Article
“La Mañosa” de Juan Bosch. La novela socio-realista de la revolución
Fecha
2014-12Autor
Rosario Candelier, Bruno
Institución
Resumen
This novel about autocratic (caudillista) revolutions, written by Juan Bosch under the title of “La Mañosa”,
substantiates this writer’s master narrative already evident in his short stories (Camino Real, 1933), a masterful
command of the written word that credits him with an eminent place in national literary circles as one of the most
important writers of 20th century’s Latin American and Spanish literature. His earliest texts show a well-defined
instinct for social themes: Bosch knew how to capture the living conditions of poor campesino communities, the
material misery and anguish experienced by rural men and women, particularly humble farmers who worked
the land from dawn to dusk and suffered the consequences of revolutions of the masses, the basis for his novel.
Bosch carves out a social literature defined most precisely as socio-realist since he imprinted a social, instead
of a personal, character on those conflicts portrayed in his narrative. The Dominican writer was conscious
of his role because he experienced, even at a young age, a social instinct reflected in his literature. He
grew up in an environment where the children of campesinos grew up practically naked, in shacks with dirt
floors, drinking water from wooden bowls. Bosch was concerned for that sorrowful social reality, a sentiment
reflected in his literary works.