Colonial period Literature written in Venezuelan territory began to develop at the time of the
Conquest of America with the
Chronicles of the Indies and later with the first autograph texts by colonial authors. Literary activity was constant throughout the colonial period, but due to the late introduction of the
printing press in the region, few works have survived to the present day. Between 1563 and 1564,
Pedro de la Cadena wrote his epic poem
Los actos y hazañas valerosas del capitán Diego Hernández de Serpa, which is the first written work of literature with a Venezuelan theme and possibly the earliest poem written in the Americas in a European language. De la Cadena and other Spanish authors who set the action of their poems on
Cubagua island, like
Juan de Castellanos (author of the
Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias) or
Jorge de Herrera, were known at the time as the "poets of Cubagua". Some chroniclers of the Indies who never set foot on Venezuela are nevertheless considered part of the history of its literature due to the fact that they recounted episodes of local history such as the founding and destruction of
Nueva Cádiz, the pearl trade of Cubagua and
Margarita, or the process of colonisation. Among these were
Bartolomé de las Casas (
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, 1552),
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (
Historia general y natural de las Indias, 1535, and
Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias, 1526)
Francisco López de Gómara (
Historia general de las Indias, 1552), and
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (
Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada, 1539). Later chroniclers who did inhabit the territory include
Pedro Simón, who in 1626 published
Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales, on the conquest of the present territories of Venezuela and
Colombia, and Jacinto de Carvajal, whose
Relación del descubrimiento del río Apure hasta su ingreso en el Orinoco, or
Jornadas náuticas (1648), records the first catalogue of indigenous peoples of Venezuela (a list of 105 nations, some of which remain unknown) as well as the first case of plagiarism committed in the region. , depicts Francisco de Miranda during his last days, in the prison of
Cádiz. Venezuelan colonial culture developed considerably in the eighteenth century. The panegyric
Lágrimas amorosas, by
Nicolás Herrera y Ascanio, priest at the
Caracas Cathedral, was published in Mexico in 1707. In 1723,
José de Oviedo y Baños completed his
Historia de la conquista y población de la Provincia de Venezuela. In 1732, the Venezuelan priest
José Mijares de Solórzano had the three volumes of his
Sermones magistrales published in Madrid.
Joseph Gumilla published
El Orinoco ilustrado y defendido and
Historia natural, civil y geográfica de las naciones situadas en las riveras del río Orinoco, two important contributions to the historiography of the indigenous peoples of Venezuela, in 1745 and 1791 respectively. Of the works of the extremely prolific writer
Juan Antonio Navarrete (1749-1814),
Franciscan friar and supporter of independence, only three have survived: the
Novena de Santa Efigenia, the
Cursus Philosophicus Iuxtamiram, and the
Arca de letras y Teatro universal. The latter, probably written between 1783 and 1813-1814, is a monumental work with an extremely complex structure that compiles with great erudition and lexicographical skill much of the knowledge available at the time. The late eighteenth century also saw the publication of the best known Venezuelan prose works from the colonial period, the
Diaries of
Francisco de Miranda (1771-1792). Miranda also authored several texts recounting his participation in the
French Revolution, as well as his negotiations with the governments of
England,
France and the
United States of America to seek support for the independence of Spanish America. Finally, it was in the late colonial period that the first known Venezuelan woman writer, the
Carmelite nun
Sor María Josefa de los Ángeles (1765-1818?) published her work. Most of her poetry, marked by an intense mystical sentiment inspired by Saint
Teresa of Ávila, was lost during the War of Independence. However, two of her texts,
Anhelo ("Yearning") and
Terremoto ("Earthquake"), have made it to the present day.
19th century The arrival of the printing press in
Caracas in 1808, on the eve of
independence, led to the emergence of several newspapers, most notably
Correo de la Trinidad Española,
Gazeta de Caracas as well as of its first major authors,
Andrés Bello and
Rafael María Baralt. In this period shines the poetic production of
Andrés Bello (1781-1865), the first poet to propose the creation of a lyrical American expression. His poetry is considered the precursor of lyrical themes on the Latin American continent, as shown in
Address of Poetry (1823) and Silva to Agriculture in the Torrid Zone (1826). During the war of independence the first printing press was installed in Angostura. With it, a great newspaper were born, especially
El Correo del Orinoco, where ideas of independence were disseminated, after being tested through public speeches. The correspondence of the liberators and the official documents of his republican powers elucidate not only the colossal mosaic of his political genius, but the cleanliness of an exquisite and intense pen. Of great beauty and deep philosophical concern
My delirium on the Chimborazo, a unique masterpiece that distinguishes
Simon Bolivar the contradictions of his time, and in the proportion that goes from the ethereal vision of a tribune to the humility of a prophet made for a nascent and promising world.
Simón Rodríguez (1769-1854), philosopher, in Caracas, in a well-thought-out essay on nascent republics, provides an interesting work, although scattered, according to the twists and turns of his personal life, not only a compilation of sociological concerns, but also of the urgency of intellectual code. For the sponsorship of his famous student, Simon Bolivar, he partially manages to implement some of his ideas, later developed, and in an authentic Castilian and sometimes as ironic as Voltaire. In addition to his publications and correspondence, he remains famous for his defense of the Bolivarian feat, constructed with logical rigor.
Rafael María Baralt y Pérez was a Venezuelan diplomat and one of the country's most famed writers, philologists, and historians. In 1840 published in Paris his
Resumen de la Historia de Venezuela y
Diccionario de galicismos. On 1841 he travelled to London and then settled in Seville and Madrid. There he produced most of his abundant literary work. Among his works, his ode
Adiós a la Patria. Occupies an important place, considered to be of impressive poetic richness. He also held important positions in the Kingdom of Spain, such as director of the
Gaceta de la Corona and administrator of the Imprenta Nacional. He was the first Latin American to occupy a chair at the Real Academia Española. He took up his seat on 27 November 1853. Works from this period address issues such as the
War of Independence (e.g.,
Eduardo Blanco's 1881
Venezuela Heroica) and the political conflicts between conservatives and liberals. Novels, short stories, and plays were written in the mid-nineteenth century by authors such as
Fermín Toro,
Julio Calcaño,
Eduardo Blanco,
Zulima,
Juan Vicente Camacho, and
Tomás Michelena, and the end of the century saw the local emergence of international literary movements such as
modernismo,
cosmopolitismo, and
criollismo.
20th century In the 20th century, with the modernization and urbanization of Venezuela thanks to the economic boom provided by
petroleum, some of its finest writers were:
Teresa de la Parra,
Rómulo Gallegos,
Arturo Uslar Pietri,
Salvador Garmendia,
Enrique Bernardo Núñez,
Julio Garmendia,
José Antonio Ramos Sucre. Gallegos'
Doña Bárbara (1929) was described in 1974 as "possibly the most widely known Latin American novel". The
National Prize for Literature, awarded annually, was established in 1948, with Uslar Pietri the only writer to win twice in the first five decades. Vanguard playwrights from the 1960s include Levy Rossel, author of the 1966 musical theatre play
Vimazoluleka. Rafael Cadenas and
Eugenio Montejo are among the best known poets of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.
21st century At the start of the 21st century, Venezuelan fiction boomed with major new works by
Federico Vegas,
Francisco Suniaga,
Ana Teresa Torres and
Slavko Župčić. According to critic and journalist
Boris Muñoz, Venezuelan fiction has "opened up to find a bigger audience, through noir novels, historical novels, without renouncing its own Venezuelan idiosyncrasies". With the
Venezuelan refugee crisis in the 2010s, migration has become a predominant topic in Venezuelan literature. Many Venezuelan writers live and publish outside the country, notably in Spain, the United States and other parts of Latin America. == Oral literature ==