“The Kingdom of this Earth” tells the story of Haiti’s turbulent past: the slave revolt, the retreat of the colonists, the brutal rule and death of the first black king, Henri Christophe. The fabulous elements here are the reality experienced by the people of the island. By conveying this world, the writer gave the beginning to magical realism. This is how magic is written into the history of Latin America – from now on the two become inseparable from each other.
The kingdom of this earth,
Alejo Carpentier
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A. Carpentier could be called a language virtuoso, demonstrating an incredibly high general culture. According to him, South America provides an opportunity to acquire a broader culture than Europeans – the author personally confirms this. He was a citizen of the world, traveled a lot and lived in different countries. Spent most of his time in Paris as a student, journalist and finally as an ambassador. According to him, he “lost his sight” during his first trip to Paris (1929-1938). After getting acquainted with all the new currents flourishing there, establishing himself in the circles of the avant-garde, he suddenly felt the desire to combine the latest trends with mythological beginnings and folklore motifs: “My surrealist efforts turned out to be in vain. I could not bring anything new to this current. It caused the opposite reaction in me; I felt an insatiable desire to express the world of Latin America.” A trip to Mexico and Haiti inspired him to write the novel “Kingdom of this Earth”.
The author discovered a way of writing authentically representing the reality of Latin America, which he called “lo real maravilloso” and revealed it in the prologue of “Kingdom of this Earth”, which became a manifesto of magical realism. According to the writer, due to various autochthonous beliefs and their intermingling, the cultural reality of Latin America is deeply permeated with magic. This is also the case with the novel “Kingdom of this Earth”: here, while maintaining fidelity to historical facts, the events of Haiti’s history are depicted.
The real historical figures in the book are endowed with magical powers. If they want, they can turn into insects, birds, escape from shackles, avoid the death penalty. The element of magic that appears in the author’s works is not the fruit of his subjective imagination, intended only to beautify the work or give it strangeness and exoticism. The novel is based on the beliefs of African slaves, the voodoo religion. These beliefs are collective, so they are an objective part of the cultural reality of Haiti, and at the same time, of Latin America. A. Carpentiero’s discovery of the key to the authenticity of Latin American reality gave rise to magical realism and inspired great authors. Starting to form in the 20th century. on the other hand, as a way of representing the complex, dynamic and heterogeneous reality of Latin America, magical realism relies on three main poles that remain relevant in the modern world: the sense of otherness, the relativity of objective reality and the importance of power dynamics.
The work “Kingdom of This Land”, which is particularly important for magical realism, but little known in Lithuania, was published in Spanish in 1949, and in Lithuanian in 1976. (translated by Marija Subatavičienė, prologue by Valdas V. Petrauskas). The newly published edition of “Kitu knäti” is a newly translated novel by Valdas V. Petrauskas. The foreword of the book was written by Hispanists Dovilė Kuzminskaitė and Joris Žiburkus, the publication was partly financed by the Lithuanian Council of Culture.
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2024-08-01 06:29:00
