On the Crest of a Wave: Surfing and Literature in Peru

摘要

After arriving in Peru from Hawaii in the 1940s, surfing was for decades associated almost exclusively with the country's white male elite, its practice concentrated around Lima. Peru's extensive coastline, and the presence of the Panamerican Highway, meant that the sport spread fairly rapidly to other population centres, notably the northern city of Trujillo, but the rise to prominence of surfers from traditionally non-hegemonic sectors of society (women and non-whites) is a more recent phenomenon. The rapidly growing space occupied by surfing in Peru has extended to works of literature as some of the country's most distinguished narrators and poets include this sport as a central part of their texts. This study offers the first consideration of the cultural impact of surfing in Peru, through a contextualized analysis of a number of literary texts that have surfing at their core. It also represents the first study to focus on the presence of surfing in a national literature, and provides initial reflections on the challenges of the literary representation of this most fluid of sports.