Sobre la autora y la obra
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Allende
o
Chile,
1942-present
o
Rapidly published several best-selling novels
(Franco 342)
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Interest in sexual and political violence
(Franco 342)
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Some influence of magical realism
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This is her first novel
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Key work of the post-boom
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This work is often seen as a sort of critical
and feminine re-working of García Márquez’s Cien
años de soledad
Comps Example Questions
- Metafiction and historiographic metafiction: Borges, Huidobro, Puig, Allende, Sarduy, Valenzuela, Vargas Llosa, etc. Some suggested, secondary readings: Waugh, Hutcheon, Juan-Navarro.
- Narrative of dictatorship in the Southern Cone and the guerra sucia. Authors: Puig, Allende, Valenzuela.
3.
Discuss the relationship between Latin American
and Latina/o literature by choosing three representative authors/works. For
example, similarities and differences between Paz’s Laberinto de la soledad and Anzaldúa’s Borderlands. (Works
to consider: Paz, C. Fuentes, García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, Allende, Anzaldúa,
J. Álvarez.)
4.
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.
What Franco says (Chap. 11, pg. 342)
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Explores and to some extent subverts the
gendered separation of public and private
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Inverts the national allegory mode by portraying
strong women protagonists
What Cambridge Latin America says (Chap. 4, pg. 94-95)
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Key work of the Post-Boom
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Unmistakable reflection of modern Latin American
history, and in particular the modern history of Chile
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Since it directly reflects modern history, it
comments on the evasive nature of the narrative of the Boom
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Novel
is a critical reworking of García Márquez’s Cien
años de soledad
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“Allende’s novel perfectly demonstrates the idea
of the Post-Boom as a rearticulation of the Boom while also exhibiting the
trend towards greater referentiality that some associate with a Post-Boom
proper”
Temas/ideas importantes
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Estilo de escritura
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Varied narrative voice: Perspective switches between
first person (Esteban) and third person omniscient
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Influence of the post-boom (experimentalism), magical realism
- Varied narrative voice
-- Largely linear structure (rather than wacky temporality of lots of boom novels)
-- Largely linear structure (rather than wacky temporality of lots of boom novels)
- Magical realism – idea of the women having some
sort of magical powers/abilities (Clara predicts future, moves sugar bowl with her mind, etc.)
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Post-modernism
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Questioning of past reality, historiographic
metafiction
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Metaficción
historiográfica
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Se
cuestiona un pasado histórico al mismo tiempo que se recoge una construcción
literaria
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** should consult Linda Hutcheon’s “The
Postmodern Problematizing of History”
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The story retells the history of a country
through its characters, and at the same time we are conscious of what we are
reading – it’s a reconstruction of Clara’s notebooks and Esteban’s memories,
written by Alba’s pen… we’ve been warned from the beginning that what we are
reading is the story of Alba’s family, and also the story of the country
(Chile) through the story of her family.
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Gender
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Importance of a distinctly female perspective – heavier
focus on female characters rather than male ones
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Idea of the woman as head of household
(particularly in Clara)
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Woman as victim, controlled by men (especially
Blanca)
§
Rape, sexual abuse
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Gender inequality, woman is often inferior in
society
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Turbulent political situation
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Commentary on current political situation of
country (?)
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Commentary about communism – both for and
against
§
Esteban hates communism
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Conservative party vs. more liberal one, there
is a revolution
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Socialist party wins power, but the
country/situation rapidly deteriorates and the militant dictatorship takes over
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Social class
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Concern of reputation (upper class)
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Weakness / lack of power of lower class,
particularly in rural region
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Strong class divide: rich, urban vs. poor, rural
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Rural vs. urban divide
Main / most important characters
This list is based off Wikipedia; there’s a lot more character analysis
there.
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Clara del
Valle Trueba – key female figure in the novel. She is a clairvoyant and telekinetic
who is rarely attentive to domestic tasks, but she holds her family together
with her love for them and her uncanny predictions
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Esteban
Trueba – central male character of the novel, and along with his
granddaughter Alba, is one of the story's main narrators. Clara’s husband
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Blanca
Trueba - Clara and Esteban's first-born daughter; becomes pregnant illegitimately
(by Pedro Tercero García) and is forced to marry Count Jean de Satigny, whom
she does not love
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Pedro Tercero García – son of the tenant/foreman of Tres
Marías, Pedro Segundo García. Falls in love with Blanca and is the
father of her only child, Alba. Revolutionary and songwriter.
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Alba
García – daughter of Blanca and Pedro Tercero García, although for many
years of her life she was led to believe that Count de Satigny was her father
Detailed plot summary (from Wikipedia)
The story starts with the del Valle
family, focusing upon the youngest and the oldest daughters of the family,
Clara and Rosa. The youngest daughter, Clara del Valle, has paranormal powers
and keeps a detailed diary of her life. Using her powers, Clara predicts an
accidental death in the family. Shortly after this, Clara's green-haired
sister, Rosa the Beautiful, is killed by poison intended for her father who is
running for the Senate. Rosa's fiancé, a poor miner named Esteban Trueba, is
devastated and attempts to mend his broken heart by devoting his life to
uplifting his family hacienda, Las Tres Marías. Through a combination of intimidation
and reward systems, he quickly earns/forces respect and labor from the fearful
peasants and turns Tres Marías into a "model hacienda". He turns the
first peasant who spoke to him upon arrival, Pedro Segundo, into his foreman,
who quickly becomes the closest thing that Trueba ever has to an actual friend
during his life. However, unable to control himself, he rapes many of the
peasant women, and his first victim, Pancha García, becomes the mother of his
bastard son, who would eventually become Esteban García.
Esteban returns to the city to see
his dying mother. After her death, Esteban decides to fulfill her dying wish:
for him to marry and have legitimate children. He goes to the del Valle family
to ask for Clara's hand in marriage. Clara accepts Esteban's proposal; she
herself has predicted her engagement two months prior, speaking for the first
time in nine years. During the period of their engagement, Esteban builds what
everyone calls "the big house on the corner," a large mansion in the
city where the Trueba family will live for generations. After their wedding,
Esteban's sister Férula comes to live with the newlyweds in the big house on
the corner. Férula develops a strong dedication to Clara, which fulfills her
need to serve others. However, Esteban's wild desire to possess Clara and to
monopolize her love causes him to throw Férula out of the house. She curses
him, telling him that he will shrink in body and soul, and die like a dog.
Although she misses her sister-in-law, a passive and dreamy Clara finds
happiness in developing her psychic powers. Spirits, artists, and spiritualists
flock to the Truebas' house.
Clara gives birth to a daughter
named Blanca and later, to twin boys Jaime and Nicolás. The family, which
resides in the capital, stays at the hacienda during the summertime. Upon
arriving at Tres Marías for the first time, Blanca immediately befriends a
young boy named Pedro Tercero, who is the son of her father's foreman. During
their teenage years, Blanca and Pedro Tercero eventually become lovers. After
an earthquake that destroys part of the hacienda and leaves Esteban injured,
the Truebas move permanently to Las Tres Marías. Clara spends her time teaching
and helping peasant children, while Blanca is sent to a convent school and the
twin boys back to an English boarding school, both of which are located in the
city. Blanca fakes an illness so as to be sent back to Las Tres Marías, where
she can be with Pedro Tercero. Life runs smoothly until Pedro Tercero is
banished from the hacienda by Esteban, on account of his revolutionary
communist/socialist ideas.
A visiting French count to the
hacienda, Jean de Satigny, reveals Blanca's nightly romps with Pedro Tercero to
her father. Esteban furiously goes after his daughter and brutally whips her.
When Clara expresses horror at his actions, Esteban slaps her, knocking out her
front teeth. Clara decides to never speak to him again, reclaims her maiden
name and moves out of Tres Marías and back to the city, taking Blanca with her.
Esteban, furious and lonely, blames Pedro Tercero for the whole matter; putting
a price on the boy's head with the local corrupt police. At this point, Pedro
Segundo deserts Esteban, telling him he does not want to be around when Trueba
inevitably catches his son. Enraged by Pedro Segundo's departure, Trueba begins
hunting for Pedro Tercero himself, eventually tracking him down to a small
shack near his hacienda. He only succeeds in cutting off three of Pedro's
fingers, and is filled with regret for his uncontrollable furies.
Jaime becomes an empathetic doctor
while crafty Nicolás concocts money-making schemes. The two develop a strange
relationship with a woman named Amanda. Nicolas and Amanda are originally
introduced to the story together, but split later on due to her pregnancy.
Jaime loves Amanda dearly at this point but will never admit to his feelings
around her. He agrees to help terminate her pregnancy not because his cowardly
brother asked him to, but for the woman he cannot have. Years later Jaime and
Amanda meet again and Jaime saves her from near death. Amanda remembers Jaime
as the tender doctor and falls in love with him, but he realizes that she is
not the same beautiful woman that bewitched him originally. He continues to
have a relationship with Amanda though he does not love her.
Blanca finds out she is pregnant
with Pedro Tercero's child. Esteban, desperate to save the family honor, gets
Blanca to marry the French count by telling her that he has killed Pedro
Tercero. At first, Blanca gets along with her new husband, but she leaves him
when she discovers his participation in sexual fantasies with the servants.
Blanca quietly returns to the Trueba household and names her daughter, who has
Rosa's green hair, Alba. Clara predicts that Alba will have a very happy future
and good luck. Her future lover, Miguel, happens to watch her birth, as he had
been living in the Trueba House with his sister, Amanda. They move out shortly
after Alba's birth.
Esteban Trueba eventually moves to
the Trueba house in the capital as well, although he continues to spend periods
of time in Tres Marías. He becomes isolated from every member of his family
except for little Alba, whom he is very fond of. Esteban runs as a senator for
the Conservative Party but is nervous about whether or not he will win. Clara
speaks to him, through signs, informing him that "those who have always
won will win again" - this becomes his motto. Clara then begins to speak
to Esteban through signs, although she keeps her promise and never actually speaks
to him again. A few years later, Clara dies peacefully and Esteban is
overwhelmed with grief.
Alba is a solitary child who enjoys
playing make-believe in the basement of the house and painting the walls of her
room. Blanca has become very poor since leaving Jean de Satigny's house,
getting a small income out of selling pottery and giving pottery classes to
mentally handicapped children, and is once again dating Pedro Tercero, now a
revolutionary singer/songwriter. Alba and Pedro are fond of each other, but do not
know they are father and daughter, although Pedro suspects this. Alba is also
fond of her uncles. Nicolás is eventually kicked out by his father, moving,
supposedly, to North America.
When she is older, Alba attends a
local college where she meets Miguel, now a grown man, and becomes his lover.
Miguel is a revolutionary, and out of love for him, Alba involves herself in
student protests against the conservative government. After the victory of the
People's Party (a socialist movement), Alba celebrates with Miguel.
Fearing a Communist dictatorship,
Esteban Trueba and his fellow politicians plan a military coup of the socialist
government. However, when the military coup is set into action, the military
men relish their power and grow out of control. Esteban's son Jaime is killed
by power-driven soldiers along with other supporters of the government. After
the coup, people are regularly kidnapped and tortured. Esteban helps Blanca and
Pedro Tercero flee to Canada, where the couple finally find their happiness.
The military regime attempts to
eliminate all traces of opposition and eventually comes for Alba. She is made
the prisoner of Colonel Esteban García, the son of Esteban Trueba and Pancha
García's illegitimate son, and therefore grandson to Esteban Trueba. During an
earlier visit to the Trueba house, García molests Alba as a child. In pure
hatred of her privileged life and eventual inheritance, García tortures Alba
repeatedly, looking for information on Miguel. He rapes her, thus completing
the cycle that Esteban Trueba put into motion when he raped Pancha García. When
Alba loses her will to live, she is visited by Clara's spirit who tells her not
to wish for death, since it can easily come, but to wish to live.
Esteban Trueba manages to free Alba
with the help of Miguel and Tránsito Soto, an old friend/prostitute from his
days as a young man. After helping Alba write their memoir, Esteban Trueba dies
in the arms of Alba, accompanied by Clara's spirit; he is smiling, having
avoided Férula's prophecy that he will die like a dog. Alba explains that she
will not seek vengeance on those who have injured her, suggesting a hope that
one day the human cycle of hate and revenge can be broken. Alba writes the book
to pass time while she waits for Miguel and for the birth of her child.
