Event Title
The Presence of Europe in Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of This World
Presentation Type
Panel
Presenter Major(s)
Spanish
Mentor Information
Médar Serrata
Department
Modern Languages and Literatures
Location
Kirkhof Center Area 52
Start Date
11-4-2012 9:00 AM
Keywords
Culture, Historical Perspectives, Identity, Philosophy/ Literature, World Perspective
Abstract
Alejo Carpentier was a man of a double identity. From his childhood until his death in 1980, he moved back and forth many times between Paris and Cuba. It is clear that this oscillation between the two cultures had an impact on the author's worldview and, as a result, on his writing. When one analyzes his novel, The Kingdom of This World, in an extra-textual manner, investigating the historical context and the biographical data available to us, one can see the European influence on his interpretation of the events that take place within the story. Being both European and Caribbean, he had to face the dilemma of discovering where his identity lay and therefore reconcile the two opposing cultural forces in his life. The juxtaposition of the Latin American and European perspectives reveals that although Carpentier appears to favor a Latin American system of beliefs, there is still a lot of the European way of thinking and perceiving the world in which he lived and about which he wrote.
The Presence of Europe in Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of This World
Kirkhof Center Area 52
Alejo Carpentier was a man of a double identity. From his childhood until his death in 1980, he moved back and forth many times between Paris and Cuba. It is clear that this oscillation between the two cultures had an impact on the author's worldview and, as a result, on his writing. When one analyzes his novel, The Kingdom of This World, in an extra-textual manner, investigating the historical context and the biographical data available to us, one can see the European influence on his interpretation of the events that take place within the story. Being both European and Caribbean, he had to face the dilemma of discovering where his identity lay and therefore reconcile the two opposing cultural forces in his life. The juxtaposition of the Latin American and European perspectives reveals that although Carpentier appears to favor a Latin American system of beliefs, there is still a lot of the European way of thinking and perceiving the world in which he lived and about which he wrote.