Arguedas: Los Rios Profundos

Arguedas: Los Rios Profundos by Arguedas, Jose Maria. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781853995156.

Los rios profundos (Deep Rivers) is Arguedas most famous novel. It tells the story of a young mans experience of growing up in highland Peru in a deeply divided society and of his struggle to overcome conflicts of language and culture. He manages to elaborate an alternative vision of Peru, drawing above all on native Indian sensibility and traditions. In the process, the novel draws on key elements of Peruvian history and culture and above all on popular memory. Suitable for university and A-level teaching as the plot is uncomplicated and the emotional atmosphere is immediately graspable. This edition offers a full glossary, and a comprehensive introduction which outlines the main features of the plot, with a clear interpretation of major episodes and of chief elements within the text, relating them to key features of modern Peru and explains the chief elements of native culture such as the use of myth. This Spanish text is useful for teaching Peruvian, Latin American literature or cultural history at upper sixth-form and university level.