Our hands can be bound, but our heads must never be lowered. With this initial intention, more and more Latin Americans began to save the increasingly poor Latin American society from cultural, ideological, political and military aspects. However, this road to liberation is far more cruel than we thought. Most dictators in Latin America advocate bloody rule. They are willing to betray their motherland for the sake of rights and wealth, such as murdering tens of thousands of Argentine politician Jorge videla, Guatemalan President carlos armas who sold national resources for profiteering, and Paraguayan war criminal Stroessner who took in Nazi "angel of death" mengle and propagated fascist ideas.
Fighting these demons, Latin Americans can only pose and create some more euphemistic but nervous expressions. This genre needs to be integrated into the ghost culture of Indians, be able to replace the plot with flowers, accommodate its own critical thoughts, and most importantly, be understood and accepted by the public. The combination of these keywords is "magic realism".
Magic realism, a term that has sprung up suddenly in the field of literature. It originated from the artistic monograph "Magic Realism, Late Expressionism and Some Problems in Current European Painting" published by Flantz Luo Yu 1925, in which the concept distinction between "magic" and "mystery" was particularly emphasized. From the perspective of translation, the original word "Magisch" is incredible and unexpected, which is different in nature from the "fantasy" or "illusion" unique to mysterious culture.
In other words, the mystery of "magic realism" is a product of details extracted from humanistic society, and its unique relationship between man and god can better reflect real life. Uslar Petrie, a famous Venezuelan writer, once wrote "Literature and People in Venezuela", in which he wrote: "What has always dominated the story and left a deep impression on people is people's mysterious views on real life. Whether it is poetic speculation or poetic denial of reality, we can all call it' magic realism' until we find a more accurate expression. "
As the leader of this fantasy concept, Petrie has an extremely sensitive literary sense of smell. 1948, he formally introduced "magic realism" as a systematic concept into Latin American literary circles. Since then, the road to self-reliance of Latin American culture has been as hot as the burning Carboniferous period, perhaps because Latin Americans have finally found an ideal expression, or perhaps stubborn dictators have mistakenly ignored this. In the later days, Latin American literature formed a grand scene of gathering and sweeping for a while.
The storm swept across Latin America. Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, Guatemalan writer Angel asturias, Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier, Colombian writer Garcí a Má rquez, Uruguayan writer Carlos Onetti and Uslar Petrie, whom we just mentioned, all became explorers of this literary change.
1949, Carpentier published a long magical realistic novel The Kingdom of the World. In the preface, he also preliminarily expounded his own point of view: "Magic is an inevitable product of the sudden change of reality, a special manifestation of reality, an extraordinary and ingenious explanation of reality, and an expansion of the state and scale of reality." It can be seen that Carpentier's "magic" is highly similar to that proposed by Petrie. This also laid a solid theoretical foundation for the expansion of magic realism school.
It is worth mentioning that when Petrie introduced the word "magic realism" to Latin America, the famous Guatemalan writer Angel asturias had published two works full of magic realism, The Legend of Guatemala and Mr. President, which showed that the school of magic realism had quite mature literary works before the concept system was established, which was also an important reason why it stood the test of wind and rain in the subsequent wave of Latin American nationalities. The president is also a leading figure in anti-dictatorship literature. He boldly set the hero as a realistic dictator, which showed a rather magical irony effect.
The dictator in this book has no name, and the confidant of the "Mr. President" has ulterior motives. As a result, he was strangled by a mentally disordered beggar from the beginning. But "Mr. President" didn't panic, but used the topic to frame his political opponents and destroy dissidents. Facing the respected General canales, he used his political skills to induce the general to escape, and then sent a spy angel to kill the general. As a result, Angel fell in love with canales's daughter Camilla and planned to go bankrupt. However, "Mr. President" did not give up. He continued to set traps, one by one. First, he angered General canales, and then used Camilla to persecute Angel. Finally, Angel died of depression, and Mr. President was responsible for it.
This work is full of Indian mythology, which can be said to have a magical style. Every illusion and dream in the novel indicates the tragic fate that the characters are about to face. The work "Mr. President" shows the real treacherous dictator between the lines for the first time, which is of great guiding and educational significance to the cognition of Latin American people.
Asturias did not relax his combination of myth and literature. 1949, he created the perfect combination of myth and reality-Corn Man. This work is different from previous Latin American literature. It is not limited to the ideology of European literature, nor to the writing techniques of western novels. It is a novel based on Indian indigenous culture. According to the Indian classic "Boboru", there are no human beings in the world, but the creator created them. He first made a human figure out of clay, but because the clay was fragile, it could not satisfy the creator. After several selections, he finally chose corn as the human body (Joe).
Against this background, asturias wrote Corn Man, which tells the story of a group of Spaniards who broke into Indian settlements, sold corn and destroyed kapok trees. Indians regarded corn as their closest relative, so they launched a cruel battle with the Spanish invaders. The whole war is permeated with the corruption of the Spanish people. They first joined forces with government officials, then infiltrated into Indian tribes, poisoned Indian chiefs with sinister means of coercion and inducement, and destroyed the resistance. However, when he died, the firefly wizard swore an oath to curse the invaders and traitors. In the end, the curse came true one by one. No matter how the Spanish soldiers and Indian traitors struggled, they were finally exposed in the wilderness and nobody cared.
It is not difficult for us to see that although this struggle ended in the failure of the Indians, the invaders also got their due retribution, but their retribution happened to be completed with the curse of the Indians. Turning the victim's culture into a law to punish the aggressor is the author's deepest sympathy for the land under his feet. Asturias did not describe fantasy for the sake of pursuing it. He stressed: "I just tried to find a way to express what I saw and heard." This way borrows people's cultural concepts and exposes the fact of white plunder, which is a kind of "magic realism". He once lived in an Indian tribe for a long time and investigated the national culture contained in it. Although the ancient Indian culture was almost completely destroyed by the colonialists, it did not lose its vitality, but remained in the hearts of the people as spiritual wealth, which included superstitious elements and fatalism elements, but more belonged to the self-esteem of Latin American nations and the spirit of surviving against the oppression of aggressors.
As onlookers, we will find that the Spanish aggression in Corn Man is very similar to their means of destroying the Aztec Empire. They all invaded Indian civilization with sophisticated plans, bribed traitors and opponents with high interests and freedom, and broke the backbone of Indian civilization with despicable means such as poisoning and slaughter. The difference is that this work does not follow the traditional revenge means in the west, but highlights the indigenous Indian culture of Latin Americans, relying on the unique "magic realism" of Latin Americans. In a spiritual sense, this is undoubtedly a strong resistance.
It is hard to imagine what kind of tragic experience Latin American culture has experienced to produce such a shy, obscure and mysterious literary volume. 1955, Mexican writer Juan Luer published the novella Pedro Paramo. This work successfully combines the writing methods of western modern literature. The subjectivity of time sequence and the narrative method from multiple angles are closely related to the traditional style of Indian classical literature, which has caused completely different repercussions in Latin America. However, the historical significance of Pedro Paramo is not limited to his contribution to the school of magical realism. More importantly, it has triggered a controversial discussion on Latin American literature for more than ten years-what is the source and essence of magical realism?
In the same year, Angel Flores, an American scholar, published "On Magic Realism in Spanish-American Novels" in a Spanish magazine, which initially defined the concept system of "Magic Realism" academically. However, as soon as this article came out, it immediately caused an uproar in Latin American literary circles. Its argument is very concise:
1. Magic realism in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States is a literary trend marked by Luis Borges. Because he translated Kafka's works, magical realism originated from Kafka.
2. The essence of magical realism is "the combination of reality and fantasy".
3. In view of the above theoretical basis, surrealist writers who appeared after the Second World War should be classified as magical realism.
Combined with the discussion in the previous chapter, it is not difficult to see why this paper has been criticized. Except for his reckless pursuit of "magical realism." Flores' argument directly integrates the basis of "magic realism". Latin American national culture is directly classified as fantasy literature. Compared with Corn Man, this argument directly subverts the reality of mythological literature and ignores the life meaning behind various imaginations. After it was published, almost all critics who talked about it opposed Flores. More interestingly, many writers who are not magical realism have also joined the criticism on the grounds that it is "unacceptable" to classify them as magical realism schools in this paper.
1967, Louis Lille published a review on "Magic Realism in Hispanic American Literature", which ended the debate for 12 years. He followed Flores' summary and critically refuted it:
To sum up, the main feature of magic realism is to discover the mysterious relationship between people and between people and their surroundings. The mysterious objective existence of reality is the source of his creation. It is an attitude towards reality, facing reality, profoundly reflecting reality, and showing the mystery existing in all things, lives and actions of human beings.
Louis Lille criticized Flores, but also completed the structure of the concept of magical realism. Many writers have combed and supported his views. Asturias popularized the concept of Latin American culture in the most vivid way: "Magic realism is like an Indian or a half-breed, living in a remote village, telling how he saw a colorful cloud or a boulder become a person or a giant; Or colorful clouds turn into stones. These are not common hallucinations of the villagers. There is no doubt that everyone feels ridiculous and can't believe it. However, once you live in it, you will realize the weight of these stories. There, people's fantasies and impressions of things around them gradually come true. Obviously, magical realism is directly related to the primitive consciousness of Indians. "
This small stone represents the culture of Latin American countries. Its weight is as light as a floating dream and as heavy as a nation. Its simple culture is the root of the extinct civilization in Latin America. The implementation of magic realism is to awaken it, nourish it, make it stand on its own feet and make it reborn. 1967, Angel asturias won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Or 1967, a work that shocked the world was born, that is, Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
One Hundred Years of Solitude caused an unprecedented "literary earthquake". Garcí a Má rquez is very good at confusing the boundary between man and ghost, using the concept of time and space reincarnation and using symbols, innuendo and exaggeration uniquely. He inherited the writing thoughts of European and American modernists, but also retained the narrative tradition of Indian mythology, and even showed Arab oriental mythology. It can be said that One Hundred Years of Solitude is a great literary experiment.
This story describes a "boring" hundred-year course. Ursula's aunt married Jose Aquadior Buendia. The lure of consanguineous marriage gave their son a tail. During the resection, the child's life was ruined because of excessive blood loss. After this encounter, there were many scandals in the village. After that, Buendia stabbed his neighbor Aguilar, who laughed at him, and was haunted by ghosts. The two of them and many immigrants moved to a beach and named it Macondo. Thus, a century-old picture of rural Colombia was outlined.
The whole town of Macondo has experienced six generations of ups and downs, but it has not escaped the cycle of time.
The first generation, Jose Aquadior Buendia, was addicted to alchemy. He melted gold into small fish, then melted it and reduced it to gold. He went back and forth, lost his mind, and finally was tied to a tree by his family and died of depression.
In the second generation, ursula's son, Jose Aquadior, made a living by farming and lived quite well. He was finally assassinated, but the murderer has not been found out. His younger brother Aureliano is a real prodigal son. He not only fell in love with the nine-year-old mayor's daughter, but also had an affair with his brother's lover. After taking part in the civil war, she even lived with foreign women everywhere and gave birth to 17 boys, all of whom were shot later. Finally, he smelt goldfish in his wooden house until his death. His sister was suspicious, never married, tirelessly embroidered and sewed her shroud repeatedly. It's over. She died, too.
The third generation Acadia and Aureliano are still dissolute and violent. Cousin was killed by the Conservative Party for taking bribes and bending the law in Colombia. My cousin is bent on marrying his aunt. He deserted in the army and wandered around looking for a job, and was later killed by the soldiers who searched him.
The fourth generation of Acadia and Aureliano, because of their different experiences, their bohemian temperament has changed. When they are young, they have a special feeling. They are like synchronous machines. In the morning, two people opened their eyes at the same time. If they are sick, they also have the same disease and dream the same thing in their dreams. One of them drinks lemonade, but the other knows there is no sugar in the water. Of course, they also like cheating and getting sick. However, after the workers' movement, their thoughts began to separate. Acadia threw himself into the storm of the general strike, but in the face of the massacre, he had a nervous breakdown and died of madness. Aureliano didn't change his nature as a beast. After marriage, he still lived with his lover, but he worked hard to support his family and eventually died at home from overwork. Their sister Ramides was gentle and kind, and was blown to the sky by a gust of wind, including the sheets, and disappeared without a trace.
The fifth generation of Acadia and Aureliano, the same stubborn, the same dissolute nature, the eldest son was robbed and killed, and the second son was accidentally injured when he cheated, and he was paralyzed for life. Mei Mei, the eldest daughter, went to a monastery, and Amaranta, the second daughter, died of postpartum wind.
The sixth generation Aureliano forgot the prohibition of his elders, got married by close relatives, and finally gave birth to a child with a tail with his aunt. Then he suddenly understood the prophecy of the gypsy scroll: the first person in the family was tied to a tree, and the last person was being eaten by ants. Sure enough, a group of ants dragged the children away, and this "mirror city" Macondo disappeared without a trace in the hurricane.
The work chooses a typical Colombian rural environment, in which realism is self-evident. Many plots can be found in domestic history and real life, such as the banana garden opened by United Fruit Company in rural Colombia, the banana workers' strike and the workers' massacre. The author exaggerates these problems artistically, interspersed with many ghosts and absurd plots. These all originated from Indians.
Traditional ideas about people, ghosts and life and death. They think: "Death is not terrible. The soldiers who died in the war against Spanish colonialism were all chosen by the creator to accompany them in heaven. They got rid of the trouble of understanding and gained a free life. After death, people will return to China regularly to reunite with their families and even live. " In One Hundred Years of Solitude, we saw the underworld, sent letters to the dead, the aging of the soul and so on. These superstitious views on life and death are a means of expression, aiming at expressing the national consciousness of the mainland.
The magical time cycle in this article is another highlight. At the beginning of the century cycle, many people of Jean Makun were cheated out of a lot of gold and silver by deceptive gypsy wizards. At the end of the cycle, they were cheated out of countless properties by gypsies in the same way. Acadia and Aureliano both inherited the personality of their surnames. Even if they have different experiences, they have similar ways to deal with them. Of course, they also face a similar ending. It was not until the two appeared exactly the same appearance and their personalities were completely exchanged that their personalities were separated. But it also implies that after more than half a century, the decline of the family will gradually become clear.
The connotation of One Hundred Years of Solitude is hard to exhaust. With the in-depth analysis of the connotation, I found that Garcia Marquez is in a country full of holes. In Colombia, from 65438 to 0948, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party launched a full-scale civil war, and in the following decades, Marquez's motherland was in deep chaos. The atrocities of raping women are endless, and all kinds of massacres have never stopped. Colombia is an alternative human purgatory, which makes him feel a sense of sadness, which permeates almost every corner of the novel.
Latin American writers have this style: the authenticity of details can be properly ignored, the expression of events can be as free as possible, and it is best to describe all kinds of people and environments in a generalized or symbolic way. This has created a once-in-a-century Latin American genius Marquez. Perhaps his pessimism can't guide the way forward for the Latin American nation, but his accumulation will definitely become a "nameplate" for Latin American culture to stand on its own feet.
Because of my shallow understanding, the explanations of many questions only represent my thoughts, lacking a lot of actual textual research and deeper analysis. Especially One Hundred Years of Solitude, this work is an outstanding classic, and my words are simply not enough to summarize his spirit and significance.
But I hope my point of view can help you.