Magicking the Real: Alejo Carpentier and "Marvelous Realism"

• Main Authors: Feng-Yi Chen, 陳鳳儀
• Other Authors: Chen-hsing Tsai
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10409453066079867006

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 西洋語文研究所 === 89 === Title of the Thesis: Magicking the Real: Total Pages: 110 Alejo Carpentier and Marvelous Realism Name of Institute: Graduate Institute of Western Languages and Literature, Tamkang University Graduation Date:June, 2001 Degree Conferred: Master of Arts Name of Student:Feng-Yi Chen Advisor: Dr. Chen-hsing Tsai Abstract In this thesis, I look at three of Carpentier’s novels─The Kingdom of This World, The Lost Steps and Explosion in a Cathedral and examine how Carpentier expresses in fiction his idea and ideal of the marvelous real. I study these three novels because they carry the same theme: the baroque spirit. For Carpentier, the American baroque has established a unique trend in Latin American literature called the “New Novel” that combines the magic and the real, the cultural and the natural, and the fictional and the historical. In Chapter One, I deal with The Kingdom of This World and demonstrate how black slaves use their “voodoo faith” to resist the repression and inhuman treatment of the French settlers, the dictator Henri Christophe, and Mulatto Republic. Then I discuss three concentric themes revolving around Voodooism: (1) how the metamorphosis of Mackandal explains the collective faith in voodoo; (2) how the rise and the fall of the kingdom of Henri Christophe connotes the betrayal of voodoo; (3) how Pauline Bonaparte reveals the helplessness of the colonists and as a result, resorts to voodoo. Chapter Two is about the search for cultural identity in The Lost Steps. In this novel, the narrator-protagonist-musicologist, feeling tired of life in the modern city, travels to the jungles of Orinoco to look for ancient instruments. The journey not only helps him to search for the ancient lost instruments but also assists him in looking for his roots. Thus, the second chapter will focus on the narrator-protagonist’s quest for his roots and his negative epiphany after the journey that results from his losing the way back to Santa Mónica de los Venados. Besides, by “reenacting the quest of El Dorado,” Carpentier expatiates how he invokes the “marvelous reality.” Explosion in a Cathedral, set between 1789 and 1807, echoes the French Revolution and articulates the transition of Latin America from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. My focus is on political issues, as exemplified in Victor Hugues─a real historical figure, who appears in Explosion in a Cathedral and in how the painting entitled “Explosion in a Cathedral” parallels Roh’s idea of Post-Expressionism. The comparison between the epiphanies of both Esteban’s and Sofía’s and the triad relationship of the three important characters─Victor, Esteban, and Sofía─will be dealt with in the third chapter.