Comps people mentioned
-
Lizardi
– El Periquillo sarniento (pg. 23-24)
-
Simón
Bolívar – Carta de Jamaica (pg. 26)
-
Gertrudis
Gómez de Avellaneda – Sab (pg. 26)
-
Alberto
Blest Gana – Martín Rivas (pg. 28)
-
Jorge
Isaacs – María (pg. 29-31)
-
Eugenio
Cambaceres – Sin Rumbo (pg. 36-37)
-
Clorinda
Matto de Turner – Aves sin nido (pg.
38-39)
-
José Asunción
Silva – De sobremesa (pg. 39-40)
-
Federico
Gamboa – Santa (pg. 40)
General notes
-
Latin American writers didn’t ever write a work
that fully counted as a novel before the nineteenth century – one reason was Spain’s
ban on novels in American colonies (23)
-
Novels had a bad rap in comparison with genres
such as heroic poetry (23)
-
First Spanish American text that most critics
consider a novel is Lizardi’s El
periquillo Sarniento (23)
-
More novels in Latin Amer. after the
mid-nineteenth-century, with a great number in last two decades (23)
-
Lizardi – El periquillo sarniento (23-24)
o
Wrote the novel in episodes
o
Sought to show that novels could serve a worthy
purpose – providing readers with moral uplift and sound advice, particularly
about molding young people into good citizens
o
Pedro (the narrator) is similar to a picaresque
protagonist; wanders from one unsavory master to another – but he’s not a
hardened picaresque rogue
o
The reader of the work is placed in the position
of one of Pedro’s children
o
There is some critique of imperialism (24)
o
Idea of the desire to improve Mexico – Lizardi indicates
a number of widespread customs that weaken Mexicans (24)
-
“During the greater
part of the nineteenth century, the development of the Spanish American novel
was closely associated with nationalism” (24)
-
There is some influence of the Romantic movement in 19th century Latin
America (26)
o
Example of Romantic rhetoric: Simón Bolívar’s Carta
de Jamaica – passionate, emotive style
o
The Romantic
movement really took hold after the wars of independence (1810-1824) were over
(26)
-
Gertrudis Gómez de Avallenada / Sab (26)
o
Sab,
published in 1841, is her first novel.
o
It deals with the themes of slavery and of women’s
exploitation in marriage.
o
The Romantic influence appears in the theme of
unrequited love (Sab for Carlota)
-
“In Spanish American literature, Romanticism has
links with the political struggles of the period following independence, such
as the effort to overthrow the dictatorships that often replaced Spanish
Colonial rule” (27)
-
Many novels were serialized, published only in
installments (27)
-
Realism movement
started to influence Latin Amer. novels post-mid-century-19th
century (27)
-
Spanish American
writers combined elements of both romanticism and realism (27-28)
o
Romantic melodramatically
eventful plots
o
Realist unexceptional
characters with everyday concerns
-
Alberto Blest Gana – Martín Rivas,
1862 (28)
o
Example of the rise of realism in Latin Amer.
o
Regarded as a landmark in the development of the
Chilean novel
o
It is a success story – the hero suffers
setbacks, but at the end he has fared very well in both love and finance
o
There’s a
brief summary of the plot – pg. 28
o
Romantic influence: unrequited love (Martín for
Leonor)
-
Jorge Isaacs – María, 1867 (29-31)
o
The most widely read work of Spanish American
Romanticism (29)
o
Widespread appeal, especially to sentimental
readers (29)
o
Story of loss – most prominent plot line is the decline
and death of the heroine
o
Idea of the ranch where Efraín and his family
live (named El Paraíso) as an Eden
o
Loss – both of María and of family ranch (30)
o
Secondary narrative – the freed slave Nay’s life
(“in the vision that Isaacs presents, Africans, like all human beings, are
incapable of forming a good society without the guidance of Christianity”) (30)
o
Anti-slavery message (softened by Efraín and his
father’s portrayal as kind masters) (31)
o
Lots of examples of costumbrismo
– especially in descriptions of lower class characters and their habits/home
(ex: José, Chapter 9) (31)
o
Lots of references/intertextuality to/with
French writing (31)
-
Romanticism lost ground to realism around the
mid-1800’s, but it didn’t disappear – Romantic novels still appear late in the
century (32)
-
“During the late
nineteenth century, naturalism made rather limited inroads into Spanish American
writing” (36)
o
“Many believed that naturalism, which showed
behavior as the product of heredity and environment, was unsuited for a
Catholic society that valued free will”
o
Emilia Pardo Bazán in Spain
-
Eugenio Cambaceres –
Sin Rumbo, 1885 (36-37)
o
Naturalism combined with realism
o
The protagonist, Andrés, is a jerk who’s
impassive, jaded, and bored
o
There’s a
summary – pg. 37
o
Severe contrast in protagonist Andrés’s behavior
in the two parts of book
o
Several violent passages
-
Clorinda Matto de Turner – Aves sin
nido, 1889 (38-39)
o
She drew on contemporary progressive
thought/trends
o
Novel had a massive circulation in the nineteenth
century – source of some major controversy
o
Novel has canonical status as first work of indigenismo (writing designed to raise
awareness of the problems facing native populations of the Americas)
o
Not very sophisticated in style or narrative
construction, but interesting due to content and societal response
o
“Clorinda Matto de Turner may have been the most
controversial woman writer of nineteenth-century Latin America”
-
New tendency of modernismo appeared in early 1880’s
(39)
o
This trend was originated by Spanish American
writers, unlike other previous literary trends
o
Most famous modernistas: José Martí (Cuba) and
Rubén Darío (Nicaragua)
o
Best known for producing poetry and poetic prose
with little plot
o
There are some late 19th-century
novels that are modernista
-
José Ausnción Silva – De sobremesa,
1896 (39-40)
o
This is the “outstanding modernista novel of the 19th century”
o
Summary – pg. 39
o
Most of the novel is occupied by the text of the
protagonist’s diary
o
Idea that the protagonist, Fernández, must stand
for some more general category of people, rather than for the author alone
-
Federico Gamboa
draws considerably upon naturalism in Santa, published in 1903 (40)
-
“If one feature gives greatest originality to
the Latin American novel of the nineteenth century, it may well be authors’
ability to fuse diverse literary tendencies” (41)
o
Ex: common blend of realism and romanticism
-
“Also distinctive in Latin America is the
intimate relation between nationalism and the development of the novel.
Nation-building was the greatest single concern among Spanish American thinkers
from the outset of the nineteenth century… campaign to construct identities and
goals for the newly independent countries” (41)
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