Sobre el autor y la obra
-
Alejo
Carpentier
o
Vida
– (1904-1980)
o
Born of a Russian mother and French father, but
grew up in Cuba and self-identified as Cuban
o Precursor to “Boom” movement
o
Influences of resurfacing Baroque movement and
also Surrealist trend
-
This work is influenced by Carpentier’s
multi-cultural experience
-
The “novel stems from the author's desire to
retrace the roots and history of the New World, and is embedded with magic
realism” (Wikipedia)
Contexto social/politico
-
Clearly there’s definitely some African heritage
in Cuba – Carpintier was very interested in exploring Afro-Cuban
themes/traditions. This interest was heightened when he traveled to Haiti in
1943.
-
The Haitian Revolution which is the focus of
this novel took place in the 18th century (1791-1804). During it,
the African slaves fought the French colonists for their freedom and basic
human rights.
-
Castro’s communist revolution in Cuba took place
after novel’s publication, in 1959; Carpintier never claimed any sort of
opposition to Castro
Basic summary (from Wikipedia)
There is a much more extensive summary on Wikipedia, in English, under The
Kingdom of this World.
Carpentier's El reino
de este mundo (1949) highlights the Haitian Revolution of the 18th century
when the African slaves fought the French colonists for their freedom and basic
human rights. The novel combines not only historical references of the event
with aspects of African faith and rituals, most notably voodoo; but also the
connections between corporeal and spiritual self. The story is seen through the
eyes of the protagonist Ti Noël, a black slave. Being a white, European/Cuban
writer who published on the subject of the Haitian Revolution, it has been
implied that Carpentier chose to write from Ti Noël's point of view so that he
would avoid being criticized for any racial stereotyping. Carpentier
incorporates symbolic architecture throughout the novel; representing the
dictatorship of colonial rule with structures such as the Sans-Souci Palace and
the fortress of La Ferrière.
Carpintier’s use of “lo real maravilloso” (according to Wikipedia)
Carpentier is widely
known for his theory of lo real maravilloso. This is the notion that the
history and the geography of Latin America are both so extreme as to appear
fictional or even magical to outsiders. Thus, Latin America is a region where
the line between magic and reality is blurred. It was in the prologue to The
Kingdom of this World, a novel of the Haitian Revolution, that he described
his vision of lo real maravilloso: "But what is the history of
Latin America but a chronicle of magical realism?". The novel itself
develops the outlandish (but true) history of Henri Christophe, first king of
Haiti, as an example of how the real history of Latin America is so strange as
to appear fictional. Some critics interpret the real maravilloso as
being synonymous with magical realism. However, Carpentier's theory and its
development in his work are more limited in their scope than is the magical
realism of, for example, Gabriel García Márquez. Whereas García Márquez's works
include events that the reader never mistakes for reality (rainfall of flowers,
old men with wings, etc.), Carpentier, for the most part, simply writes about
extreme aspects of the history and geography of Latin America, aspects that are
almost unbelievable, but that are in fact true.
Comps (this looks terrible…)
-
Boom, realismo
mágico, and lo real maravilloso;
postboom and neobarroco; precursors;
modernity (see the “Modernismo since 1940” section of list) and the controversy
over postmodernity in Spanish America. Authors: Borges, Huidobro, García Márquez, Rulfo, Carpentier Asturias,
Cortázar , Allende, Puig, Sarduy, Fuentes, Poniatowska, Valenzuela. Note:
other movements which are associated with some of these writers, such as
surrealism (Cortázar) or the use of popular culture and other genres in
narrative (Puig), etc. Some suggested, secondary readings: Rodríguez Monegal,
Shaw, González Echevarría, Hutcheon.
Personajes
There’s a brief character list and some lovely character analysis on
Wikipedia, under the English title (The Kingdom of this World).
-
Ti Noel – the protagonist, a young slave who
later becomes a free man; established as a witness-narrator who makes
observations and offers reflection
-
Macandal – black slave with one arm (worked at
same sugar plantation as Ti Noel); represents the link between spirituality and
history
-
Henri Christophe – black master chef; becomes
the first King of Haiti (after French rule ends)
-
Pauline Bonaparte – beautiful seductress,
immature woman expecting an ideal life of fantasy in the Caribbean;
representation of white decadence, immorality, and sexuality
-
Leclerk – Pauline’s husband (who she cheats on)
-
Lenormand de Mezy – white master of a
plantation; owns Ti Noel and Mackandal and other black slaves; has multiple
wives, mistresses, and affairs
-
Bouckman – Jamaican origin, leads the secret
gathering of trusted slaves
-
Soliman – slave who has some sexually toned
relations with Pauline (he massages her); he later serves as the King Henri’s
valet
-
Marie-Louise – the king Henri’s wife, the Queen
-
Athenais and Amethyste – the king Henri’s
daughters, the princesses
Temas/ideas importantes
-
Estilo de escritura
o
Third person narration (Ti Noel’s perspective,
usually, but it’s omniscient not limited)
o
Often doesn’t explicitly say things, says just
enough to imply what will happen (prime example: Macandal’s arm amputation)
-
Lo real maravilloso / realismo mágico
o
The marvelous is used by the blacks as a weapon
to fight injustice
o
Macandal is like the supreme dude of la realidad
maravillosa. He is able to poison tons of whites and then transfigures into an
animal to hide… definitely for the sake of “justice” – goal of exterminating
the white population to create a free African empire
-
Lo
africano, las tradiciones africanas
o
Macandal is able to poison tons of whites
without being caught because the African gods are on his side
o
Voodoo
§
Pauline and Soliman resort to voodoo and stuff
like it together trying to cure her husband of yellow fever (Part 2, Chap. 7)
o
Important role of drums (including conch shells
and even thunder)
§
Ex: blacks use drums to set rhythm for
corn-grinding and cane-cutting
o
Stress on Henri Christophe’s abandonment of
African religion – that’s the reason for his downfall!
-
Cuestiones
de raza, conflictos entre etnicidades distintas
o
Hybridization (Bhabha) – GAH (saw on Wikipedia,
don’t really get it at all)
o
Huge contrast between white land owners and
their black slaves
o
“mention of the magical always takes the form of
the slaves’ point of view, while the more real interpretation of each event is
from the whites’ perspective” (Wikipedia)
o
At Macandal’s execution – “the Negroes showed
spiteful indifference. What did the whites know of Negro matters?” (Part 1,
Chap. 8)
-
Clase social
o
Sharp distinction between black slaves and white
landowners
o
Henri Christophe is able to ascend the social
class ladder, but he is ultimately punished for it
-
Género
o
Idea that white colonists aren’t true men
compared to strong African men
o
Talking about Macandal’s strength and
masculinity: “sinewy and hard, with testicles like rocks” (Part 1, Chapter 6)
o
The master Lenormand has sex with all the black
slave women – subjugation
o
None of the wives of Lenormand have any
significant role; we never even really learn anything about the first two, but
do learn a bit about the third one (in Part 2, Chap. 1)
o
This is definitely a book focused on men, the
women don’t get any significant attention, other than as sexual objects
-
La naturaleza
o
Ecological landscape of Haiti is used to
represent the wreckage of the Revolution, being initially described as fertile
and bountiful with the plantations, but later as worn down and bare (Wikipedia)
-
La historia y el destino
-
Violencia
o
La bruatlidad de la dictadura
o
Rape – the master Lenormand rapes the young
slave girls, and then the slaves rape his wife in the rebellion
o
When the slaves rebel, they rape all the white
chicks
-
Sexualidad
o
La
sexualidad como una manera de consolación de la violencia
o
The master Lenormand has sex with all the black
slave women – subjugation, violence of rape (I would assume, although it’s not
detailed at all)
Apuntes del texto
Prologue
-
Mentions his recent trip to Haiti where he saw
the ruins of the Sans-Souci palace. This made him think about lo real maravilloso,
and he mentions European things similar, such as the Arthurian legends, Merlyn,
etc.
-
He says Haiti inspired this realization, and
it’s not just in Haiti: it’s all over Latin America. From the earliest groups
who searched for the Fountain of Youth, to recent revolutionaries, to the guys
in 1780 who set off to find El Dorado in Patagonia [**I know where this
was—beautiful place on the border of Chile and Argentina, very close to where
La Araucana took place…glacial fed lakes
and green forests and they died up in the Andes, I believe**]. You see lo
“real-maravilloso” in dances; no longer in Europe, but in Cuba in santería.
Europe has some literary maravilloso, but Latin America has it everywhere.
Here’s why: the virgin landscape, the ontology, the presence of the Indian and
the African, its recent discovery, for the prolific mestisajes…America is far
from running out of myths and legends.
-
He ends with this question: But what exactly is
Latin American history if not a chronicle of lo real-maravilloso?
Part One
Chapter 1: The Wax
Heads
-
Ti Noel (our protagonist, a black slave) is in
town with his master, Lenormand de Mézy. Ti Noel picks out a horse for his
master to buy, then they go to the barber, where Ti Noel waits while master
gets his hair cut.
-
At the barbers, Ti Noel stares at some wax heads
(used to practice hair styling?).
o
The heads seemed real, with a dead stare –
element of realidad maravillosa?
o
Comparison/Contrast between wax heads and
calves’ heads at the butchers’ next door
-
More heads in the bookseller’s shop, in
portraits hung up in window. In one portrait, there’s an African king, which
makes Ti Noel remember the legends that the black slave Macandal told at the
sugar mill (about the African kingdoms)
o
Contrast between “true” African kings and
“false” French/white kings – racial
difference, [biased] black perspective
Chapter 2: The
Amputation
-
Ti Noel’s fascination with the other black
slave, Macandal. Description of Macandal: strong, irresistible to the Negro
women, powerful narrative arts
-
Description of the traditions of Africa (Guinea)
-
Memory of the incident that brought about the
amputation of Macandal’s arm – he got it caught in the sugar mill (gotta admit, Carpentier’s got some writing
skill. Interesting that he chooses not to describe the actual amputation, just
the events leading up to it. Leaves it in ominous anticipation: “The master
called for the whetstone to sharpen the machete to be used in the amputation”)
Chapter 3: What the
Hand Found
-
After amputation, Macandal was put in charge of
pasturing the cattle. He constantly observed the plant life, and “discovered
the secret life of strange species given to disguise, confusion, and
camouflage” (realidad maravillosa –
plants take on a humanistic/life-like quality)
-
Macandal and Ti Noel often went to visit an old
woman, Maman Loi, and took her plants/leaves/fungi/herbs. She told tales of
extraordinary things (ex: animals that had had human offspring). Realidad maravillosa – the old woman
put her hands in a boiling pot of oil and wasn’t burned.
-
One day, Macandal goes missing (he escaped/ran
away) – the master doesn’t look for him very much; one-armed slave isn’t a huge
loss and those of the Mandingue kingdom are known as runaways
Chapter 4: The
Reckoning
-
Ti Noel was very sad about Macandal’s
disappearance. Life is boring without Macandal’s lively tales of Africa.
-
A while later, guided by the old woman (Maman
Loi), Ti Noel finds Macandal hiding in a cave. During his absence, Macandal had
established contact/trust with at least one slave from all the area
plantations… they are all helping him. Ti Noel helps him too – I think by
poisoning the two best milk cows of his plantation…
Chapter 5: De
Profundis
-
The poison is spreading across the area; tons of
livestock from all the plantations are dying (I think Macandal is having all of
his contacts poison them; don’t know why yet). The poison gets into the houses
too – masters/owners of plantations are suddenly dying.
-
The French colonists are terrified of this
poisonous epidemic – “they whipped and tortured their slaves, trying to find an
explanation”
-
The master’s wife (of Ti Noel’s plantation) also
died of poison
-
Finally, a black slave threatened with death
revealed that Macandal was the source of all the poison, being helped by
African gods with the goal of wiping out the white population and creating an
empire of free Negroes in Haiti. Now, everyone wants to track down Macandal.
Chapter 6: The
Metamorphoses
-
There is a frantic search for Macandal and
meanwhile the high death toll falls back to normal again. As the death rate
falls (no more poison), there’s less concern about finding Macandal.
-
The slaves are in good humor – the belief that
Macandal transfigured into various animals and was alive and well in the
region, watching over his faithful. (Realidad
maravillosa!)
-
All the blacks/slaves await Macandal’s sign for
the great uprising against the whites… they wait for four years
Chapter 7: Human Guise
-
The master, Lenormand de Mézy, had one of the
black female slaves as his lover for a bit until he remarried – interesting gender roles, subjugation
-
There is a festival at another plantation
celebrating the birth of a white male (son of the master there) – Macandal
appears, “restored” after his metamorphoses
-
The blacks cry out to Macandal asking how long
their suffering must continue – the whites are made aware and prepare their
weapons, ready to hunt Macandal again
Chapter 8: The Great
Flight
-
The whites capture Macandal and plan to execute
him publicly in the city square in front of all the plantations’ slaves. The
blacks don’t really care because they know that Macandal will transform into
animal form and be free.
-
They burn Macandal alive and all the slaves are
happy because they know the whites don’t realize that Macandal has won. The
whites think the slaves are crazy because they don’t seem to care about one of
their own being tortured.
Part Two
Chapter 1: The
Daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë
-
The master Lenormand’s second wife dies
-
Ti Noel goes into the city; there has been lots
of progress since he was last there
-
Introduction of Henri Christophe, the master
chef of a hotel in the city
-
The master Lenormand takes a white lover (an
actress) and goes to live in Paris with her for a while, but he misses the
colony incredibly and returns there quickly – “a growing long for sun, for
space, for abundance, for command, for Negresses tumbled alongside a canefield”
(the magical pull of the New World – la
realidad maravillosa)
-
Twenty
years have passed!! Meanwhile, Ti Noel has had twelve kids, and the master
Lenormand is an alcoholic and has sex with all the adolescent slave girls. His
wife, the actress, is jealous and punishes all of the women constantly.
-
The slaves judge Lenormand’s third wife (the
actress) greatly for all she talks about her sins (of the flesh) – she’s a
slut.
-
All the slaves still admire and honor Macandal –
he’s like a legend (religious tones of
adoration and faith when talking about him – he’s like a God)
Chapter 2: The Solemn
Pact
-
A secret meeting amongst the slaves, led by
Bouckman, “the Jamaican.” There’s a thunder storm, which reflects the ominous
tone of the meeting (kind of Romantic!).
-
The news: some powerful gentlemen in France had
declared that the Negroes should be given their freedom, but the rich white
landowners are refusing to obey them. So, it’s time for war!
-
“The white man’s God orders the crime. Our gods
demand vengeance from us”
-
They sacrifice a pig and then seal a pact of
obedience/allegiance to Bouckman by smearing their mouths with the pig’s blood
Chapter 3: The Call of
the Conch Shells
-
All the white landowners (including the master
Lenormand) are annoyed by the French aristocrats’ “Utopian” ideals of equality
by freeing the slaves
-
One night, the master Lenormand hears the sound
of a conch-shell trumpet, repeated/answered from various locations several
times – he senses something’s about to go down, and is scared and hides. The
Negroes all rebel at once, going to kill the overseers – however, tons of them
decide to break in and steal the liquor instead. Some whites are killed and
it’s basically general chaos.
-
Ti Noel drinks a ton of wine and then enters the
master’s house with his older sons – “For a long time now he had dreamed of
raping Mlle Floridor [the master’s actress wife].” (wow)
Chapter 4: Dagon
inside the Ark
-
The master Lenormand finally comes out of hiding
to see the wreckage of his house – all the dogs have been killed and he finds
his wife the actress dead and cut open after having been obviously raped.
-
Later the news arrives that the horde of blacks
had been defeated; the Jamaican Bouckman had been killed and beheaded. There’s
an order for total extermination of the Negroes…
-
The master Lenormand goes into the city and
prevents the beheading of some of his slaves, including Ti Noel (for financial
reasons).
-
“Anarchy
was conquering the world. The colony faced ruin. The Negroes had violated
nearly all the well-born girls of the Plaine. After ripping away so much lace,
after rolling among so many linen sheets and cutting the throats of so many
overseers, they could no longer be held down.” (The reality of the revolution)
-
Many people are in favor of a complete
extermination of every single Negro (free or slave). There is intense fear and
superstition of the Negro’s African
religion – “The slaves evidently had a secret religion that upheld and
united them in their revolts”
-
News that the chef Henri Christophe had become a
soldier (colonial artillery)
Chapter 5: Santiago de
Cuba
-
The master Lenormand takes his remaining slaves
to Cuba. He joins a bunch of other scared French colonists who are enjoying
life on the fly in Cuba. – “All the bourgeois norms had come tumbling down.”
-
The master Lenormand takes to drinking and
gambling, and sells off his slaves one by one to pay for his habits. He also
prays a lot more because he’s scared of dying. Ti Noel goes with him and likes
the Spanish churches more than he did the French ones.
Chapter 6: The Ship of
Dogs
-
Ti Noel watches as tons of vicious dogs are
packed into a ship to go to Haiti to be used to hunt down and kill blacks
-
Introduction of the slutty young white woman,
Pauline Bonaparte, who is traveling to the New World (from France, I guess) in
a ship with some black slaves
o
“From the minute she stepped on board, Pauline
had felt a little like a queen”
o
Characterized as immature – “After having held
up the departure of a whole army because of a childish whim to make the trip
from Paris to Brest in a litter…”
o
Slutty – “Pauline, who despite her tender years,
was a connoisseur of male flesh… she was given to letting the wind ruffle her
hair and play with her clothes, revealing the superb grace of her breasts”
-
The white men aboard are concerned with the
thought of the slave/black uprisings in Haiti, but Pauline doesn’t care and
sticks to her idealized and ignorant vision of the New World as paradise
-
Pauline had a black servant/slave, Soliman, who
bathed her and massaged her. She delighted in teasing him sexually.
-
Pauline was very happy until one of the white
men she was cheating on her husband with died suddenly (poisoned? Or plague?)
Chapter 7: Saint
Calamity
-
After the death of one of her lovers, Pauline
and her husband set off to live on a little island, accompanied by the Negro
Soliman
-
Then, Pauline’s husband Leclerc contracts yellow
fever. Pauline is desperate and takes the Negro Soliman’s advice and starts
resorting to African religious prayers/magic/voodoo to hopefully cure her
husband. Despite all this, Pauline’s husband dies. So, Pauline heads back to
Europe.
-
The French colony (Haiti?) falls apart. The women
are slutty and the white men kill Negroes like crazy, feeding them to the dogs.
They set tons of poisonous snakes free to kill the peasants and Negros in
hiding, but the snakes die (African gods are protecting the blacks). Negro
priests start to appear – yay for the blacks! They’re happy about this.
Part Three
Chapter 1: The
Portents
-
A long time ago, the Master Lenormand had lost
Ti Noel in a card game to a Cuban plantation owner. Not too much time later,
the Cuban dude died, so Ti Noel was freed. “Although twice branded, Ti Noel was
a free man.”
-
As a free man, Ti Noel returns to Haiti, where
slavery has since been abolished.
-
While he travels, Ti Noel seems some signs that
some bad stuff is going to happen, but he’s still happy to be back in Haiti
-
(Ti Noel is old now).
Chapter 2: Sans Souci
-
Ti Noel travels to where he starts recognizing
things. He discovers that the old plantation has been completely destroyed.
-
Magical realism
– Ti Noel talks to animals, insects, etc.
-
Ti Noel sees some type of fortress, where blacks
are working for other blacks. It’s a world of Negroes… all the women are
Negresses, everyone working there is a Negro. Ti Noel realizes he’s at Sans
Souci, the favorite residence of King Henri Christophe, former hotel chef. Someone
sees Ti Noel standing around and forces him to start working with the other “prisoners.”
Chapter 3: The
Sacrifice of the Bulls
-
Description of the king Henri Christophe’s
Citadel la Ferrière and its construction. Every day several bulls were
sacrificed so that their blood could be added to the mortar to “make the
fortress impregnable.”
-
Negros often died working, falling from the high
towers.
-
It’s brutal work – they are forced to work until
they fall down exhausted, and are woken up at daybreak by whiplash.
-
The construction has been going on for 12 years,
fueled by black slave labor (ironically ordered by the black king).
-
Ti Noel compares this new slavery to the old,
and finds it “Even worse, for there was a limitless affront in being beaten by
a Negro as black as oneself, as thick-lipped and as wooly-headed, as
flat-nosed; as low-born; perhaps branded too”
-
The King Henri Christophe is drunk on power
Chapter 4: The Immured
-
Ti Noel finally manages to escape the forced work
at the Citadel and heads back to the old plantation lands. After nearly
starving, he goes to the city, hoping for better luck there.
-
The city is not how it used to be… there is a
sense of doom and despair surrounding the palace, because the king’s confessor,
Corneille Breille, has been condemned to die there in suffering. He has been
replaced with a Spanish priest.
Chapter 5: Chronicle
of August 15
-
The King Henri Christophe and his wife are at
church, listening to a Spanish Catholic Latin mass. King Henri is feeling
anxious… “In some remote house – he suspected – there was probably an image of
him stuck full of pins or hung head down with a knife plunged in the region of
the heart. From far off there came from time to time the beat of drums which he
felt sure were not imploring a long life for him” (judgment because he abandoned the African religion)
-
During the service, the dead priest Corneille
Breille rises up and strikes down his Spanish replacement – magic realism…
-
The King Henri falls terribly ill (with fright?)
Chapter 6: Ultima
Ratio Regum
-
The king Henri starts feeling better after a
week but when he looks out on his people, they have started to rebel and reject
the obedience he always demanded – sudden mutiny!!
-
After the mutiny, the King is almost completely
alone in his abandoned palace; only his family and five young African pages
remain
-
The rebels are burning all the king’s
plantations
-
The king Henri gets dressed in his most ceremonial
clothes and then shoots himself
Chapter 7: Strait is
the Gate
-
After the king Henri’s suicide, the African
pages, the king’s daughters and wife, and the king’s valet Soliman (the same
Soliman from Pauline Bonaparte) take off running for their lives
-
The rebels go and set all the prisoners of the
king’s Citadel free
-
Somehow the king’s corpse makes it to the
citadel (not sure who brought it in) and the Governor cuts one of the king’s
fingers off and gives it to the king’s wife and then they throw the body into
the mortar of the citadel…
Part Four
Chapter 1: The Night of
the Statues
-
The Queen and the princesses (of the deceased
king Henri) high-tailed it for Europe;
they brought Soliman with them
-
The Europeans are fascinated with Soliman – he is
popular with everyone and takes a maid as a lover
-
Soliman and the maid (his lover) go exploring
the filthy palace where she works. The paintings and statues seem to come alive
as they walk past. (realidad maravillosa)
Soliman finds a statue of Pauline (the chick he used to massage) – he starts to
massage the statue. He feels as though the statue comes to life under his hands
as Pauline’s corpse – this drives him to madness. On top of that, he has
contracted malaria… he’s doomed!
Chapter 2: The Royal
Palace
-
Ti Noel had helped with the looting of the king
Henri’s palace, and so he brought some of the things back to furnish the ruins
of the manor house on the old plantation
-
Ti Noel talks to himself constantly and plays “king”
wearing one of the King Henri’s fine jackets and holding a guava twig as a scepter…
he issues edicts to the wind, desire of a peaceful government
Chapter 3: The
Surveyors
-
The surveyors show up on the land, taking
measurements and speaking French. Ti Noel is outraged by their presence but
they pay him no mind.
-
There are several mulattos directing the plowing
and clearing of land by Negro prisoners
-
Failure of
the African/black revolution – “Macandal had not foreseen this matter of
forced labor. Nor had Bouckman, the Jamaican.”
-
Ti Noel learned how to transform into an animal to
escape the threat of being forced into work himself at his old age; comparison
of being an ant working with forced labor under the mulattoes
Chapter 4: Agnus Dei
-
Ti Noel likes the geese that come to the
plantation occasionally; he admires them. He turns into one to try and join
them, but they recognize him as an outsider and reject him.
-
“his rejection by the geese was a punishment for
his cowardice” – he should be fighting for justice, not seeking an escape
-
Ti Noel has some great epiphany about his life
and the nature of life in general… “a man never knows for whom he suffers and
hopes. He suffers and hopes and toils for people he will never know, and who,
in turn, will suffer and hope and toil for others who will not be happy either,
for man always seeks a happiness far beyond that which is meted out to him”… “in the kingdom of heaven there is no
grandeur to be won… man finds his greatness, his fullest measure, only in the Kingdom
of This World”
-
Ti Noel declares rebellion against the new
masters, and then disappears… THE END!
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