Is the cultural apocalypse coming? Three Hispanic perspectives

Abstract

This present paper investigates the perspective of three Latin-American authors on contemporary culture and its defining trait: the apparently irreconcilable conflict between the elitist artist and consumerism promoted by the editorial and artistic market. Vargas Llosa, in an essay published in 2012, calls for a reassessment of the role of the artist and the intellectual as guides for the masses, but without observing the contradiction that this position entails. Daniel Tabarovski writes a plea for a “left-winged literature” which turns into an avant-garde manifesto, written, paradoxically, with an awareness of the total disappearance of the avant-garde spirit. Last, but not least, Roberto Bolaño has a profoundly pessimistic view of both elitist and mass culture. The three perspectives mentioned reveal a common discontent with regard to the inevitable transformation of Western culture, which, viewed from a different angle, has only become more democratic.