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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
Critics have written at some length about the “magic realism” in Alejo Carpentier's novels and his original treatment of historical material and peculiar concept of time. Without wishing to ignore the importance of these aspects in a close examination of Carpentier's vision of life in a New World setting, something more can be said about his ingenious choice and use of source material.
In a novel like El reino de este mundo (1949) the extraordinary liveliness of the narrative depends, ultimately, upon a subtle interweaving of historical and fictional material and the care taken in selecting the former. Carpentier has a scholar's eye for the interesting source, and the narrative techniques he develops here prompted an accurate judgment from Juan Marinello who described his recent novels as “casos cumplidos de sabiduría y creación.”
1 Of specific interest are the following:
Carlos, Santander T., “Lo maravilloso en la obra de Alejo Carpentier,” Atenea, no. 409 (1965), pp. 99–126 Google Scholar; Donahue, Francis, “Alejo Carpentier: La preoccupación del tiempo,” Cuadernos Hispano-Americanos, no. 202 (1966), pp. 133–151 Google Scholar; Bueno, Salvador, La letra como testigo (Santa Clara, Cuba: Universidad Central de las Villas, 1957)Google Scholar; Muller-Bergh, Klaus, “Alejo Carpentier: autor y obra en su época,” Revista Iberoamericana 33, (1967): 9–43 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Marinello, Juan, “Un homenaje excepcional,” Bohemia, La Habana, no. 32, 1964 Google Scholar.
3 The page references quoted refer to the edition to El reino de este mundo published in Barcelona by the Editorial Seix Barral, 1969.
4 Leyburn, James G., The Haitian People (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941)Google Scholar.
5 For Carpentier “la esencia de la historia consiste en que se repite.” See Harss, Luis, Los nuestros (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1966), p. 65 Google Scholar.
6 Alegría, Fernando, Breve historia de la novela hispanoamericana (Mexico: Manuales Studium, 1959), pp. 259–260 Google Scholar.
7 For a fuller discussion of the techniques involved, consult Piromalli, Antonio, Giuseppe Parinil (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1966)Google Scholar.
8 See Harss, Luis, Los nuestros, pp. 72–73 Google Scholar: “Demasiado se fabrica con el lenguaje … Hay en Carpentier una especie de apetito mórbido por la palabra, casi diríamos una glotonería verbal que incomoda bastante al lector.“
9 Leyburn, James G., The Haitian People, p. 143 Google Scholar.