Works by José Carlos Mariátegui

José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930), author of the classic Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana (also published in Linkgua ediciones), was one of the most interesting Latin American Marxist thinkers.
Owner of an impeccable prose and a heterodox vision of Marxism, he was also a notable literary critic. However, the critical dimension of Mariátegui’s work has been somewhat relegated. There are few studies that speak of the intimate relationship he maintained with literature, and of the depth of his aesthetic thought, reflected through his critical articles.
In this volume of the Works of José Carlos Mariátegui we will find Mariátegui’s critical gaze. Our author has an insightful eye that knew how to point out the most avant-garde literary trends. He is also able to identify and evaluate the most important writers of his time.
In his writings he reflects on the role of literature, the relationship between the intellectual and the revolution, the articulation between the political avant-garde and the aesthetic avant-garde. Mariátegui emphasizes the need for a new art —according to the revolutionary future that emerges—. His gaze is not limited to simple explorations and formal conquests, nor to describe reality through the parameters of realistic aesthetics.
Mariátegui’s critical articles are a passionate defense of the artistic avant-garde and especially of surrealism or suprarealism. It highlights the transformative potential of surrealism due to the confluence between its aesthetic and political objectives and their coherence.
In this allegation emerges one of his deepest conceptions about the literary: its ability to reveal the hidden or usurped aspects of reality. Literary truth is to offer a new reading of reality. Mariátegui gets rid of the bastion of the bourgeoisie, which does not want anyone to question his way of representing the world.
What interests Mariátegui in the Surrealists is the consequent relationship between artist and man. Thus he analyzes the break with the rationalism of bourgeois thought.
On the other hand, Maríátegui does not recognize an absolute independence of art from politics. This does not mean that political discourse marks the paths of the intellectual’s work. Maríátegui emphasizes the indivisibility of the spirit of man and the consequent coherence between his intellectual work and his political thought.