Latin-American literature Archives

major works in English translation

Alejo Carpentier was a Cuban writer who straddled the connection between European literature and the native culture of Latin-America. He was for a long time the Cuban cultural ambassador in Paris. Carpentier was trying to place Latin-American culture into a historical context. This was done via a conscious depiction of the colonial past – as in The Kingdom of This World, and Explosion in a Cathedral (title in Spanish El Siglo de las Luces – or The Age of Enlightenment).

His literary style is a wonderful combination of dazzling images and a rich language, full of the technical jargon of whatever subject he touches on – be it music, architecture, painting, history, or agriculture.

He was also the first to use the techniques of ‘magical realism’ (and he coined the term, lo real maravilloso) in which the concrete, real world becomes suffused with fantasy elements, myths, dreams, and a fractured sense of time and logic.

Carpentier is generally considered one of the fathers of modern Latin American literature. His complex, baroque style has inspired such writers as Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes.

The Kingdom of This World is a marvelously compressed account of the slave uprising and first revolution of the early nineteenth century in San Domingo – now Haiti. Carpentier uses ‘magical realism’, long before it became fashionable, to depict the contradictions between political reality and religious or mythical beliefs. The story passes rapidly in a series of vivid scenes from the early unsuccessful uprising led by Macandal, then Bouckman who led Haiti in its fight for independence from France, and finally to Henri Christophe the revolutionary leader who later became Emperor of Haiti, and who built Sans Souci and La Ferrière Citadel.
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The Lost Steps (1953) is a story told twice. A disillusioned north-American musicologist flees his empty existence in New York City. He takes a journey with his mistress to one of the few remaining areas of the world not yet touched by civilization – the upper reaches of a great South American river (which we take to be the Amazon). The novel describes his search, his adventures, the revival of his creative powers, and the remarkable decision he makes about his life in a village that seems to be truly outside history. This novel offers a wonderful evocations of Latin America from the founder of ‘Magical Realism’.
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Explosion in a Cathedral is set in Cuba at the time of the French Revolution. The novel aims to capture the immense changes sweeping the Caribbean at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century – complete with its wars, sea-life, and people. It is a biographical novel which focuses on the adventures of Victor Hughes, a historical figure who led the naval assault to take back the island of Guadeloupe from the English. This is a historical novel of epic proportions, reflected in its Spanish title, El siglo des luces (The Age of Enlightenment)
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The Chase is set in Havana of 1956 where Batista’s tyrannical rule serves as the backdrop for the story of two young men whose lives become intertwined with the prostitute, Estrella. An anonymous man flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a public auditorium during a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. This novella is particularly interesting because of the multiple, disjointed narrations and its polyphonic structure.

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Alejo Carpentier web links

Alejo Carpentier at Mantex
Biography, tutorials on the novels, novellas, and stories

Carpentier at Wikipedia
Background, biography, magical realism, major works, literary style, further reading

Carpentier at Amazon UK
Novels, criticism, and interviews – in Spanish and English

The Kingdom of this World
Lecture by Rod Marsh – University of Cambridge

Carpentier at Internet Movie Database
Films and TV movies made from his novels

Carpentier in Depth
Spanish video documentary and interview with Carpentier (1977)

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biographical notes and major works

1904. Alejo Carpentier was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. His father was a French architect and his mother a Russian professor of languages and a musician. The family moved soon afterwards to Havana, Cuba. He speaks French, but writes in Spanish.

1916. The family moved to live in Paris. Studies music theory at the Lycee; begins writing.

1920. The family return to Havana, He studies architecture – a course he never completed.

1921. Goes into journalism when father abandons family. His writing was considered leftist. He helped to found the Cuban Communist Party.

1924. Editor of Carteles; writes music and theatre criticism; studies black music; his oratorio La Passion Noire is performed in Paris.

1927. Founds avant-guard review Avance – which lasts for only one issue.

1928. Cuba – arrested for political activity against dictator Machado; writes novel Ecue-yamba-O! in seven days in jail – an exploration of Afro-Cuban traditions among the poor of the island; the novel was later revised then disowned.

1929. Escapes to Paris, where he becomes active in avant-guard literary movement with Louis Aragon, Tristan Tzara, and Paul Eluard; works as a journalist and publicist for magazines and radio; absorbs European avant-guard culture, but meanwhile studies Latin-American history, anthropology, and music; writes librettos for operas; association with composer Edgar Varese. Meets Guatemalan author Miguel Angel Asturias, whose work on pre-Columbian mythology influenced his writing.

1930s. Visits Berlin, Madrid, and Paris; works as musical director for French radio; works with Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguette; produces Kurt Weil; meets Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and John dos Passos.

1933. Ecue-yamba-O! published.

1939. Returns to Cuba to work in radio; commissioned to write history of Cuban music.

1943. Makes an importantl trip to Haiti, during which he visited the fortress of the Citadelle Laferrière and the Palace of Sans-Souci, both built by the black king Henri Christophe. This trip provided the inspiration for his second novel, El Reino de Este Mundo (The Kingdom of this World).

1945. Political problems in Cuba under dictator Batista; Carpentier emigrates to Caracas (Venezuela) to work in an advertising agency.

1946. La musica en Cuba published.

1947. Trip up Orinoco river into the Venezuelan jungle – provides material and background for The Lost Steps.

1949. El reino de este mundo (The Kingdom of this World).

1953. Los pasos perdidos (The Lost Steps) written three times.

1956. El Acoso published (The Chase).

1959. Returns to Cuba following Castro’s overthrow of the Batista regime; appointed Professor of History of Culture at Havana University.

1962. El siglo de las luces (Explosion in a Cathedral); appointed head of state publishing house.

1966. Appointed cultural attache/ambassador in Paris.

1974. El recurso del metodo (Reason of State) and Concierto barroco published.

1977. Awarded the Cervantes prize.

1978. La consagracion de la primavera (The Consecration of Spring).

1980. Dies in Paris – his remains were taken back to Cuba, and he was buried in the Cemetery Colon, Havana.

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Alejo Carpentier greatest works

major works in English translation

Alejo Carpentier web links

Alejo Carpentier life and works

biographical notes and major works

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