A Marvelous Journey of Return The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier is the author’s journey of return to his Latin American root. He tries to decipher the myths and complexity of African identity and achieves it by opening up a new realm of interpretation and representation through literature work. In the novel, there are elements that can only come as a result of his experience of observing, questioning and criticizing, among which I think several are very noteworthy. First is Carpentier’s reflection of his own identity search in the novel, second is his application of magic realism in the writing that shows the juxtaposition between fiction and history and lastly, his depiction of a repeating cycle of the Haitian history in those stories, all of which contributes to the explosion and expansion of Latin American literature that follows Carpentier’s initiation in the field. As a Cuban writer, Carpentier has an in-depth understanding about the development of the entire Latin American Literature as a result of his experience working in journalism as well as being exiled and prisoned several times in his life. The Kingdom of This World and perhaps many other Carpentier’s works have demonstrated the influence of Western civilization, while Carpentier is aware of its limited effect on real Latin American culture in essence. For example, there is this depiction of a pastoral ball held in Santiago by the Cubans who try to imitate outdated French fashion style. “An air of license, of fantasy, of disorder swept the city. The young Cubans began to copy the fashions of the émigrés…Cuban ladies took lessons in French etiquette and practiced the art of turning out their feet to show off the elegance of their slippers.” On the other h... ... middle of paper ... ...mbodied by the suffering and the miraculous power of Macandal in the novel. The boundless sense of magical realism generated by the entire black race has far exceeded any sense of tragedy that comes from life itself in the story. I think this is also why Ti Noël does not get lost in the disappearance of Macandal but comes to his own sense and become a new Macandal for his people. Some clues can be found as early as the beginning chapter of the Kingdom of This World, as Carpentier writes “Although Ti Noël had little learning, he had been instructed in these truths by the deep wisdom of Macandal. In Africa the king was warrior, hunter, judge and priest; his precious seed distended hundreds of bellies with a might strain of heroes.” Ti Noël’s inner self believes that Macandal’s magic power does not go away with his physical body and there is always a path of return.
In the eighteenth Century, Colonial European and Mexican artists were fascinated with the emergence of racial blending within the Spaniard bloodline. Works of art began displaying pieces that portrayed three major groups that inhabited the colony— Indians, Spaniards, Africans and other ethnicities. This new genre of painting was known as Casta painting and portrayed colonial representations of racial intermarriage and their offspring. Traditionally Casta paintings were a pictorial genre that was often commissioned by Spaniards as souvenirs upon their arrival from New Spain (Mexico). And yet, why would such works have so much fascination despite its suggestive theme? It is clear that Casta paintings display interracial groups and couples, but they seem to have a deeper function when it comes to analyzing these works. These paintings demonstrate that casta paintings were created to display racial hierarchies within the era. They depict the domestic life of interracial marriages and systematically categorized through a complete series of individual paintings. It is clear that the fascination of these works reflected the categorizing of new bloodline that have been emerging and displays these characters in a manner that demonstrates the social stereotypes of these people by linking them with their domestic activities and the items that surround them as well. Despite the numerous racial stereotypes that are illustrated in these works, casta paintings construct racial identities through visual representations.
But then that brings into the argument that a “vast majority of those of us who write about colonial period are either or criollo origin or mestizos totally integrated into the occidentalized society that predominates in most Latin American republics,”(2). León-Portilla is a Mexican who is most likely to have a criollo origin, and considering from what Verdesio stated earlier, that there might be a slight twist of the real accounts since it comes from a history that has already been integrated in an altered manner. Verdesio states that this factor is crucial to determining the accurate historical representation of the indigenous, “Our perspective, then (even in the case of the best intentioned among us), is still a European one—a perspective
In Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of this World, many examples of recurring themes, images and symbols occur. In particular, the themes of hybridization and African versus European culture appear multiple times throughout the novel. However, it is not enough to simply look at these themes as trends occurring throughout the novel. Instead, these themes must be analyzed closely in order to provide possible insight into the author’s reasons for incorporating them so frequently in his text. For example, the aforementioned themes both relate closely to one another, and their presence alongside each other may indicate an underlying cultural or historic motive of the author. In essence, in order to truly understand The Kingdom of this World, one
In this novel, the society is centered around dichotomies; “youth and dotage” (Balzac 67), “the young man who has possessions and the young man that has nothing” and “the young man who thinks and the young man who spends” (87). Any person who falls outside of either box is called a “[child] who learn[s]… too late” or can “never appear in polite society” (87), essentially meaning they are undesirable in a formal society because they cannot follow expectations. The titular character, Paquita, is an “oriental” foreigner, from Havana, domesticated in Paris when she was sold to a wealthy woman who desired her. She fits into no culture entirely, as she is “part Asian houri on her mother’s side, part European through education, and part tropical by birth” (122). She is bisexual, choosing neither men nor women over the other. She is controlling, dressing Henri in women’s clothing (119), but controlled as she is reduced to a possession. However, there are ways in which a person can still be desired even if they are not easily pigeonholed. With her golden eyes and sensuality, Paquita fulfills both of the main pursuits of this society, “gold and pleasure” (68). Consequently, unlike the Marquis and his irrelevance in society, Paquita is highly sought after, thus making her a valuable commodity. Her desirability is not because of who she is as a human, but instead what
In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the (WHAT ARE SOME CHANGES) changes that occur in societies across the world.
This is a gripping novel about the problem of European colonialism in Africa. The story relates the cultural collision that occurs when Christian English missionaries arrive among the Ibos of Nigeria, bringing along their European ways of life and religion.
...spoke a Spanish Creole. This made a clear distinction between the two and made it easy for the government to identify the difference. The reader sees how such themes of Birth and Death show so prominently throughout the characters that one must focus on how birth and deaths affect the concept of the individual relating to their own Negritude. It is culture, not skin tones but rather the beliefs and values that each country be it Haiti or Dominican Republic relate to. Danticat’s novel helps us understand the strengths and limits that Rene Depestre states in The Birth of Caribbean Civilisation “there is a progressive ‘negritude’ that expounds the need to rise above all the alienations of man . . . and there is “an irrational reactionary and mystic version of ‘negritude’ which serves . . . as a cultural base for neo-colonialist penetration into our countries” (244).
Western attitudes to African people and culture have always affected how their art was appreciated and this has also coloured the response to the art from Benin. Over time, concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common lineage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin,, have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th century, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force is justified by these views.
With assertive shouts and short tempers, the prominent character, Ricardo, is characterized as a feisty townsman, doing nothing except trying to protect his town and its members from the judgments of the western world. For example, the characterization of the “‘…quaint’” man is exemplified through the simplicity of his life and the fact that he is “‘…employed’” and is full of knowledge, not a “‘cow in the forest’” (55, 29, 32). Ricardo desperately wants to establish the notion that he is not a heartless, feebleminded man, only an indigent, simple man striving to protect his friends and family from the criticisms of callous cultures. Incessantly Ricardo attempts to make it clear to the photographer the irritation elicited by his prese...
• AW’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition; in the passing on of stories from generation to generation in the language of the people. To AW the language had a great importance. She uses the “Slave language”, which by others is seen as “not correct language”, but this is because of the effect she wants the reader to understand.
Author’s Techniques: Rudolfo Anaya uses many Spanish terms in this book. The reason for this is to show the culture of the characters in the novel. Also he uses imagery to explain the beauty of the llano the Spanish America. By using both these techniques in his writing, Anaya bring s the true culture of
In 1949, Dana Gioia reflected on the significance of Gabriel García Márquez’s narrative style when he accurately quoted, “[it] describes the matter-of-fact combination of the fantastic and everyday in Latin American literature” (Gioia). Today, García Márquez’s work is synonymous with magical realism. In “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes,” the tale begins with be dramatically bleak fairytale introduction:
Cuban scholars like José Lezama Lima, Alejo Carpentier, and Severo Sarduy are vital theorists that define what the baroque has to offer as the ancestry of their writing. These theorists were writing at the time known as ‘El Boom latinoamericano’ – a resurgence of Latin American writing and writers. Suzanne Jill Levine writes, in the article “Jorge Luis Borges and Severo Sarduy: Two Writers of the Neo-Baroque” that “text as ‘tejido,’ as texture, of a text as an infinite weaving of texts appears” is an important aspect of the baroque aesthetic that Sarduy embraces during this time (30). This corresponds with what Salgado describes “the baroque function as a trope or adjective for the region’s complex ethnic and artistic mestizaje (‘racial mixture’)” (316). The mixture of race parallels the weaving of different stories or text within one text – the constant uncovering of new understandings within a text. In this movement the neo-baroque becomes explicitly about hybridity and postcolonial
The need for African cultures to find a common historical root that could unify the people of Africa cannot be overemphasized. In this globalized world, cultures continue to be defined with a focus on the present and the future. Like Kwesi Dickson stated, “The Africa of today is not the Africa of yesterday. Times have changed”. Both of these writers, Kwame Anthony Appiah and Frantz Fanon, explore the notion of cultural identity and the importance of it. There is no easy solution to what they are arguing, however it is possible to look forward by being informed about the past and the present.
The similar theme of displacement of lost origin of their past only lead the Creoles to have very little known about their own origins. The theme of confusion has heated debates of Black origins, yet Creole’s have managed to successfully illustrate a culture that derived from cause and effects of displacement. The oppression of blacks leads to the continuing struggle to find their identity. The lack of information makes it virtually impossible to find true origins and a sense of belonging. However, the motives of seeking background manage to further pave the theme social effects of African