelchair.
• Mario Sancho Jiménez (Cartago, 1889-1948) was rehearsal and educator.
• Max Jiménez (San José, 1900 - Buenos Aires, 1949) was a writer, painter, sculptor and journalist. One of the most consecrated and multifaceted artists of national history, the precursor of abstractism in the plastic arts of Costa Rica. His most important literary work is The fleas dommer.
• José Marín Cañas (San José, 1904-1980) was a writer, businessman, farmer, rancher, musician and journalist. His novels The Green Hell (1935) and Pedro Arnáez (1942) introduced new models of subjectivity and relation between consciousness and the world in the Costa Rican novelist.
• Francisco Amighetti (San José, 1907-1998), was a painter, recorder and writer. Recognized as one of the most important plastic artists in the country, he also wrote several books of great sensitivity, mainly poetry and autobiographical books. Poetry (1936), Francisco in Harlem (1947), Francisco en Costa Rica (1961).
• Isaac Felipe Azofeifa (Heredia, 1909—Saint Joseph, 1997) was a poet, teacher and politician.
• Eunice Hate (Saint Joseph, 1919-1974), was a poet.

The Generation of '40 (1940-1960)

Carlos Luis Fallas (1909-1966). Writer and political leader, is one of the most emblematic authors of Costa Rica, and his novel Mamita Yunaione of the most important in Costa Rican literature.

Within this generation are the narrators Carlos Luis Fallas (1911-1966), Adolfo Herrera García (1914-1975), Yolanda Oreamuno (1915-1956), Fabián Dobles (1918-1997), Joaquín Gutiérrez Mangel (1918- 2000); the poets Francisco Amighetti (1907-1998), Arturo Echeverría Loría (1909-1966), Fernando Centeno Güell (1908-1993), Isaac Felipe Azofeifa (1909-1997), Alfredo Cardona Peña (1917-1997), Eunice Odio (1919 -1974); and the essayists Luis Barahona (1912-1987) and Rodrigo Facio (1917-1961).

The 1940s was a time of questioning and renewal, of important social reforms in Costa Rica (such as Social Guarantees) and of a new concept of State. The main themes that the literary works of this time deal with are social problems, land distribution and dependence on transnational companies. A large part of the texts of this generation sought support for the new critical, revolutionary or reformist reassessments, arising from the complex ideological and political framework of the time, characterized by the emergence of a large number of ideologies from the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War: liberalism, fascism, communism, capitalism, socialism, democracy, dictatorship, etc. There were opposing visions of these concepts according to the ideological point of view: liberalism, for example, could be seen as a symbol of freedom and democracy, or as a symbol of social inequality and exploitation; Communism could be seen as a symbol of the fight against inequality and exploitation or as a symbol of dictatorship and totalitarianism, and so on. In Costa Rica, in 1940, the liberal model of the old coffee republic had fallen into crisis, which produced the emergence of new ideas for political and social reform. It is the time when the Social Christian ideology of President Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia and his social reforms appeared; of Costa Rican communism, headed by Manuel Mora Valverde, and an ideology that played a fundamental role in much of the organization of the social and popular movements of the time, and which was approached by a large number of national authors of the time, such as Joaquín Gutiérrez, Carlos Luis Fallas and Carmen Lyra; and social democracy, embodied first by the Center for the Study of National Problems and later by the National Liberation party, with important ideologues such as Carlos Monge Alfaro and Rodrigo Facio.

Realism will be the watchword of the novelists of the 1940s generation. His works are characterized by a critical vision of society and the image of a problematic integration of the subject in a repressive and alienating social order. In his novels he launches himself in search of a new order through unprecedented forms of integration of the subject or reordering of the world, looking for new models that allow the transformation of the old order and new forms of social coexistence. One of the main reasons is the trip, which will be the predominant theme in almost all the novels of this generation. The scenario will no longer be limited to the Central Valley of Costa Rica, but new geographical areas will be introduced, such as the Pacific, Caribbean, Talamanca and Guanacaste coasts. The reason for the trip will almost always be the transgression of borders, contact with the peripheral regions of the country, excluded from the official image of the nation, for which characters from marginalized social groups are incorporated into leading roles, becoming heroes. literary: peasants, middle classes, urban and banana workers, women, blacks, indigenous people. The coffee oligarchy and the liberal ideology, which the intellectuals of the Olympus generation had been in charge of elevating as standard bearers of progress and civilization, become anti-heroes and villains. The liberal faith in the market as the engine of social relations becomes the cause of social inequality, poverty and the concentration of power in the hands of an oligarchic elite that marginalizes the popular classes and delivers the country to foreign capital, personified in the multiform United Fruit Company.

• Moses Vincenzi Pacheco (Tres Rios, 1895-1964), philosopher and writer
• José Basileo Acuña Zeledón (San José, 1897-1992), poet and essayist.
• Julián Marchena (San José, 1897-1995)
• Carlos Luis Sáenz (Heredia, 1899-1983), writer, poet, politician and educator
• José Marín Cañas (San José, 1904-1980),
• Carlos Salazar Herrera (San José, 1906-1980), writer, sculptor, cartoonist, journalist and recorder
• Isaac Felipe Azofeifa (Santo Domingo de Heredia, 1909-1997), poet, teacher and politician.
• Carlos Luis Fallas (Alajuela, 1909-1966), novelist and politician.
• Yolanda Oreamuno (San José, 1916-1956),
• Fabián Dobles (Belén, 1918-1997), poet, novelist and recounter.
• Joaquín Gutiérrez (Limón, 1918-2000), ajedrecist, journalist, war chronist, novelist, cuentist, poet, translator, editor, university and political professor.

The urban generation (1960-1980)

Jorge Debravo (1938-1967). Writer and public official, is one of the most important Costa Rican poets of the centuryXX. for the dimension of his work, devoted to social concern.

During this time, a process of modernization and industrialization took shape in Costa Rica. In the literature of this period, the city appears as the predominant theme.

The Círculo de poetas turrialbeños, was founded by the poets from the city of Turrialba Jorge Debravo, Marco Aguilar and Laureano Albán, at the beginning of the 60s. Later they changed their name to Círculo de poetas costa ricenses. This group of poets published the not very famous Transcendentalist Manifesto (1977), signed by Laureano Albán, Julieta Dobles, Carlos Francisco Monge and Ronald Bonilla. On this same subject, Carlos Francisco Monge wrote the essay & # 34; A manifesto twenty years later & # 34; (1997), included in his book La rama de fresno (1999). This manifesto proposes a departure from social poetry, which characterizes Jorge Debravo so much; in exchange for a lighter, abstract and full of metaphors; He also dares to propose the role that the poet should follow. The implementation of the transcendentalist method has not managed to influence the literature outside the group that proposed it, even so this document has the merit of being the first of its kind published in Costa Rica. The Circle of Costa Rican Poets is still active to date.

In the 1970s, a group of novelists criticized the exhaustion of the political project carried out after the founding of the Second Republic that followed the end of the civil war in 1948. In some books this group of writers is mentioned as a generation of the 70s, and includes authors such as:

• Carmen Naranjo (Cartago, 1928 - San José, 2012)
• Gerardo César Hurtado
• Quince Duncan
• Alfonso Chase
• Alberto Cañas Escalante (San José, 1920 - 2014)
• Jorge Charpentier
• Daniel Gallegos (San José, 1930 - 2018)
• Virginia Grutter (Puntarenas, 1929 — 2000)
• Eunice Odio (San José, 1919 - Mexico City, 1974)
• Samuel Rovinski (San José, 1931 - 2013)
• José León Sánchez
• Laureano Alban
• Juliet Doubles
• Jorge Debravo (Turrialba, 1938 - San José, 1967)
• Francisco Zúñiga Díaz (Puntarenas, 1931 - San José, 1997)

The generation of disenchantment or Postmodernity (1980-present)

Anacristina Rossi (1952). Author of works as Limón Reggae, Mary the night and The madman of Gandoca, is one of the leading Costa Rican writers of the "generation of disenchantment", which marks the emergence of new forms of writing in Costa Rican literature.

Starting in the 1980s, a new period emerged in Costa Rican literature. During this time there is a departure from the trends that have characterized Costa Rican literature since its inception, in particular, realism is abandoned, which has an impact on the appearance of new forms of writing. This has caused current Costa Rican literature to present a plurality of styles, times, and spaces. However, since the theme of the works seems to be framed within the same context: the disenchantment with the State model promoted by Costa Rican politicians. In addition, the political changes in the world have caused changes in the background theme, to call it that. In this literature, the urban environment predominates, but it no longer proposes political or social solutions, as social realism did during the Cold War era. Within the main texts and themes we find the desire to externalize the inner world and make the outer world. We see a concern for minorities. The “outcasts” of Costa Rican society (ruined bureaucrats, criminals, homosexuals and prostitutes) take ownership of the narratives of important authors.

• Among the writers born before 1965 who have published works after 1990 are Jorge Arturo, Tatiana Lobo, Linda Berrón, Carlos Francisco Monge, Adriano Corrales Arias, Anacristina Rossi, Fernando Durán Ayanegui, Francisco Rodríguez, Osvaldo Sauma, Guillermo Fernández Álvarez, Rodrigo Soto, Carlos Rodelias, Vernor Muñoz, Uriel Quesada, Ana Istarú, Fernando

• On the other hand, we have writers born after 1965, and who have published after 1990. Among them are the following poets: Mauricio Molina Delgado, Luis Chaves, Melvyn Aguilar, Gustavo Solórzano Alfaro, Alfredo Trejos, Joan Bernal, Cristián Marcelo, Mauricio Vargas Ortega, Alejandra Castro, Paula Piedra, Laura Fuentes, Camila Schumaher, David Cruz, James Philliphe Morán, Alejandro Cordero, Vivian Cruz, William Eduarte, Juan Alberto Corrales and Luis Chacón. Within the group of narrators born after 1965 you can mention: Heriberto Rodríguez, Mauricio Ventanas, Catalina Murillo, Manuel Marín Oconitrillo, Alí Víquez Jiménez, Marco Castro, Mario León, Z.Champlin, Guillermo Barquero, Antonio Chamu, Jesús Vargas Garita, Gustavo Adolfo Chaves, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, Albán Mora, Mauricio Chaves Mesárez.