Introduction GABO WISHED TO REFLECT IN HIS SPEECH THE SORROW AND SOLITUDE OF THE LATIN AMERICAN CONTINENT.
He asked his “ghost writers” to dig up facts about the continent which he could use for his purpose.
For him his lecture was a medium to land a impact on the european world about what they perceived of his continent.
He Once Quoted : "It has to be a political speech presented as literature. I've heard that the Swedish Academy is a solemn clan out to make me over. And I have to wear a tail coat, a colonial costume, an upper-class outfit from the 19th century. I will feel terrible."
Themes of the Lecture
Social reflection of Latin America
Political scenario of the Latin America
Justification of Magical Realism
“The Solitude of Latin America”
A. Marquez, Latin Americans & One Hundred Years Of Solitude
Marquez deeply reflects his people visually in all of his works.
He focuses vehemently on their beliefs, their customs, their surroundings, their way of life and their issues.
This is where he feels the colonial world misinterprets latin america, it completely disbelieves its existence by disbelieving its people.
In his very first passage he quotes “Antonio Pigafetta, a Florentine navigator who went with Magellan…..In it he recorded that he had seen hogs with navels on their haunches, clawless birds….having seen a misbegotten creature…. He described how the first native encountered in Patagonia was confronted with a mirror, whereupon that impassioned giant lost his senses to the terror of his own image.”
This clearly depicts how fantastical latin america is considered, how europe disconnects it from the sane in their perception.
In the novel, the buendia family’s interaction with the block of ice carries a similar meaning as that of seeing a mirror for the first time.
for this purpose marquez uses “magical realism” to reflect in his work the common lives of his fellow people, their beliefs and the associated mysteries.
With that while he makes us the readers believe in their existence it also stands as a critical acclaim of the colonial world who have failed to give recognition to a society as vivid as theirs.
He quotes “And if these difficulties, whose essence we share, hinder us…..It is only natural that they insist on measuring us with the yardstick that they use for themselves, forgetting that the ravages of life are not the same for all, and that the quest of our own identity is just as arduous and bloody for us as it was for them.”
He mentions in his speech the miserable life of his people where they live in fear of death following deaths of their fellowmen in the wars and massacres that has haunted them for ages, which have sadly gone unnoticed to the world outside.
This he reflects in his novel by describing the massacre of 3000 men and women who’s existence is as simply neglected as that of a “flying carpet in real life”.
B. Marquez, Politics & One Hundred Years of Solitude
The ideologies of federalism, liberalism, conservativism, nationalism, regionalism, localism, caudillismo, socialism, anarchy, and communism have played an even more authentic and (conscientiously) ever-present role in Latin Americans over 5 centuries due to the integrative developments and underdevelopment taking place through various colonial and post-colonial trends and invasions.
Márquezs inherited political and ideological views from his grandfather who was a colonel who supported liberalism and stood against the government thus to the Colombian literary status quo, García Márquez's socialist and anti-imperialist views are in principled opposition to the global status quo dominated by the United States which he projects in all his works.
He Quotes “Our independence from Spanish domination did not put us beyond the reach of madness….the theosophical despot of El Salvador who had thirty thousand peasants slaughtered in a savage massacre….We have not had a moment's rest…two suspicious airplane accidents, yet to be explained, cut short the life of another great-hearted president and that of a democratic soldier who had revived the dignity of his people….five wars….seventeen military coups….there emerged a diabolic dictator who is carrying out….the ethnocide of our time.”
This has clearly been depicted in the novel by means of colonel buendia’s rebellions against the conservative government As the town of macondo moved from an self establish free identity to that of one ruled by central government.
The repeated transition of power and rebellions in the novel and those mentioned in the lecture depicts the maze in which the continent is actually swirling around in dark loops looking for an exit into light and freedom from oppression so that they can make an identity that gets recognized by the world outside.
C. Justification Of Magical Realism
Marquez, by the weight of his words justifies his use of Magical Realism to reflect the cause of Latin America in all his works, which to a great extent describe, in a contradictory manner the issues discussed above.
He even uses Magical Realism to make the people, he represents distinct from that of the colonial world by describing their lives, beliefs and miseries in a way that seems unreal to the world outside.
Similar to the events that have haunted Latin America for so long and have gone unnoticed and seem fake to others. Thus Magical Realism stands well justified.
D. Marquez and The Solitude of Latin America
Solitude has been Embedded in the souls of latin americans which is visible in the works of the authors and poets from the continent.
Garcia Marquez quotes “ ….the immeasurable violence and pain of our history are the result of age-old inequities and untold bitterness,…not a conspiracy plotted three thousand leagues from our home…. European leaders and thinkers have thought so…, This, my friends, is the very scale of our solitude.”
Macondo was cut from the world, lost in the swamps for a long time and that created a essence of solitude and so has been the case with Latin America.
Some of the Macondo townspeople may have been depressed at the isolation of their wilderness community but This detachment was fine for the majority of people since at that time crime was not prevalent and wars were kept far away. Such was the case when spanish and the portugese came to latin america but soon the things got turbulent.
Throughout the book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, the individual characters also take on the world of solitude in their own lives and homes. Constantly, despite a strong sense of family, in life the main protagonists sense a pull towards solitude themselves.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his NOBEL PRIZE acceptance speech noted still one other important aspect of the latin america’s experience of isolation by their sense of negligence as illegitimate sons and daughters of Europe. And in the novel that is Visible in the treatment of “Aureliano” by “Fernanda”.
Europeans and their state governments have often forgotten or ignored Latin America and then taking no real self-reflection in wondering why Latin America did not develop like Canada or the United States.
Marquez quotes “I do believe that those clear-sighted Europeans who struggle, here as well, for a more just and humane homeland, could help us far better if they reconsidered their way of seeing us. Solidarity with our dreams will not make us feel less alone, as long as it is not translated into concrete acts of legitimate support for all the peoples that assume the illusion of having a life of their own in the distribution of the world.”
And he concludes “Faced with this awesome reality that must have seemed a mere utopia through all of human time, we, the inventors of tales, who will believe anything, feel entitled to believe that it is not yet too late to engage in the creation of the opposite utopia. A new and sweeping utopia of life, where no one will be able to decide for others how they die, where love will prove true and happiness be possible, and where the races condemned to one hundred years of solitude will have, at last and forever, a second opportunity on earth.” showing hope that if given an opportunity latin america may resurface equally among the world where it no longer would be haunted by being left alone in solitude.
Conclusion
The noble prize acceptance speech which throws light on the socio-political scenario of his people who have been in nothing but swamps and shadows, in a way similar to in which he sails us across the realms of reality to those of fantasy without drawing any margins in between.
My ghost writers
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/reviews/marquez-talk.html
http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/more-thoughts-on-another-nobel-prize-winner-one-who-speaks-to-multicultural-europe/
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-lecture.html#
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garcia_Marquez
He asked his “ghost writers” to dig up facts about the continent which he could use for his purpose.
For him his lecture was a medium to land a impact on the european world about what they perceived of his continent.
He Once Quoted : "It has to be a political speech presented as literature. I've heard that the Swedish Academy is a solemn clan out to make me over. And I have to wear a tail coat, a colonial costume, an upper-class outfit from the 19th century. I will feel terrible."
Themes of the Lecture
Social reflection of Latin America
Political scenario of the Latin America
Justification of Magical Realism
“The Solitude of Latin America”
A. Marquez, Latin Americans & One Hundred Years Of Solitude
Marquez deeply reflects his people visually in all of his works.
He focuses vehemently on their beliefs, their customs, their surroundings, their way of life and their issues.
This is where he feels the colonial world misinterprets latin america, it completely disbelieves its existence by disbelieving its people.
In his very first passage he quotes “Antonio Pigafetta, a Florentine navigator who went with Magellan…..In it he recorded that he had seen hogs with navels on their haunches, clawless birds….having seen a misbegotten creature…. He described how the first native encountered in Patagonia was confronted with a mirror, whereupon that impassioned giant lost his senses to the terror of his own image.”
This clearly depicts how fantastical latin america is considered, how europe disconnects it from the sane in their perception.
In the novel, the buendia family’s interaction with the block of ice carries a similar meaning as that of seeing a mirror for the first time.
for this purpose marquez uses “magical realism” to reflect in his work the common lives of his fellow people, their beliefs and the associated mysteries.
With that while he makes us the readers believe in their existence it also stands as a critical acclaim of the colonial world who have failed to give recognition to a society as vivid as theirs.
He quotes “And if these difficulties, whose essence we share, hinder us…..It is only natural that they insist on measuring us with the yardstick that they use for themselves, forgetting that the ravages of life are not the same for all, and that the quest of our own identity is just as arduous and bloody for us as it was for them.”
He mentions in his speech the miserable life of his people where they live in fear of death following deaths of their fellowmen in the wars and massacres that has haunted them for ages, which have sadly gone unnoticed to the world outside.
This he reflects in his novel by describing the massacre of 3000 men and women who’s existence is as simply neglected as that of a “flying carpet in real life”.
B. Marquez, Politics & One Hundred Years of Solitude
The ideologies of federalism, liberalism, conservativism, nationalism, regionalism, localism, caudillismo, socialism, anarchy, and communism have played an even more authentic and (conscientiously) ever-present role in Latin Americans over 5 centuries due to the integrative developments and underdevelopment taking place through various colonial and post-colonial trends and invasions.
Márquezs inherited political and ideological views from his grandfather who was a colonel who supported liberalism and stood against the government thus to the Colombian literary status quo, García Márquez's socialist and anti-imperialist views are in principled opposition to the global status quo dominated by the United States which he projects in all his works.
He Quotes “Our independence from Spanish domination did not put us beyond the reach of madness….the theosophical despot of El Salvador who had thirty thousand peasants slaughtered in a savage massacre….We have not had a moment's rest…two suspicious airplane accidents, yet to be explained, cut short the life of another great-hearted president and that of a democratic soldier who had revived the dignity of his people….five wars….seventeen military coups….there emerged a diabolic dictator who is carrying out….the ethnocide of our time.”
This has clearly been depicted in the novel by means of colonel buendia’s rebellions against the conservative government As the town of macondo moved from an self establish free identity to that of one ruled by central government.
The repeated transition of power and rebellions in the novel and those mentioned in the lecture depicts the maze in which the continent is actually swirling around in dark loops looking for an exit into light and freedom from oppression so that they can make an identity that gets recognized by the world outside.
C. Justification Of Magical Realism
Marquez, by the weight of his words justifies his use of Magical Realism to reflect the cause of Latin America in all his works, which to a great extent describe, in a contradictory manner the issues discussed above.
He even uses Magical Realism to make the people, he represents distinct from that of the colonial world by describing their lives, beliefs and miseries in a way that seems unreal to the world outside.
Similar to the events that have haunted Latin America for so long and have gone unnoticed and seem fake to others. Thus Magical Realism stands well justified.
D. Marquez and The Solitude of Latin America
Solitude has been Embedded in the souls of latin americans which is visible in the works of the authors and poets from the continent.
Garcia Marquez quotes “ ….the immeasurable violence and pain of our history are the result of age-old inequities and untold bitterness,…not a conspiracy plotted three thousand leagues from our home…. European leaders and thinkers have thought so…, This, my friends, is the very scale of our solitude.”
Macondo was cut from the world, lost in the swamps for a long time and that created a essence of solitude and so has been the case with Latin America.
Some of the Macondo townspeople may have been depressed at the isolation of their wilderness community but This detachment was fine for the majority of people since at that time crime was not prevalent and wars were kept far away. Such was the case when spanish and the portugese came to latin america but soon the things got turbulent.
Throughout the book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, the individual characters also take on the world of solitude in their own lives and homes. Constantly, despite a strong sense of family, in life the main protagonists sense a pull towards solitude themselves.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his NOBEL PRIZE acceptance speech noted still one other important aspect of the latin america’s experience of isolation by their sense of negligence as illegitimate sons and daughters of Europe. And in the novel that is Visible in the treatment of “Aureliano” by “Fernanda”.
Europeans and their state governments have often forgotten or ignored Latin America and then taking no real self-reflection in wondering why Latin America did not develop like Canada or the United States.
Marquez quotes “I do believe that those clear-sighted Europeans who struggle, here as well, for a more just and humane homeland, could help us far better if they reconsidered their way of seeing us. Solidarity with our dreams will not make us feel less alone, as long as it is not translated into concrete acts of legitimate support for all the peoples that assume the illusion of having a life of their own in the distribution of the world.”
And he concludes “Faced with this awesome reality that must have seemed a mere utopia through all of human time, we, the inventors of tales, who will believe anything, feel entitled to believe that it is not yet too late to engage in the creation of the opposite utopia. A new and sweeping utopia of life, where no one will be able to decide for others how they die, where love will prove true and happiness be possible, and where the races condemned to one hundred years of solitude will have, at last and forever, a second opportunity on earth.” showing hope that if given an opportunity latin america may resurface equally among the world where it no longer would be haunted by being left alone in solitude.
Conclusion
The noble prize acceptance speech which throws light on the socio-political scenario of his people who have been in nothing but swamps and shadows, in a way similar to in which he sails us across the realms of reality to those of fantasy without drawing any margins in between.
My ghost writers
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/reviews/marquez-talk.html
http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/more-thoughts-on-another-nobel-prize-winner-one-who-speaks-to-multicultural-europe/
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-lecture.html#
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garcia_Marquez
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