Chapter 8: Realism and the novel: its application to social protest and
Indianist writing
Comps writers:
-
Jorge Icaza, Huasipungo
(pg. 238-239, 244-245)
-
Miguel Angel Asturias (pg. 250-252)
-
Rosario Castellanos (pg. 252-253)
-
José María Arguedas (pg. 253-254)
General notes:
Introduction
-
Latin American realism changed in 1930’s – “purpose
was to show not only the workings of society but in particular economic exploitation,
the class-struggle and the new forces among working class and peasantry who
were to change the situation” – this was known as socialist realism (231)
-
Mood of economic depression (231)
-
Socialist realism
o
Frequent focus on peasants, agricultural
workers, and poor Indians (231)
o
Focus on economic situation as main plot device
(231)
o
Goal of not only exposing injustice but also
showing the emergence of new class situations, and even arousing people to
action (231)
-
High number of illiterates in Latin America
reduced the public that the social realists most wanted to reach (231-232)
Ecuadorian realism
-
Themes of feudalism, economic struggle, and
foreign domination (233)
-
Some writers were members of Communist party
(233)
-
Jorge Icaza
(238-239)
o
Ecuador, 1906-1978
o
One of the most internationally famous of the
Ecuadorian realists; author of Indianist novel Huasipungo
o
Main theme was the exploitation of the sierra
Indian and the situation of the cholo
o
Uncompromising style with little lyricism; “style
is terse and the concentration wholly on the sordidness of life”
o
Not necessarily as objective as other realist
writers
o
Uses dialect and transcription of Indian
pronunciation much more than other Ecuadorian realists
o
“Infrarealism” – realism that concentrates on
bases aspects of life
Manuel Rojas
(1896-1973) and Chilean Realism
-
Realism was not invariably linked with social
protest and didacticism (240)
o
Other versions of realism can concentrate on the
events of a man’s life, on work relationships and techniques, and on the pressures
that the objective world places upon him; example: Manuel Rojas (240)
-
Manuel Rojas (not on the list) is the major
realist writer of Latin America (242)
The Indianist Novel
-
Indianist literature (242)
o
A special branch of regional and social-protest
novels, that deals with Indians
o
Has been written entirely by non-Indians, and
has inevitably suffered because of this
-
Stages of Indianism in literature since 1920’s
(242):
o
Simple documentary exposure of conditions, and
particularly of inhumanity in the treatment of the Indian
o
The Indians seen as the equivalent of the
proletariat and the source of future revolutionary militancy (example: Icaza’s Huasipungo)
o
Sociological study of the Indian
o
The attempt to comprehend the Indian mind
through his mythology, poetry, and legend, in a break with realism (examples:
novels of Castellanos, Asturias, and Arguedas)
-
Mexican Revolution transformed the national
stereotype from a predominantly white Europeanized Mexican to a dark,
predominantly Indian type (242)
-
Attempts to see Indian within his own culture
and not with the eyes of an outsider (243)
-
Jorge Icaza’s Huasipungo (244-245)
o
Use of expulsion of Indians from traditionally-owned
lands as the pivot on which the action of the novel turns
o
Indians are without humanity – treated like
beasts, they behave like beasts
o
Summary – pg. 244
o
Focus on humiliation of Indians and their
inhuman, objectified position
Myth and Psychological
Truth
-
There were some writers (Asturias, Castellanos,
and Arguedas) who broke with realism because of the limitations of the genre
when it came to representing the Indian. All three of these authors had lived
in Indian areas, where they came into contact with Indian language, myth, and
song. By abandoning realism, they gained in verisimilitude. (250)
-
Miguel Angel
Asturias
o
Guatemala, 1899-1974
o
Studied Maya language and anthropology in Paris
(250)
o
His Indianist novel, Hombres de maíz (250-252)
-
Rosario Castellanos
o
Mexico, 1925-1974
o
Her novels draw on the Indian legends and
religious practices from the Chiapas region of southern Mexico (252)
o
Less concerned with the interpretation of Indian
attitudes than with the interpretation of Indian and non-Indian cultures –
shows Indian world in conflict with white/mestizo world (252)
o
Balún
Canán (1957)
§
Summary –
pg. 252
§
Part is told by a child narrator
-
José María Arguedas
o
Peru, 1911-1969
o
One of the greatest Indianist writers (253)
o
As a child, he was brought up largely by Indians
with whom his father, a lawyer who defended Indian rights, left him for long
periods (253)
o
He knew Quechua before he learned Spanish (253)
o
He was an expert on Indian music, song, and
customs (253)
o
Belief that true Peruvian culture must be based
on Quechua tradition since this was the only indigenous tradition in Peru (253)
o
Los ríos profundos
(1958)
§
Summary –
pg. 254
§
One of Arguedas’s major works
