University of Oklahoma

Alejo Carpentier, Cuban Novelist

Author(s): Frederick S. Stimson
Source: Books Abroad, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Spring, 1959), pp. 149-150
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40097033
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mentallythe same as that of La rue Cases-Ne-
gres, except that now the Negro's struggle is
carriedon in France,where Hassam decides
that he has at least a fighting chanceto live in
dignity.Unfortunately,La fete a Parisis not a
well constructednovel; it appearsto be a hur-
ried piece of writing which lacks the warmth
and charmof Zobel'searlierworks.There are
blatanterrorsin the novel, which are some-
what amusing,as when one of the characters
who is calledRolandin the storyis accidental-
ly referredto by his real-lifename, Bertrand.
In anotherpassage,a studentwho is of Hun-
garian nationalityis mistakenlycalled a Ro-
manian.
Despite the failure of his last novel, we
must admit that Zobel's charactersshow a
steady developmentfrom the dancing, sing-
ing Rousseau-likevillagers of Laghia de la
mortto the sophisticated,realistic,yet hopeful
Europeanizeduniversitystudentsof La fete a
Parts. Whether Zobel, colorful portrayerof
the Caribbean,is out of his element in Paris,
as his last novel might indicate, is yet to be
seen in his futureworks.
Universityof Oklahoma
Alejo Carpentier,Cuban Novelist
By FrederickS. Stimson
The backgroundor Alejo Carpentiery Val-
mont is international. Born December 26,
1904, in Havana, in 1933 he moved to his
parental homeland, France, where he lived
six years. After travelingwidely there and in
Belgium, Holland, Spain, Mexico,the Carib-
bean area and northernSouth America,and
in the United States,he now residesin Cara-
cas. His formaleducation,carriedon in Cuba,
includedspecializationin music and architec-
ture at the Universityof Havana. Versatilein
his talents,he has exercisedthe professionnot
only of author,but of professorof musicology
and historyof cultureand of director,in Pa-
ris and Havana, of radio stations and pro-
graming.
's published works, aside from
Carpentier
novels, include the lyrics for a comic opera,
Yamba-0 (Paris, 1928); Poemas de las An-
tillas (Paris, 1932); a relato, Viaje a la se-
milla (Havana, 1943); and two essays,La mu-
sica en Cuba(Mexico, 1945), and a discussion
of Romanticismin this hemisphere,Tristanet
Yseult en Amerique (Caracas, 1946). His
first novel, Ecue-Yamba-0 (Madrid, 1933;
Mexico, 1945), deals with the life of Cuban
Negroes. El reino de este mundo (Mexico,
1949) tells of the Negro insurrectionsat the
ALEJOCARPENTIER 149
beginning of the last century on the islands
of Hispaniola and Cuba. The hero of Los
pasos perdidos (Mexico, 1953) is sent from
New York City to Cuba, then to the semi-
fictitiousjungles to obtain samplesof prehis-
toric musical instruments. Carpentier 's latest
novel, El acoso (Buenos Aires, 1956), con-
cernsthe pursuitand tortureof a Cubanrebel
universitystudent,during PresidentGerardo
Machado'styrannicalregime (1925-33).
These highly polishednovels are of the ex-
otic typein theirsettings,characters,plots,and
themes. Often the actiontakes place in lesser
known tropicaland romanticcountries,some-
times in fictitious areas, reminiscentof the
settings of Frederic Prokosch. The charac-
ters seem equally exotic, perhapsa result of
their unusual racial mixture and amorality.
The plots involvesexualsatisfaction,self-anni-
hilation, sadism, and atrocity. Five diverse
themesrecurfrequently:transplantation, mu-
sic, architecture,dictatorship,and sex.
Predominantis the theme of the confusion
which arises from transplantationfrom one
world to another,a theme of which Carpen-
tier,on accountof his own variedbackground,
may have first-handknowledge. As noted by
one critic (EdouardGlissant,"AlejoCarpen-
tier et l'autreAmerique,"Critique,No. 105,
pp. 113-119),Carpentier'sheroes witness the
rupture of two environments,that of their
childhoodand that later imposedupon them,
and find reality in neither. The Afro-Carib-
bean anomalyappearsin Ecue and El reino;
the adjustments necessary for Europeans
transplantedto the Antilles are visible in the
latter novel; the bewildermentsufferedby a
Cuban in New York, then in a prehistoric
jungle, is portrayedin Los pasos; and in El
acosothe protagonistdiscoversno moremean-
ing in his sophisticatedlife in Havana, the
promisedland that was to offer him all the
sensual and culturaloutlets he had dreamed
of, than in the provincialCuban town from
which he migrated.
Carpentier'spreoccupationwith music, un-
derstandablesince he is an authoritativemu-
sicologist,is very apparent,perhapsat times
monotonouslyso. The focal point for the ac-
tion of El acosois the SymphonyHall in Ha-
vana; for that of Los pasos,a museumof mu-
sical instrumentsin New York and a village
still using the most ancient methods of pro-
ducing music. The protagonistsof both nov-
els are musicians,constantlyhauntedby sym-
bolic, recurring melodies. Long discussions
 150 BOOKS ABROAD
on the origin and history of music interrupt
the slight plots.
The author's interest in architecture, an-
other subject pursued while a student in Ha-
vana, pervades his novels almost as much as
music. The architectural backdrop, drawn in
great detail with the most technical terminol-
ogy, is even personified, so that it almost plays
a role in the drama. Columns seem to be Car-
pentier's particular fetish: In both Los pasos
and El acoso they are referred to at times as
columnas enfermas; in the latter novel they are
likened to trees; and, as other architectural
elements, they are always "telluric." The sur-
prising mixture of colonial and modern archi-
tecture actually found today in Havana as-
sumes a sickly, sinister, baroque tone in El
acoso.
The theme or motif of Spanish American
dictatorships and their by-product, brutality-
a theme of which Carpentier may also have
first-hand knowledge - is especially pro-
nounced in El reino and El acoso. The most
horrible tortures connected with the French
suppression of Haitian Negroes, fire and hun-
gry dogs, are described in the former work.
Even more terrifying is the scene, more than
a century later in time, of the "Tribunal's"
near emasculation of the protagonist of El
acoso. After undergoing such tortures of the
damned, Carpentier's characters find solace
and significance in something somewhat al-
lied to this sadism- sex. The hero of Los
pasos loves, then dispenses with, one wife and
two mistresses, one of whom turns out to be a
Lesbian. The protagonist of El acoso, after
days without food or sex, concludes that the
latter is the more essential of the two.
On account of, or despite, themes or per-
sonal preoccupations as unrelated as these,
Carpentier vividly presents in novel form the
problems which have been besetting Cuba and
the West Indies since the days of the Con-
quest. The tension- created by conflict be-
tween the new and the old (symbolized today
by the two sections of Havana), between the
blacks and the whites, the Europeans (and
now the Yankees) and Creoles, students and
government, culture and vice, dictators and
rebels- seemed, in the days of Batista, as acute
as it was in that of Diego Velasquez.
El reino and Los pasos have been translated
into both French and English, Harriet de Onis
doing the latter version of both. El acoso is
now being prepared in French.
Northwestern University
Latin American Women Writers:
Their Present Position
By Kathleen Chase
Thirty-five years ago a Latin American wom-
an, writing frankly of the ways of Chilean
peasants, was considered brazenly outspoken
for her sex.* Marta Brunet of Chile is held
to be one of her country's top writers to-
day. She was a pioneer in smoothing the way
towards freedom for her many writing sisters
in Hispanic America. A reprinting of Montana
adentro, Flor de Quillen, and Bestia Danino -
once thought of as daring novelettes- has
made no other stir than the celebrating of a
landmark in literature.
The present generation of young writers
owes a lot to these books, however. The won-
der lies not in the fact that these stories no
longer shock us, but that Latin American
women have, in so short a time, won a place
for themselves in the ranks of today's avant-
garde authors.
In the 1920's young North Americans and
European women were enjoying freedoms
withheld from Latin American females. The
Church, zealous guardian of the young girls'
characters, allowed them to see nothing, hear
nothing, and do nothing that might be deteri-
orating to their morals. Equally effective in
curbing the girls' activities were custom and
traditions. Reared in such delicate seclusion,
it is indeed a wonder that they have not taken
longer in breaking through to the liberal and
more robust air required by creators of mod-
ern literature.
To some, freedom has gone to their heads in
their attempt to catch up in a hurry with a
Mary McCarthy and a Sagan. But on the
whole, they are taking their evolution in stride,
exploiting their own or their parents' strict up-
bringing, their country's quaint and outmoded
practices, and the change that has come about
- using all these threads with which to bind
their work.
Those countries that are most exposed to
outside influences are usually the first to take
advantage of them. Venezuela, Argentina,
Brazil, and Chile have produced the most ad-
vanced women writers. As a successor to Mar-
ta Brunet, Maria Luisa Bombal has shown her-
self capable of noteworthy writing, even
though their backgrounds and their methods
differ greatly. In Brazil, Carmen da Silva
(who is being talked about as the "South
American Pamela Moore") has set tongues
* For other articles on
contemporary women writers
(Italy, Spain, Mexico) see B.A. 33:1.- The Editors.