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St Kilda vs Adelaide at Etihad Stadium. Saints tagger Clint Jones keeps Crows midfielder Scott Thompson away from the ball. Photo: Photo by Paul Rovere EDDIE Betts had eight goals on the board, had booted an amazing snap in which he'd evaded a clutch
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Troyes Top Attractions, Nightlife, Shopping, Hotels and Eurostar to Troyes
Troyes welcomes you in the wonderful world of beauty. The city is really gift of God. The plan to visit this during vacations is a perfect plan. It is a rocking city in Aube department of France in North Central part. The water of Seine River touches the shore of the city and makes the city fresh every time. Troyes is a city of the time of Roman Empire. The town is famous for its chocolates and wines. The timber houses of the city make the city more beautiful and glamorous. Troyes is a perfect location for art and architecture lovers. There are lots of interesting things to do in the city.
Troyes By Eurostar
Friends this sweet city is not much far from you. Plan your trip to Troyes and choose the best way to reach there. Eurostar is a high-speed train, which gives you a new comfortable experience of traveling. Pack your bag and catch your Eurostar train from St Pancras International Station to Paris and then from Paris to your dreamy creamy destination. Troyes is about 93 miles away from Paris. Your traveling time will be full of enjoyment, delicious food and drinks.
Troyes attractions
By getting up in the first morning and looking outside the window you will feel the real pleasure of the city. The river in this wonderful city running smoothly and beautiful views of countryside attracts million of visitors across the world. Cool breeze making your hot coffee cold.
Do not waste your much time, lots of amazing points are waiting for you. The city is full of amazing churches, museums, parks, historical monuments etc.
Cathedrale St Pierre St Paul: – It is an amazing architectural building. The whole architecture of the building shows the culture and rich past of the city. It is a beautiful historical building.
Musee D;art Moderne: – this is a perfect place for art lovers. This art gallery holds world class paintings of famous artists.’
Basilique Saint-Urain: – It is place for your relaxation and peace of mind. It is a silent religious place.
Hotel de Vauluisant: – It is a museum where you can find collection of historical monuments and evidences.
Musee St. Loup: – This place holds periodic exhibitions in which you can see the most beautiful historical monuments and paintings of the popular artists.
Marques city: – It is a factory outlet. It offers you variety of things on low prices.
Eglise ste-Madeleine: – It is a religious site with a pretty architecture done on the building of the site. Its must place to visit. It attracts lots of tourists from various parts of the world.
Troyes hotels and resorts
There are lots of hotels and resorts in the city. Eurostar is taking care of your comfort and offering you the best and budgeted hotels. You can book your hotel along with your ticket online. Enjoy heavy discount on booking of hotel and ticket.
Mercure Troyes Centre
Le Maison de Rhodes
Clarion Collection Hotel
Relais St Jean
Les Comtes De Champagne
Ibis Troyes Centre
Le Royal Hotel
Le Champ des Oiseaux
Best western De la Poste
Hotel Arlequin
Hotel Savinieu
Troyes Nightlife
After the full on day you must be searching for a happening night. You do not have to go far. The streets of the city are full of rocking discos, stunning bars and pubs. You can enjoy variety of drinks with yummy food and vibrating night events.
Bar Le saint Remy
Bougnat des Pouilles
Famous café
L’Odyssee
Le Montana
Caveau
Ies Antilles Vaval club
Troyes shopping
Troyes offers you variety of shopping. There are street markets and lots of special shops around the city. For budgeting shopping you can visit street shops and stalls, where you can bargain the price. There are lots of high class and trendy malls for your shopping events.
Outlet Sixty Troyes
Pont Outlet
Marques Avenue
Swatch store
IIe St Denis outlet
Cosa Nostra Shop
France Loisirs
Jeux et Strategie
Xplicit store
If you want to explore Troyes, then read out important information regarding Eurostar Deals and Cheap Eurostar Tickets.
Lakshmi Kadam is a well known author & has written many articles on travel & tourism. She has travelled extensively on the <a href =”http://www.londonparistrain.com/”>Eurostar London Paris train</a>. If you want to explore Tours in France, then read out important information regarding <a href =”http://www.londonparistrain.com/london-to-paris-fare.html”>Eurostar London France Train deals</a> and <a href =”http://www.londonparistrain.com/day-trip-to-france.html”>France by Train</a>.
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Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s `Del Amor y Otros Demonios’ : An Unwritten History of a People and Land
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s `Del Amor y Otros Demonios’ : An Unwritten History of a People and Land
Gabriel Garcia Marquez maintains that he writes history, not fiction, that his novels are about the unwritten history of his people and land. Needless to say, the fantastical context in which his stories unfold, and which constantly defy readers’ credulity, make the Columbian novelist’s contention quite hard to accept. How is it possible to read One Hundred Years of Solitude as the history of the Columbian banana massacres of 1928, or Del Amor y Otros Demonios, as the history of colonialism and the true story of Saint Cajetan of Thiene and his well-recorded relation with the Augustinian nun, Laura Mignani? Yet, Marquez has repeatedly affirmed that his works are historical, that they tell the history of events as they were seen, understood and remembered by those who lived through themOfficial Columbian, Latin American history, as Marquez has persistently and repeatedly maintained, is a watered down version of the truth; it is a history written by, and for, those in power, designed, not to preserve the truth but, to sustain the power holders of the present and preserve the legend and memory of those of the past. Official history, within the parameters of such concerns, is a politically motivated re-telling of the truth which deliberately displaces the people, those who have lived through and experienced history and, challenges the national memory. As Marquez has often said, his works are designed to resurrect the true history, the version of history which official history has tried to bury. As such, he encourages readers to approach his works as realistic and truthful renditions of historical events. In Del Amor y Otros Demonios, the focus of this research, Marquez quite openly demands this of his readers. Just in case they fail to comprehend the narrative as the `true’ history of the interrelationship between the church and colonialism, between religion and the immiseration of countless of innocents, he alternately alludes to and explicitly names real historical characters. Few of his Latin American readers would not recognise Cayetano as a clear allusion to Saint Cajetan and, his protagonist’s surname, Delaura, as a reminder of his relationship with Sister Laura Mignani; a relationship which is echoed by Cayetano and Sierva Maria’s.
Should readers, despite their fantastical context and content, accept Marquez’ narratives as history, which Shaw concedes they could very well be, they need to reserve judgement on the manner in which Marquez remembers, interprets and presents history. Indeed, Marquez does not simply engage in the transmission of an alternative version of history but deconstructs official history in the process. His doing so, however, should not be interpreted as a disregard for, and a displacement of, fact but of the presentation of fact from within the magical realist context. Although the presentation of fact through the medium of a magical realist narrative persistently challenges the reader’s credulity, an analysis of the theoretical and definitional parameters of the genre, followed by a close textual analysis of Del Amor y Otros Demonios from within the matrix of magic realism, with specific focus on his treatment of place, dreams and memory, will lend to the conclusion that Marquez’s narratives represent a history as remembered and told by the people; a history infused with myth and supposition but, a history nonetheless.
As a literary and artistic genre, magic realism is apparently plagued by its insistent use of supplementation as a literary strategy for the improvement of the realist text. The boundaries framing realism so constrained many artists and burdened them with the nagging difficulty of how to compromise between realism and their own creative desires and inclinations that the movement towards magic realism was instigated. Supposedly, this genre expresses both the seen and the unseen realities, the historical memories which make and shape a people and the myths and superstitions which dominate their worldview. Magic realists contend that realism never allowed them the leeway to express reality’s multiple dimensions, further asserting that, as a linguistic and literary medium, it constrained their creativity. Magic realism supposedly overcomes realism’s boundaries and limitations and seems to displace its predecessor’s shortcomings through the conveyance of textual apparitions, ephemeral and ambiguous themes and images which cast a confusing and somewhat dark shadow over everyday life and its most mundane tasks. The magic realist text is, itself, somewhat akin to a fantastical apparition which, even as readers recognize the magical imagination which informs it, detect its underlying realism. In essence, the magic realist have been able to achieve this effect, have succeeded in enveloping readers in an alternate world where myth and history co-mingle and the boundaries between fact and fiction are fluid, because they have determinedly sought the overcoming of textual limitations. Magic realists, in other words, and chief amongst them Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, have contributed to the supplemental discourse that is magic realism through the infusion of a sense of textual magic in their own narratives.
Although the rationale behind the term `magic realism’ is evident from the above stated, it has been the subject of controversy and disagreement ever since it was first introduced by Franz Roh in the 1920s. Referencing a “counter-movement” in art wherein “the charm of an object was rediscovered” by expanding the parameters of realism,magic realism eventually found its home among the Latin American writers. Their almost instantaneous attraction to, and embrace of, magic realism was engendered by their conviction that they had finally found an artistic genre which allowed them the creative expression of the “marvellous reality” particular to their own culture, history and world view.
In order to better comprehend the implications of the asserted while, at the same time, contextualise magic realism vis-à-vis realism, it would be useful to define the latter in relation to the former. According to Roh, realism’s reliance on history was transformed into a dependency upon myth and legend by the magic realists; its mimetic style was replaced by both the fantastic and supplication; the familiarity which realism engenders among readers was displaced by de-familiarity within the context of magic realism; realism’s empirical and logical perspective was, almost violently, set aside for mysticism and magic; realism’s narrative style was replaced with meta-narration and its commitment to closure and reduction was exchange for open-ended expansiveness; realism’s naturalism became magic realism’s romanticism and its proclivity for framing the narrative within a rational cause and effect structure was replaced with imagination and negative capability. Indeed, the one appears the very antithesis of the other culminating in magic realism’s transforming “daily life into eerie forms.”
In tracing the rise of the genre in Latin America and, indeed, in defending its adoption by many of the continent’s creative artists, Flores assets that it was engendered by the “effort to account for a narrative that could simply be considered fantastic.” Magical realist narratives do “not depend either on natural or physical laws or on the unusual conception of the real in Western culture,” because it is a text “in which the relations between incidents, characters, and settings could not be based upon or justified by their status within the physical word or their normal acceptance by bourgeoisie mentality.” Even while conceding to the fantastic within this genre, Luis Leal, however, maintains a distinction between fantastical literature and magic realism:
“El realismo mágico no puede ser identificada ni con literatura fantástica ni con literatura sicológica, pero tampoco con el surrealismo o la literatura hermética que describe Ortega. Realismo mágico no se vale, como el sobrer-realismo, de motivos oníricos; tampoco desfigura la realidad o crea mundo imaginados, como lo bacín los escriben literatura fantástica o ciencia ficción; tampoco da importancia al análisis sicológico de los personajes, ya que no trata de explicar las motivaciones que los hacen actuar o que les prohíben expresarse.”
The variances in boundaries only serve to exemplify the difficulties inherent in defining magic realism. Indeed, unlike other genres, whether classicism, romanticism or realism, magic realism defies definitional delimitations, just as it does the persistent attempts of critics to pin it down.
Magic realism may be an autonomous and viable literary genre but the interrelationship between surrealism and magic realism has led to confusion regarding the boundaries between them, especially as magic realists have exhibited a proclivity towards the production of works which echo both. Alejo Carpentier, one of the leading Latin American magic realists, for example, can quite validly be categorised as a surrealist. In his insistence upon the “marvellous American reality,” Carpentier betrays the Latin American preference for an ontological outlook towards the textual enterprise, an outlook infused with both surrealism and magic realism. As Eschevvaria writes,
“The Latin American writer preferred to place himself on the far side of the borderline aesthetics described by Roh – on the side of the savage, of the believer, not on the ambiguous ground where miracles are justified by means of a reflexive act of perception, in which the consciousness of distance between the observer and the object, between the subject and that exotic other, generates estrangement and wonder.”
Some, as Carpentier, have interpreted this borderline as a shared and fluid boundary with surrealism while others, such as Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez have interpreted it as an explicit demarcation between magic realism and surrealism. Indeed, while Marquez succumbs to the concept of magic realism as fundamentally expressive of the inherent Latin American fantasia and, within the context of his narratives, constantly investigates and interrogates the very notion of the `real,’ he departs from surrealism and, instead, embraces a super-realism which becomes his brand of magic realism.
As a magical realist who seeks the expression of the super-real, Marquez employs a wide array of supplemental strategies for the intensification of the textual forces which enter into the production of a narrative which totters between realism and fantasy; which expresses an unreal reality wherein fact becomes fiction and myth becomes history but which, paradoxically enough, allow the reader an identification of the real and draws him/her into the text by weaving a sense of familiarity, even as it repels him/her from the narrative through de-familiarity. Consequently, when Shaw writes of Del Amor y Otros Demonios that “even if it is true, as [Marquez] has insisted […], that everything he has written is based on reality, we have to avoid jumping to conclusions about his treatment of [reality].’ We should not judge the text for what we may see as the distortion of reality and the deconstruction of history but need to evaluate it on its own terms, terms set by Marquez and by the genre which he embraced. Illustrating the stated through an analytical discussion and textual analysis of Del Amor y Otros Demonios, with specific focus on the use of imagery, the extent to which Marquez creates a shadowy world of reality intermingled with fantasy, a world in which myth and history alternate complement and challenge one another, shall be exposed.
In immediate comparison to modern and post-modern literature wherein writers afford little time or space to the description of place, Gabriel Garcia Marquez devotes considerable time to the precise and articulate description of place. Indeed, critics have maintained that Marquez-ian place is the focal point of his literary productions insofar as they play a profound role, not in the delimitation of the story’s locus but, in the development of plot, theme, character and, most importantly, the creation of symbols and myths. Del Amor y Otros Demonios exemplifies this wherein the aforementioned are expressed within the matrix of a complex interplay of multivalent narrative elements where images of place coalesce with visual-spatial imagery to produce a complex matrix of symbolic space which simultaneously defines and borders the narrative’s ethical and affective values.
Telling the hi-story of the eighteenth century Marques de Casalduero’s twelve-year old daughter, Sierva Maria de Todos los Angeles, Del Amor y Otros Demonios is, in essence, the story of confused familial and marital relations, distorted relations between man and religion and male and female. It is, to a degree, an other-worldly narrative which manages to deeply shake and disturb readers because, within the context of its repulsive defamiliarisation, it is familiar. The Marquez is described as follows:
“no daba señales de nada. Creció con signos ciertos de retraso mental, fue analfabeto hasta la edad de merecer, y no quería a nadie.”
His wife, who had chased him prior to marriage for the sole purpose of having a child is “para atraparlo por vida,”and later, “se había borrada del munda por el abuso de la miel fermentada y las tabletas de cacao.”Within the matrix of the described familial unit and the characters and relationships which dominate it, Sierva Maria is practically abandoned, and grows up in her father’s courtyard among his African slaves, speaker their language and worships their gods.
One day, while visiting the market, Sierva is very slightly nipped in the ankle by a rabid dog. The wound, nothing more than a scratch, heals but the local Catholic bishop persuades the Marquez that his daughter is, indeed, infected with rabbis, and that the former is nothing other than a dreaded manifestation of demonic possession. As don Torbio de Caceres y Virtudes tells the Marques, “entre las muchas astucias de demonio es muy frecuenté adoptar la apariencia de una enfermedad inmunda.”Sierva Maria is subsequently locked up in the convent, in preparation for her exorcism. There she meets the priest assigned to her exorcism and, unaccountably, the two fall in love. Their affair, which in typical Marquez-ian fashion, is never consummated, is discovered and culminates in padre DeLaura’s being defrocked, and subjected to a lifetime of service at the local leprosarium. Trapped in a straitjacket, a shaved, purged and emaciated Sierva Maria endures five days of exorcism but tragically dies just before the sixth. Within the context of the stultifying atmosphere of colonial Cartagena, described as ” sumergida en su marasama de siglos,” this fantastical, super-real tragedy unfolds in a triad of place, which arguably symbolize the trinity: the Casalduero mansion (the father), bishop Toribio de Caceres’ palace (bishopp as son of God, the earthly, and distorted, embodiment of Christ and his message); and the Convento de Santa Clara (the Holy Spirit) where, after enduring five days of intense torture (comparable to Christ’s scourging) Sierva Maria’s spirit is released.
Whereas the plot unfolds from without the Casalduero mansion, all of plot, theme and character development are inextricably linked to this particular locus. As readers discover, the mansion “había sido el orgullo de la cuidad hasta principios de siglo. Ahora estaba arruinada y lóbrega, y parecía en estado de mudanza por los grandes espacios vacíos y las muchas cosas fuera de lugar … todo estaba saturado por el relente opresivo de la desidia y las tinieblas.” The negative impression, communicated in the quoted passage, is later fortified through repeated references to the mansion as “la tenebrosa mansión”and “la casa sórdida” to name but two examples. In various passages and phrases, such as the quoted, the mansion is depicted, not as an inanimate structure but as a dark force which not only casts a sinister shadow on all within it but, on its surroundings as well. Indeed, by describing the house as sinister, sordid, tenebrous and lazy, to name but a few of the adjectives used, Marquez is effectively defying the reader’s classic conceptualisation of mansions as brick, stone and mortar and seeks a projection of the aforementioned as a sinister and autonomous entity whose tentacles spread to touch those around it with misfortune and ill-fate. When Sierva Maria ventures just outside the house and is slightly nipped by a dog, setting in motion the tragedy which follows, the reader finds himself slowly descending into a state of belief; he finds his protective armour of disbelief gradually dissipating and begins to question, although hesitatingly, whether indeed, the house commands a sinister presence and has the power to touch those in its vicinity with ill-fate. Marquez is slowly drawing us into his world of magical realism.
That the mansion commands those within and without it, that it influences their psychological development, shapes their personality and determines their state of mind, is affirmed and reinforced through multiple passages in the narrative. The way in which Bernarda and Ygnacio react to Servia Maria’s troubles is communicated through their choice of dwelling within the mansion itself. Ygancio, feeling that he is losing control of his family and life attempts to regain control through a failed attempt to assume control over the house, “ël marques … anuncio … su determinación de asumir con mano de Guerra las riendas de la casa.”His life, which is wildly slipping out of his locus of control, is symbolically represented by the house which is, or has, similarly fallen from beyond his control. Interestingly, however, in the quoted expression of his determination to regain control of his house, and by association, his life, military imagery is used, effectively depicting the house as a wild and fierce entity which has to be violently conquered. Indeed, the linkage between both his house and his life slipping from beyond his control, reaffirms earlier suspicions that the mansion is exerting a dark and mysterious influence over events and once the house is conquered, the Marquez life will be, once again, ordered. This is not an inanimate object but a dangerous and sinister entity. Hence, the Marquez reacts to his daughter’s troubles by inadvertently maintaining the mansion’s culpability, seemingly believing that the resolution of the first lies in assuming control over the second. Marquez is not only stretching the readers’ imagination but is challenging us to enter into the narrative’s superreal world and, in so doing, embrace Coleridge’s `willing suspension of disbelief.’
Bernarda similarly reacts. She initially attempts to distance herself from the troubling events which are unfolding by locking herself in her room, by isolating herself from her external surroundings. It is a useless endeavour as the problem lies, not with the outside world but, with the house. Therefore, she eventually leaves the mansion “para no volver.”
Just in case readers fail to comprehend just how menacing a force the mansion is, Marquez suggests that the house murdered Sierva Maria’s mother, the Marquez’ first wife. One day, while on the asylum terrace, perfecting her musical skills as she is accustomed to doing, Dona Olalla is struck dead by a bolt of lightening. In response, the Marqués “se refugio en la hamaca … bajo los naranjos del huerto.”The house kills his first wife, drives his second wife away, destroys and kills his daughter and, quite literally, lays him, the Marques, on his back. Hence, images of the reclining Marquez are repeated throughout the novel.
The mansion is not just the locus of action but a sinister and malevolent force whose decaying, dark and disordered nature influences the personalities and fate of those who dwell within it. On the most elemental of levels, the decrepit mansion mirrors the decrepit Marquez and, as a symbol of colonial politico-economic power, is infused with multiple symbols and contrasting motifs. Indeed, the mansion symbolises both exile and displacement, and freedom and enslavement, to name but two of those contrasting motifs. More importantly, all of the mansion’s inhabitants, the Marquez, his two wives and his daughter, undergo periods of voluntary and involuntary exile, as allowed or imposed upon them by the mansion itself.
The second locus of action, the palacio is as malevolent and shadowy as was the mansion. Described as “el mas antiguo de la ciudad,” it is comprised of ” dos pisos de espacios enormes y en ruinas.” Its dark corridor, the palacio’s main vein, is full of “hasta la fachada imponente de piedra labrada y sus portones de maderas enterizas revelaban los estragos del abandono.” Full of dark, empty and uninhabited places, readers are told that “el resto del edificio eran once aposentos clausurados, donde se acumulaban los escombros de dos siglos.” The palacio, therefore, is not only largely uninhabited and deserted but it repels life. Full of the rubbish of the centuries, it embraces the dead, the rotting and the decaying while it repels life, vitality, the present and the young. It should not be forgotten that the decision to exorcise Sierva Maria, to sap the life out of her, was made at the palacio and by its similarly decaying resident, the bishop.
Just as the mansion affected its inhabitants, the palacio affects its resident. The bishop, like the Marquez, is seemingly controlled by his place of dwelling; its decaying and polluted air is mirrored within the depths of the bishop’s very being and compels him to condemn life and love. Furthermore, just like the mansion did with the Marquez, the palacio effectively drains the life and will out of the bishop and, quite literally, lays him on his back, whereby, in many of the scenes where he figures, the bishop is in a reclining position.
The palacio, just as the mansion, is not a mere inanimate dwelling but a dark and shadowy force which casts a sinister influence and effect upon those who reside within it and come into contact with it. The palacio, quite literally, repels life and functions as the locus from which life is condemned and the young are claimed for torturous exorcisms. Marquez does not give his readers the opportunity to ignore either locus or the comfort of regarding them as structures of mortar, stone and brick. They are infused with a powerful and highly malevolent life force which affects the actions of their inhabitants and thus, makes them responsible for the tragedy of lost life and love which follows.
The third locus of action, the convento de Santa Clara, is where Sierva Maria finds both love and death. The readers’ initial impression of it is both negative and disturbing:
“Había relámpagos y truenos remotos en el horizonte, el cielo estaba encapotado, y el mar áspero. A la vuelta de la esquina les salio al paso el conventote Santa Clara, blanco y solitario, con tres pisos de persianas azules sobre el muladar de una playa.”
Again,
“Al final de todo, lo mas lejos posible, y dejado de la mano de Dios, había un pabellón solitario que durante sesenta y ocho anos sirvió de cárcel a la Inquisición, y seguía siéndolo para clarisas descarriadas. Fue en la ultima celda de ese rincón de olvido donde encerraron a Sierva Maria …”
As evident in the quoted passages, the convent is depicted as a sinister force, overlooking the city below. It is a fortress in which life is imprisoned and gradually drained. Indeed, as it watches over the city, and observes the inhabitants below, it seemingly selects its sacrificial victims, drawing on their life force to retain its own vitality. The passing historical reference to the Inquisition is highly disturbing, all the more so when Marquez reminds his readers that Sierva Maria is imprisoned in one of the convent’s forgotten corners and will soon, in the name of religion, be subjected to the same torture and agonizing death that the Inquisition’s victims had suffered centuries earlier. In these passages and many others, the convent, thus, emerges as the penultimate force of darkness; a living entity which has, across the centuries, claimed countless of innocent lives for its own sustenance. Sierva Maria is just one in the convent’s long line of victims.
Sierva Maria attempts to challenge the convent by bringing life, love and light to its dark cells. When padre Cayetano, her exorcist/inquisitor, first enters her cell, it “exhalo un vaho de podredumbre” as Sierva María was “generaba su propio muladar.”However, she is the force of life and love in this place and soon, Padre Cayetano falls in love with her. When that happens, the cell “ella mantenía la celda limpia y en orden para cuando el llegaba con la naturalidad del marido que volvía a casa.” She affects a transformation in her surroundings and during the exorcism is, at one point, able to temporarily defeat the bishop, the senatado. Indeed, she engages in a shouting match with the bishop, causing him to fall from his chair, although she is, hersekf, tied down, emaciated and terrified. Servia Maria is able to temporarily halt the exorcism ritual, stay her own death: “se derrumbo de bruces, como un pescado en tierra, y la ceremonia termino con un estrépito colosal.”
Sierva Maria battles the convent itself, the sinister force which it represents. While she is ultimately loses the war, her love and life, she does win a couple of battles. The interplay between the convent and Sierva Maria only confirms the reader’s ever-deepening suspicions regarding this place; it is not an inanimate architectural structure but something immensely more sinister. As he repeatedly does throughout the narrative, Marquez forces the reader to question the limits of his/her own conceptualisation of the real; to engage in the interrogation, not just of the concept but, of their own understanding of it. Indeed, as occurs countless times throughout, he wretches away our disbelief and draws us into a world in which `unseen’ realities are visibly, and disturbingly, clear.
Proceeding from the above, the reader can quite safely assume that places, as recalled and presented by Marquez, appear as the very antithesis of fact and history. The sinister life given to the three places described, the three loci of the narrative’s action, cannot be true and, to even suspect a grain of truth to any of this, the reader must do one of two things. He/she must either suspend disbelief or make a distinction between the types of memories from which history is produced. Both Bergson and Proust maintained that the memory which informs official history is distinct from that which informs works of fiction. The one is a voluntary and conditioned memory, in which things are remembered sequentially while the other is an involuntary memory where things are remembered in a disjointed manner, often lending to the formation of remarkable associations between diverse events and the imposition of fantastical/mythical interpretations upon them. Marquez, similar to all magical realists, opts for involuntary memory, lending to the presentation of a history which defies the official national memory and the limits of our credulity. Were readers, however, to suspend their disbelief and realise that Marquez’ presentation of the three loci, and his projection of them as sinister beings as opposed to inanimate structure, mirrors the way in which involuntary memory informed the manner in which events were recollected and passed down across the generations, we may very well begin to understand that Marquez’s presentation of place, as discussed above, is not as incredulous as it should be.
That Marquez’s narrative and his presentation of reality, of fact, emerge from within the parameters of involuntary memory, infused with the earlier discussed elements of magical realism, is informed by involuntary memory and is affirmed through the dream image which occurs three times in the narrative. This image, which appears to Delaura in the form of a dream, prior to his meeting with Sierva Maria, is immediately linked to the unfortunate young protagonist:
“Delaura había sonada que Sierva Maria estaba frente a la ventana de un campo nevado, arrancando y comiéndose una por una las uvas de un racimo que tenia en el regazo. Cada uva que arrancaba retoñaba en seguida en el racimo. En el sueno era evidente que la niña llevaba muchos anos frente a aquella ventana infinita tratando de terminar el racimo, y no tenia prisa, porque sabia que en la ultima uva estaba la muerte.”
As is ultimately revealed, the window through which Sierva Maria looks out onto the frozen fields is the window of the Salamabca seminary from which Delaura and the bishop used to, years earlier, look out of onto the same scene. Later, when incarcerated in her cell awaiting her exorcism, Sierva Marie makes a passing remark which indicates that she has had that same vision/dream. As she tells Delaura, “He conocido la nieve,”further explaining that in one of her dreams, “estaba frente a una ventana donde caía una Nevada intense, mientras ella arrancaba y se comía una por un alas uvas de un racimo que tenia en el regazo.”The reader experiences an incomprehensible déjà vu; Sierva Maria is not only describing Delaura’s dream image but is claiming it as her own, using many of the same words and descriptors which Delaura had earlier employed. When the dream image reoccurs for the third and final time, it heralds Sierva Maria’s imminent death:
“… volvio a sonar con la ventana de un campo nevado, donde Cayetano no estaba ni volveria a estar nuncia. Tenia en el regazo un racimo de uvas doradas que volvian a retonar tan pronto como se las comia. Pero esta vez las arrancaba una por una, sino de dos en dos, sin respirar apenas por las ansias de ganarle al racimo hasta la ultima uva.”
Granted that in this version of the dream, as dreamt by Sierva Maria, there is a small variation on the original, the main point here is that dreams and images are co-mingling. Delaura’s dream is shared and repeated by Sierva Maria and, testing the limits of credulity even further, the place within which the dream unfolds is real for Delaura but imaginary for Sierva Maria.
This cannot be history and can hardly be categorized as factual or realistic yet, Marquez insists that, as with all his narratives, it is. Indeed, he even frames the story within a factual context. The Prologue is clearly dated 1949 and depicts the reporter/narrator as recounting his visit to the Santa Clara convent, which was being converted into a luxury hotel and there, witnessing the opening of crypts and being witness to an amazing discovery in one of them:
“… una cabellera viva de un color de cobre intenso se derramo fuera de la cripta. El maestro de obra quiso sacarla por completa con la ayuda de sus oberos, y cuanto mas tiraban de ella mas larga y abundante parecía, hasta que salieron las ultimas hebras todavía prendidas a un cráneo de niña … extendida en el suelo, la caballera esplendida media veintidós metros con once centímetros.”
The narrator then tells of a mythical tale his grandmother spoke of when he was a child; the legend of “una marquesita de doce anos cuya cabellera le arrastraba como una cola de novia, que había muerto de mal de rabia.” The discovery made in the crypt puts a new twist on the legend. The discovery is factual evidence that the grandmother’s legend was not a mythical tale, after all, but history which, due to its incredulity, was told as fiction.
A new reporter, a source of authority and credibility, is the narrator of this fantastical tale; the reporter tells us that a corpse has spouted hair and that hair is a heavy mane of rich copper. We begin to wonder whether, indeed, any of this can be true. Throughout the narrative, this question constantly repeats itself, ultimately taking us to the point where we can no longer separate fact from fiction, history from myth. Marquez insists that this is history and, as recounted, we disturbingly suspect that this may, indeed, be fact/history.
Throughout the narrative, history mingles with myth and facts become coterminous with history. Shaw tells us that Marquez insists that he was writing facts and warns us against jumping to hasty conclusions regarding his treatment of them. On the literary and theoretical levels, we understand that history and facts were conveyed through the devices particular to magic realism. On another level, however, we come to understand that reality is far more complex than we can ever imagine it and that history speaks only of the believable facts, and excludes those which the generations could find unbelievable. As Shaw advices, no hasty conclusions regarding Marquez treatment of fact and history shall be made but we may, nonetheless, affirm that reality is like an iceberg whereby only an eight is visible to the naked eye, and the remainder is shrouded beneath icy and unfriendly deep waters.
Bibliography
Echevarria, Roberto Gonzales. Alejo Carpentier. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Flores, Angel. “Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction,” Hispania, 38 (1955).
Monegal, Rodríguez. “Lo Real y lo Maravilloso en El Reino de Este Mundo,” Revista Iberoamericana, 37(1971).
Posaa-Carbo, Eduardo. ”Fiction as History: The bananeras and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 30, 2(1998.
Roh, Franz. German Art in the 20th Century . New York: Greenwich, 1968.
Shaw, Donald. A Companion to Modern Spanish American Fiction. London: Tamesis, 2002.
Toukey, Ann. “Notes on Involuntary Memory in Proust.” The French Review, 42, 3 (Spring, 1974).
Zuluaga, .Conrado. Puerta abierta a Gabriel Garcia Marquez: aproximacion a la obra del Nobel colombiana. Barcelona: casiopea, 2001.
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Spanish Festivals & Fiestas
Spanish Festivals and Fiestas are a celebration of what it means to be a Spaniard to be a part of and to share a common National and Local History and Culture…so with that said let’s explore some of the many celebrations that take place throughout this colorful country.
The year of Spanish festivals and fiestas celebration starts off in January with La Fiesta de la Reconquista (Festival of the Conquest) in Granada to celebrate the taking back of the city from the Moors in 1492 with a number of parades outside the historic city hall. On January 5th in most cities around Spain the procession of the Three Kings takes place to celebrate the arrival of the Three Wise Men in the afternoon before Epiphany day, bringing presents for children. On January 17th Dia de San Antonio Abad patron of the animals is celebrated throughout the Peninsula followed by the feast of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian on January 20th when the whole town of San Sebastian dresses up in celebration. On January 29th Fiesta de San Valero patron saint of the city of Zaragoza where locals and visitors share pieces of a giant Roscon (a sweet pastry made out of flour, sugar, milk, eggs).
February
Spanish Festivals in February start off with Carnival being celebrated throughout Spain, Madrid’s Carnival was revived in 1976 after being prohibited under Franco’s Regime. It might not be one of the bigger ones but it still a lot of fun, I remember going with one of my many cousins to many of the celebrations especially the one that ends on Ash Wednesday with the traditional Burial of la Sardina (sardine) Parade where all participants are dressed in black and carry a cardboard sardine in a coffin to be buried at La Fuente de los Pajaritos symbolizing the beginning of Lent. If you are looking to be a part of the Carnaval celebrations the biggest ones take place in Barcelona, Cadiz, Jerez and Sitges. Throughout the month of February you can attend The Seville Tapas Fair, the city of Sevilla devotes itself to catering to tapa’s lovers providing a perfect opportunity for visitors to sample some authentic Spanish Cuisine. Towards the end of the month the Jerez Flamenco Festival takes place starting on February 25th and ending on March 12th . Here thousands of flamenco students gather each year to attend workshops and classes, a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from the masters. Even if you are not lucky enough to get a student invitation if you love flamenco it is still worth making the journey to view some of the most famous bailaores of our time perform at the Teatro Villamarta.
March
Spain has fiestas and festivals throughout the month on March 15th we have Las Fallas in Valencia a week long succession of parades and other activities leading to its culmination on March 19th , the Night of Fire, with the burning of the giant papier mache figures to chase away the demons of winter.
April
April has some of the biggest celebrations, Semana Santa or Holy Week the week before Easter, lasting 10 days and finishing on Domingo de la Ressurreccion (Easter Sunday) most impressive in Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Cuenca, Jerez and Zamora. Feria de Abril in Sevilla takes place this year from April 3rd to May 8th, a colorful celebration that includes Parades of Horses in which local girls dressed up in flamenco costumes are paraded in beautiful carriages, performances of flamenco, bullfighting and prancing on the streets. We cannot forget the Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christian) celebrations that take place in various cities along the Spanish coast most famous is Alcoy, Alicante where the celebrations take place between the 22nd and 24th of April reliving the battle between Moors and Christians that took place in the area many centuries ago. Ending the month on the 27th of April we have the celebration of La Virgen de Monserrat in Cataluña declared patron saint of Cataluña by Pope Leo XIII.
May
In early May takes place the Feria del Queso in Trujillo where you can savor chesses not only from the area but the world. In mid May takes place the Spanish Festival La Feria del Caballo in Jerez an event visited by thousands which highlights the city’s equestrian heritage. The Fair also includes a large number of bullfighting and flamenco shows. During this month there is a low key event that takes places in Cordoba called Concursos de los Patios or Popular Patios Competition held during the second or sometimes the third week of May residents of the old quarter of the city open their private family courtyards to visitors. In the meantime Madrid celebrates de fiesta de San Isidro marking the start of the bullfighting season, a weeklong celebration with parades, music, dancing food fairs and bullfights. At the end of May beginning of June takes place the Spanish Festival la Romeria del Rocio in the region of Andalucia a pilgrimage either on foot or carriage to the shrine of the Virgen del Rocio (Virgin of the Dew) in Huelva.
June
In early June we find the Christian Holiday of Corpus Christi, meaning the body of Christ, with some of the largest processions taking place in Barcelona, Valencia, Toledo, Malaga, Sevilla and Granada. We cannot forget the Sunday after Corpus Christi where an unusual Spanish Festival celebration takes place in Castrillo De Murcia, El Colacho, better known as the Baby Jumping Festival. Babies are laid out on mattresses and grown men dressed as devils jump over the infants for the purpose of cleansing them of all evil doings. In Huelva we have La Romeria del Rocio. The arrival of the summer solstice is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks in places like the feast de Las Hogueras de San Juan en Alicante, a smaller version of the Fallas de Valencia, Las Noches de San Juan or the Night of St. John in Zaragoza where bonfires blaze and fireworks are lit while families and friends gather on the streets to celebrate, and Barcelona’s Noches de San Juan or La Nit de Sant Joan where thousands gather on the beach to light bonfires and celebrate until dawn . If you like to participate in a unique celebration head to Haro, La Rioja for the the Spanish Festival celebration that takes place on June 29th when locals and tourist alike prepare themselves for the wine fight of their lives. The combat goes on for several hours until around noon when the crowd makes it way to the town center for a sort of mini running of the bulls.
July
As we know July’s famous Spanish Festival celebration takes place in Pamplona with the running of the bulls (Fiesta de San Fermin) which always begins on the 7th of July and runs for a week. Cordoba hosts EL Festival de la Guitarra de Cordoba or Guitar Festival of Cordoba from the 6th to the 25th of July an International event which features many masters of the guitar. La Fiesta del Carmen takes place along coastal towns such as Nerja and Fuengirola on July 16th to commemorate la Virgen del Carmen patron of sailor’s and fisherman. Towards the end of July the 24th and 25th takes place La Fiesta de Santiago or St. James Feast in Santiago de Compostela where the faithful gather to see the great Botafumeiro or huge incense burner in the cathedral representing the King’s Offering to the Apostle and see the incredible fireworks display at the Plaza of Obradoiro. If you love jazz you might consider attending the San Sebastian Jazz Festival or Jazzaldia at the end of July 21st through the 25th performances take place daily at the Old Town’s Plaza de La Trinidad.
August
Spanish Festivals in August begin at Vitoria’s weeklong celebration of the Festival de La Virgen Blanca(White Virgin) starts on August 4th and runs through the 9th culminating with a human style puppet that sores above the crowd in the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca. There is also La Fiesta de Agua celebrating San Roque in the afternoon hoses, hydrants and buckets are brought it for a major water fight. You can also attend the Strong Men Competition and sample lots of Basque food during Bilbao’s Aste Nagusia celebration that runs for nine days starting on the 20th of the month. Let’s not forget the famous La Tomatina Festival in Bunol, Valencia on August 31st where you will have a throwing tomato fight with very little rules…don’t fret about getting ammunition as the ripe fruit is brought in by truck loads just for the occasion.
September
September Spanish Festivals start with La Fiesta de La Vendimia (Jerez Sherry Festival) on the first Saturday of the month in Jerez celebrating the Sherry grape harvest, including the blessing and ceremonial crushing of a basket of grapes. Meanwhile on the second Sunday of the month the Fiesta del Arroz (Rice Festival) de Valencia commences with its international paella competition. All the while in Barcelona the celebration de La Merce, its main annual festival, takes place featuring human towers some as high as 10 stories, fireworks, processions and dance performances. Then on September 21st the San Sebastian Film Festival begins an international renowned event.
October
October starts with a surfing competition in the Basque Coast the ASP World Tour Billabong Pro. October 12th is the day of La Hispanidad, this day there are celebrations taking place throughout the Peninsula commemorating the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World in 1492. Also in October the celebration de La Virgen del Pilar which lasts for seven days, among the events that take place are bullfights, fireworks and concerts. Foodies flock to Galicia’s O Grove Fiesta de Exaltacion del Marisco Seafood Festival to taste the delicious Galician shellfish. If you are not into shellfish you can opt to attend the Saffron Rose Festival in Consuegra to celebrate the harvesting of the flower.
November
The 1st day of November is Dia de Todos Los Santos or All Saints Day celebrated everywhere with one of the biggest celebrations taking place in Cadiz. In Cantabria the Festival de Orujo takes place with a lot of eating and drinking taking place, locals dress up in their traditional costumes and there is music and dancing. Towards the end of the month and in anticipation of the Christmas Holidays the Christmas Market is setup in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid where over 100 booths are set up selling anywhere from religious artifacts to bizarre costumes to celebrate el Dia de Los Santos Inocentes on December 28th.
December
Christmas in Spain is big, on December 21st the Hogueras (bonfires) de Granada and Jaen take place where attendees jump through bonfires to protect themselves from illness. The Christmas lottery draw takes place on December 22nd a tradition originating all the way back to 1812. Christmas is a very family oriented holiday in Spain starting with the Nochebuena (New Night) on December 24th , I remember those evenings like they were yesterday our whole family (a big one 25+) would get together and celebrate by eating, drinking and being together. December 28th is El dia de los Santos Inocentes or the equivalent of April’s Fools. December ends with a huge celebration Noche Vieja (Old Night) and its tradition of eating the 12 grapes of good luck. As the New Year approaches families gather in front of the TV with their grapes and at 12 seconds to midnight the countdown begins, each time the clock in La Puerta del Sol in Madrid rings a new second every Spaniard eats a great for a total of 12 grapes, a tradition believed to bring you good luck in the New Year!
This article was written by Isabel Rodriguez from http://www.spaintravelunleashed.com a site where you will find a Spain Travel Guide where you can Discover Spain with a Spaniard, learn Spain Facts, Tour through English articles on and from Spanish people, their culture, food, recipes, news, festivals, travel…
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