Download Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Chronicle of a Death
Foretold
A Latin American Detective Story
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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From Columbia, South America
Was a journalist in the 1940s and 1950s
before focusing on literary writing
Based this book on a murder that occurred in
Sucre, Columbia in 1951
Style of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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Frequently uses journalistic techniques in his
fiction.
Examples: High interest first line; journalistic
details of observation
Márquez has stated that he became a good
journalist by reading literature, and that
journalism helped him maintain contact with
reality, which he considers important for
writing good literature.
Microcosm of Colombian Society
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n. A small, representative system having
analogies to a larger system in constitution,
configuration, or development
a little world; a world in miniature (opposed to
macrocosm
Novella
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A fictional prose narrative that is longer and
more complex than a short story
A short novel
Narrator
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Quasi omniscient (having complete or
unlimited knowledge, awareness, or
understanding; perceiving all things) narrative
voice
But lapses into “we” 1st person
Never superior, he’s a member of the
community and shares their experiences
Capable of great empathy
Plot
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Knows who’s involved
Want to get to the bottom of the crime 27
years late
Irony
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Everyone knows the murder will happen,
even the police
Murderers tell hoping to be stopped
The Real Murder Story
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Murder occurred January 22, 1951 in Sucre Columbia,
where Marquez’s family lived.
Miguel Reyes Palencia married local teacher Margarita
Chica Salas on January 20
He loved her but had been pressured to marry by
Margarita’s brothers
At the wedding, Miguel got drunk and slept until the 21st.
When he awoke, he saw no evidence that Margarita was a
virgin, so he beat her and returned her to his mother.
Margarita named Cayetano Gentile as the man she lost her
virginity to.
The Real Murder Story
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Cayetano had been engaged to Margarita in the
past.
Cayetano was a childhood friend of Gabriel
Garcia Marquez.
He came home as a crowd gathered around his
house, and was stabbed by Margarita’s brothers
14 times.
He died saying “I’m innocent.”
The brothers turned themselves in immediately,
spent a year in jail, and were finally acquitted.
Honor and Rituals
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Watch for these cultural ideas in the text
Definition
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Chronicle: A factual written account of
historical events in the order they occurred.
Is it really entirely a chronicle
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The narrator does not present the events
chronologically
The Important Questions
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Is this book a chronicle?
Is it journalistic?
Is it literary?
Marquez’s Politics and Religion
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Born in Colombia
Political novelist: no actual political party, but
a political man
a socialist and journalist
View on religious hierarchy: atheist
Fidal Castro and Cuba
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Supporter of Fidal Castro
Fidal reads his manuscripts before publishing
Close ties with Cuba
Influenced by the Cuban Revolution
Looked toward Cuba as the nation opposed
to cultural colonialism, as an emblem for
ending the economic dependence on the US
Economic exploitation a dominant theme in
Latin American Lit.
Marquez’s Influences
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Influenced by the Cuban Revolution
Looked toward Cuba as the nation opposed
to cultural colonialism, as an emblem for
ending the economic dependence on the US
William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia
Wolfe, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex
Aim as a novelist / His books
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His aim: To “close the gap” between literature
and politics
All his books start with a strong image
His setting are in locales he lived
Themes and Criticism
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Economic exploitation: a dominant theme in
Latin American Lit.
Criticized for sexism: creating traditional
nurturing mother earth figures that perpetuate
stereotypes rather than stop them, men
access to stop and the outer world and
women power at home
He argues that men are weaklings, unstable
and waver, but women “survive and are
stable”
Awards
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Marquez has won many international awards.
“Cult of Virginity”
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Women suffered from the cult of virginity
Magic Realism
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Definition: fantasy and actuality, outlandish
and fantastic elements described as if they
were entirely natural and commonplace
Includes everyday life, “people’s myths, their
beliefs, and their legends”
Magic Realism: Influences
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For Marquez, the supernatural elements were
part of his everyday reality.
He grew up on the Caribbean coast: a combo
of Guajiro Indians, emigrants from the middle
east, and descendants of black slaves, and
settlers from Spain.
This provided him with a diverse culture
tinged with magic, mystery, and the
unknowable.
Techniques and examples
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Technique renders the fantastic entirely
credible in its specificity
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Ex. If you were to say that 200 elephants pass by,
no one would believe you. But if you write that
232 elephants appeared with 7 baby elephants
among them, the read will accept the idea.
Techniques and Examples Continued
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Exaggeration and specificity provide political
commentary, exaggeration also serves the
demands of humor. This makes the story
gain verisimilitude.
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Ex. In his book, One Hundred Years of Solitude,
Remedios the Beauty ascends into heaven, but
she doesn’t just go to heaven…she travels taking
with her her bed sheets that had just been
washed and were being put out on the line to dry.
Techniques and Examples Continued
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He includes fictional names along with the
names of his own mother, Luisa Santiago and
his own wife Mercedes Barcha.
The inclusion of the names of real people tie
the events more strongly to a fixed reality.
Literary Elements
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Uses imagery that appeals to the 5 senses
Lots of metaphors
And personification
Stylistic Elements
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Uses a catalogue or list combining everyday
items with archaic or exotic ones
Uses strange, surreal details to highlight
otherwise ordinary events
Economical dialogue, but witty
Columbia: Facts
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4th largest country in South America
Coastline on both the Pacific Ocean and the
Caribbean Sea
National Language: Spanish
Capital: Bogota
Colonial Times
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Stratified classes, apex of society were
people born in Spain (peninsulares)
They formed the basis of the oligarchy, which
was in power until the end of the 20th century
Oligarchy
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Oligarchy: form of gov. in which all power is
vested in a few persons or dominant class or
clique
In power until end of 20th century
Peninsulares, Criollos, Mestizos, Zambos
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Peninsulares: apex of society, people born in
Spain
Criollos: people of Spanish decent, born in
Colombia, inferior to peninsulares
Mestizos: inferior 60% of the population,
mixed Spanish and Indian blood
Zambos: lowest class, mixed Indian and
African (the disenchanted groom is a zambo)
Religion
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Close tie in Colombia between church and
state
Marquez is against…
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Marquez is against the slave trade, and the
history of degradation that is a legacy in his
countrymen
Marquez rejects both liberals and
conservatives as equally contemptible
representatives of the ruling oligarchy
Latin America and the US
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Many Latin American writers have an acute
disenchantment with the politics of the US
and distrust the motives of their neighbor to
the north
“What the US government wants in Central
America are governments is can control.”