Ángel Felicísimo Rojas (Loja, December 20, 1909 – Guayaquil, July 20, 2003) was an Ecuadorian novelist and short story writer. His best known novel is El éxodo de Yangana (1949), which is one of Ecuador’s most important books. In 1948 Rojas published an influential book entitled The Ecuadorian Novel, which set the tone for literary criticism in the country for future decades. Rojas founded the Socialist Party of Loja in 1927. He was a passionate supporter of socialism, which led to his arrest and imprisonment by the Ecuadorian government in 1941. In 1997 Rojas was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Award in Literature.
Ángel F. Rojas wrote the book on the Ecuadorian novel.
In 1948, Ángel F. Rojas’ book La novela ecuatoriana (The Ecuadorian Novel) was published in Mexico by the Fondo de Cultura Económica (Economic Culture Fund). The work is a detailed analysis of the novelistic genre in Ecuador from 1830 to 1945. It is considered the most influential literary analysis text of the twentieth century in the country, setting the tone for Ecuadorian literary criticism in the decades to come. The work is divided into three sections according to the historical period of analysis: 1830 to 1895, 1895 to 1925 and 1925 to 1945. Each section includes, in addition to the study of the representative works of the period, a review of the historical context and general conclusions.
Works
Novels
- Banca (Loja, 1938)
- El éxodo de Yangana (Buenos Aires, 1949)
- Curipamba (Loja, 1983)
- El club de los Machorros (Loja, unpublished)
Short Stories
- Un idilio bobo (Quito, 1946)
- El busto de doña Leonor (Quito, 1997)
Non-fiction
- La novela ecuatoriana (México, 1948)