TRUE LIES OF MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

Text topic: Lie in Art and Culture

Text author: Бојана Ковачевић Петровић

Throughout his literary career, the Peruvian Nobel laureate, Mario Vargas Llosa, has almost constantly dealt with the problem of lies, in different ways. In his eighteen novels, numerous essays and several theatre plays, we can recognize the motif of various forms of lies – mainly expressed through the hypocrisy of the society, military and the clergy – so we can safely say that lies are one of the key themes of narrative and essayistic works of Mario Vargas Llosa. From his point of view, lies are not only part of everyday life, vessels of every society and every subject of fiction, but they are also an integral part of each individual, as well as of life itself. In this paper we have tried to research all the aspects of his interest in the topic – from his childhood to the electoral period in Peru (1990), described in Fish in Water (El pez en el agua, 1993) and his latest novel Five corners (Cinco esquinas, 2016). We have paid special attention to Mario Vargas Llosa’s theoretical views regarding literature and lies, expressed in his various essays: True Lies (Las mentiras verdaderas, 1980), The Art of Lying (El arte de mentir, 1984), The Truth About Lies (La verdad de las mentiras, 1990), The Temptation of the Impossible (La tentación de lo imposible, 2004), as well as his lectures after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature (2010).