Gabriel Garcih Mfirquez Receives the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature

Number 16 Awil 16, 1984

It surprises most readers of Current But in these exercises, we perceive Contents@ (C@ ) to learn that ISP our role as that of an investigative jour- covers the arts and humanities litera- nalist. With considerable help from ture. Obviously, readers of CC/Arts & many 1S1 colleagues, we have discussed Humanities (CC/A&H) know that we the significant work of each of the Nobel do. Nevertheless, as far as these essays prizewinners in science, economics, and are concerned, CC/A&H readers must literature since 1979. l-s We are covering often feel that we neglect their interests. the 1982 awards in five separate The fact is, however, that our readers in essays.4-6 Recently, we discussed the the sciences outnumber those in the hu- work of economist George J. Stigler.T manities by at least 100 to one, This ratio This concluding essay for the 1982 may not be characteristic of the typical awards discusses the prize in literature. academic institution, but it is a fact of Garcia Mfirquez was honored for his life we cannot ignore. stories about the imaginary village of I say thk by way of introducing thk Macondo. These stories reflect, with be- atypical essay about an important liter- wildering, surrealistic, yet convincing ary figure. From long experience, I have authenticity, the human riches and pov- learned that even the most single-mind- erty of Latin America. g ed organic chemist or engineer may ap- The Nobel prize in literature is award- preciate an occasional reminder that ed annually by the Swedish Academy in there is something in the world besides Stockholm. The academy is the literary science or technology. Furthermore, I counterpart of the Royal Swedish Acad- like to remind them that there are im- emy of Sciences, which presents the portant connections between the two awards in chemistry and physics. The cultures. And besides, 1S1 is also the Swedwh Academy’s literature selections purveyor of A rts & Humanities Citation have sometimes been the subject of criti- Index ‘“ (A&HCI ‘“ ) and Social Sciences cism and debate in the past. Certainly, Citation Index@ (SSCP ). These tools not all of the literature prizewinners are permit us to study scholars in a unique among those writers most often cited in way. They also provide me with the the scholarly literature. But it should be hubris to comment upon a figure such as pointed out that the output of even great Gabriel JOS6 Garcia Mfmquez. Of artists and writers may be more erratic course, there will be some readers who than that of Nobel laureates in the sci- will feel that this essay is no more daring ences, who are generally known for the than my forays into other fields in which steady production of important articles I am not an expert. throughout their careers. For example,

113 Elias Canetti, the 1981 literature prize- most 120 cited the English transit- winner, published his first novel, Die ions, whale the rest were divided among Mersdung (Auto-da-F6),9 in 1935. But French, Itafian, Russian, German, and between 1938 and 1960, he published al- Portuguese versions. Over 80 citations most nothing at all. 10It is unsurprising, came from journals published in therefore, that he did not appear in our Spanish. study of the 100 most-cited literary fig- The number of citations to Garc;a ures of the twentieth century. 1I M5rquez’s work is unusually high for a But the Nobel prize itself often serves literary author. But it is especially so for as a spur to scholarship concerning the one publishing primarily in Spanish, winner. Indeed, it is common for literary since neither the A&HCI nor the SSCI authors to become increasingly cited as claims to be comprehensive for Spanish- their work is studied and appreciated by language journals. Even so, his best- scholars. Thus, literature Laureates may known work, Cien A7ios de Soledad eventually become highly cited. In Ca- (One Hundred Years of Solitude), netti’s case, most of the 100 citations to 1967,12 which has sold ten million copies his work came in the period just prior to in 32 languages, has been cited over 175 and immediately after his selection for times since 1967 in various editorials, in- the literature prize. This isnot to imply terviews, critiques, book reviews, notes, that citation data do not have validity in and biographical items. One hundred of the humanities. Among the 100 most- these citations were to the Spanish-lan- cited literary authors in our last study, 11 guage edition, 65 to the English, and the 24 have already been awarded the Nobel rest divided among the French, Ger- prize. Many more are still eligible. man, Italian, and Russian versions. Over No elaborate explanations, however, 50 came from Spanish-language jour- are required to justify the selection of nals. In the discussion that follows, we Garcia M4rquez as the 1982 literature have indicated the number of citations prizewinner. You might even say that we received by each of Garc{a M6rquez’s told you so much in previous essays. The novels and certain of his other works. world’s best-selling author in the Spanish All data were obtained from the A&HCI language, Garcia M5rquez was identi- and SSCI data bases. fied as eligible for the Nobel prize in our Garcfa Mfirquez was born on March study of the twentieth century’s most- 6, 1928, in the village of Aracataca, near cited literary figures. 1J the northern Caribbean coast of Colom- Much of Garc{a Mfirquez’s writing is bia. The eldest of 16 chddren, he was political satire, and has aroused interest raised until age eight by his maternal in scholars throughout the world. Not grandparents. His grandmother’s stones surprisingly then, citations to his work of ghosts, spirits, and ancestors, com- are not restricted to scholars in the hu- bined with the military tales of his grand- manities. Social scientists often refer to father, a retired army colonel, greatly in- his stones as well. Thus, according to fluenced Garcia M6rquez’s develop- A&HCI and SSCI, Garcfa Mtirquez has ment as a writer. been explicitly cited over 300 times since His first efforts at writing came at the 1966, the earliest year for which such age of five, when he was given a toy data are available. Almost 20 percent of printing press. Little hindered by his in- these citations were found in social ability to spell, Garcia M6rquez turned sciences journals. Over 175 were to the out a page of gibberish daily, which he original Spanish-language editions. Al- sold to his indulgent grandfather for one

114 centavo. Later, he began to write down the tuneral of a reclusive village physi- his grandparents’ stones in comic strip cian and the desire of the town’s citizens form. In high school, Garcia M&rquez to avenge themselves on his corpse for a acquired a reputation as a writer, al- wrong they believe he committed. Ac- though he “never in fact wrote anything” cording to many literary critics, the of consequence, as he put it in a 1981 in- complexity of Leaf Sto rm’s narrative and terview for the literary journal Paris Re- its gothic phrasing and atmosphere are view. 13Still, he continued, “If there was clearly Faulknerian. 16-18So too is the a pamphlet to be written or a letter of imaginary village of Macondo, intro- petition, I was the one to do it because I duced in this story, which is often com- was supposedly the writer. ” It wasn’t un- pared to Faulkner’s “Yoknapatawpha til Garcia M6rquez read Franz Kafka’s County.” However, according to Peru- The Metamorphosis14 in 1946, while at- vian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, author tending the University of Bogota, that he of perhaps the most searching and au- began writing seriously. His first short thoritative critical study of Garcia M5r- story was published a year later in the quez’s work to date, 19Garc;a Mfirquez’s literature supplement of the Bogotfi stories are far more accessible to the newspaper El Espectador. average reader than many of Faulkner’s On April 9, 1948, the assassination in works. They benefh from an exuber- Bogota of a national political leader ant sense of humor wholly absent touched off a civil war that sputtered for from Faulkner’s stories. 19Vargas Llosa, a decade. Referred to as la vio[encia, the a great novelist in his own right, is war bled the country and took the lives best known for his novels, The Green of perhaps 300,000 people. The war af- House~Q and Conversation in the fected Garcfa M6rquez deeply, politiciz- Cathedral. 21 ing his writing and serving as source ma- While writing Leaf .Storm in 1955, terial for three books, including One Garcfa M5rquez moved back to Bogotfi Hundred Years of Solitude. and took a job as a film critic and report- The war forced Garcfa M5rquez to er for EIEspectador, which continued to leave Bogot5 for Cartagena, where he publish his short stories over the years. resumed his studies and took up journal- During the year of Leaf Storm’s publica- ism. In 1950, he moved to Barranquilla, tion, he was assigned to a beat in Europe where he wrote a column for the daily El that eventually took him to Paris. There Heraldo. The experience of rubbing he wrote La Mala Hera (In Evil Hour),22 elbows with other journalists and writers which he made little effort to have pub- in local caf~s and bookstores continued lished. (An edited version appeared in his literary development. It was during 1962; an authorized edition did not ap- this period that he first read the authors pear until 1966. ) In Evil Hour is a story of who were to influence his later writing: political oppression in a small town dur- William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, .ng the days of la vio[encia. (We could Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce. !ind only a few dozen citations to this The influence of Faulkner is evident in tvork, possibly because our data is the first of Garcfa M~rquez’s major !imited to the post-1966 period. ) One of works, a novella entitled La Ho ja rasca :he characters in the book is a retired (Leaf Storm, first published in 1955; mmy colonel who spends his days await- translated into English and published in ng the arrival of his pension in the mail. the collection Leaf Storm and Other rhe character so intrigued Garcia M6r- Stories15 in 1979). The story centers on ~uez that he put In Evil Hour aside to

115 write a novella devoted to the colonel. which rose with Rebeca, are now lost The resulting work, El Coronel No Tiene [orever. Quien Le Escriba (No One Writes to the More recent works by Garcia Mfir- Colonel) ,23 was first published in a Co- quez include: a novella entitled La In- lombian magazine, Mito, in 1958, and as rrer’ble y Triste Histo n“a de la C6 ndida a book in 1961. After finishing it in 1957, 10-6ndira y de S. Abuela Desalmada2~ he went to Caracas, Venezuela, where [The Incredible and Sad Tale of Znno- he worked for various periodicals and cent Er6ndira and Her Hea rt[ess Grand- continued to write short stories. mother, 1972, republished in 1978 in the Although Leaf Storm and Garcia M5r- collection, Innocent Er5ndira, and quez’s other early work had brought him Other Stories);z~ El Otoi70 del Patriarca recognition among critics as a writer of (The Autumn of the Patriarch, 1975);27 extraordinary talent, he had not yet at- and Cronica de una Muerte Anunciada tracted much attention outside literary (Chronicle of a Death Foretold),’2fi pub- circles. That changed, however, with lished in its entirety in the March 1983 the publication of One Hundred Years issue of Vanity Fair,zq and more recently of So[i~ude in 1967. In a 1973 interview in book form as well. Autumn of the with William Kennedy for the A t~an- Patriarch has been cited in at least 75 tic ,24 he said that the complete first editorials, interviews, book reviews, cri- chapter of the book suddenly came to tiques, and notes since its publication. him while driving his car between Aca- Over 35 quoted the Spanish edition, and pulco and Mexico City, where he had 25 quoted the English translation. The moved in 1961 and where he still makes rest are divided among the French, Ital- his home. Upon his return home, he in- ian, and Russian editions. Almost 20 of structed his wife not to distract him with these came from journals published in any problems—especially concerning Spanish—undoubtedly only a fraction of the state of their finances—and shut the possible sources. Chronicle of a himself away eight to ten hours a day for Death Foretold, in spite of the recent the next 18 months. “1 didn’t know what date of its publication, has already re- my wife was doing, ” he said, “and I ceived more than 20 citations, of which didn’t ask any questions . ... We.. ,Iived as almost half were to the Spanish edition. if we had money, But when I was fin- In the humanities literature, the ma- ished writing, my wife said, ‘Did you jority of the articles citing Garcia Mfw- really finish it? We owe $12,000.’ “24 quez’s work consists of book reviews, One Hundred Years of Solitude spans editorials, and interviews. A significant six generations of the Buend{a family, number also came from in-depth analy- founders of the mythical town of Ma- ses, commentaries, and essays concern- condo. In this spectral village, flower ing various facets of Garcia M5rquez’s petals fall like raindrops from the sky, work, For example, an article by Garcia children are born with little pigs’ tails, Mfirquez’s English translator, Gregory dictators seem immortal, and memory Rabassa, Queens College, New York, vanishes from one day to the next. In discusses the blending of the literary and one of the more memorable scenes in journalistic traditions in much of Garcfa the book, Rebeca Buend{a is levitated Mfirquez’s writings, and in Chronic[e of heavenward while folding bedsheets a Death Foretold in particular.J~ “What outdoors near her washline. Her sister- unites so much of Garcfa Mfmquez’s in-law can only grumble that the sheets, writing, ” according to Rabassa, “is the

116 sense of inexorability, -of fatefulness. burg, Virginia, dkcusses ritualistic Things often come to an end that has violence in society, and examines the been there all the while—in spite of what motif of cockfighting in Latin Ameri- might have been done to avoid it—and can Iiteraturels—inchsding Garcia M5r- often [do so] mysteriously and inexplica- quez’s No One Writes to the Colonel. An bly .. .. [Chronicle] shows many aspects essaysb by S. Meckled, University of of life and literature and how one is Essex, Colchester, England, in Crane essentially the same as the other: life imi- Bag, a literary review journal, examines tates art .“30 the psychological elements in One Hun- A 1981 article in Latin Amen”can Lit- dred Years of Solitude, Leaf Storm, erary Review by Gene H. Bell-Villada, Autumn of the Patriarch, and Garc;a Williams College, Williamstown, Massa- Mfirquez’s earliest short stories. One of chusetts, discusses the significance of these is the psychic split of the self by the the names of Garcia Mfsrquez’s charac- ego as a defense mechanism against the ters and his narrative pattems.jl Bell- fear of death. Villada notes that the repetition of A number of authors in the social sci- names in One Hundred Years of Soli- ences also refer to the works of Garc{a tude helps illustrate the personality traits Mfmquez. These include articles on the linking the book’s characters. Michael role of literature in Latin American and Sexson, Montana State University, Third World politics.1~-lg One article in Bozeman, argues that Garc;a Mfirquez’s Social Praxis by E. San Juan, Brooklyn juxtaposition of realism and fantasy College, New York, notes that literature denotes an attempt (o write in the style reflects the dynamic political processes of various former periods without adopt- in the developing countries .37 The rela- ing the cultural assumptions of those tionship between Latin America and the periods.lz A 1982 article by Eduardo developed world is explored in two other Gonzalez, Johns Hopkins University, articles,~~~l including another by Bell- Baltimore, Maryland, in Modern Lan- Villada. His paper dkcusses the commu- guage Notes, published by Johns Hop- nication gap between the intellectuals of kins, analyzes the structure of Garcia North and Latin America.qo The use of Mhrquez’s prose.sj literary works in teaching Latin Ameri- Many literary articles which cite Gar- can geography42 is discussed by Don R. cia M5rquez do not deal with strictly lit- Hey, University of Georgia, Athens, and erary concerns. Such articles include, Gary S. Elbow, Texas Tech University, for instance, a comparison of Garcfa Lubbock. The authors argue that prop- M&rquez’s treatment of death and erly selected literary works can spark mourning in One Hundred Years of Soli- student interest in regional geography. tude with the way death is experienced Fundamentally a storyteller in the tra- in the real world.3-4 It was written by dition of his grandparents, Garcfa M5r- Laurence M. and Laura Porter, both of quez stresses that he is not interested in Michigan State University, East Lan- conveying deep, hidden messages or in sing, for a special issue of Mosaic, a handing down moral judgments, but literary journal published by the Univer- simply in reporting the behavior of hk sity of Manitoba, Canada. The issue was characters. 13Thus, his early stones were devoted to topics concerning death and written for his friends. “In general, ” he dying. An article by Howard M. Fraser, told Pan> Review, “I think you usually College of William and Mary, Williams- do write for someone. When I’m writing,

117 I’m always aware that this friend is going notes, “Of contemporary Latin Ameri- to like this, or that another friend is go- can writers, Garcia Miirquez is probably ing to like that paragraph or chapter— the most accomplished. Certainly, he is always thinking of specific people.” ‘o at the forefront of the new, original But One Hundred Years of Solitude novelists coming out of Latin America has made writing “terribly hard work, today. “44 Rabassa &lieveS that the more so all the time, ” as he told journa- literature prize recognizes not only Gar- list Rita Guibert in an interview for her cfa M5rquez but also the entire group of book on major Latin American literary contemporary Latin American writers figures, entitled Seven Voice.s.~3 Much represented by Garcia M5rquez and of his difficulty stemmed from an acute others, such as Carlos Fuentes and the awareness that, after the astonishktg late Julio Cort5zar. “Garcfa M2irquez success of One Hundred Years of So(i- and the others have taken the novel to tude, he was no longer writing only for places it had never gone before,” says friends, but for millions of strangers. Rabassa. “The Latin American novel This upsets and inhibits him so much had not really come into its own until that “every letter I write weighs me this group—and G arcfa Mlirqu ez in par- down, you can’t imagine how much.”4s ticular—revolutionized it.’’f’f Indeed, in his interview with Paris Re- This completes our look at the 1982 view, Garcia Mfirquez confessed, “On a Nobel prizewinners in science and litera- good working day, working from nine ture. In the near future we will begin our o’clock in the morning until two or three series on the 1983 Nobel prizes, in- in the afternoon, the most I can write is a cluding the literature award to William short paragraph of four or five lines— K. Gelding. which I usually tear up the next day. ”ls ***** One hopes that in spite of these diffi- culties, Garcia Mfirquez can continue to My thanks to Stephen A. Bonaduce write of the magical Latin America he and Terri Freedman for their help in the created almost 30 years ago. As Rabassa preparation of this essay, ,$[w,s,

REFERENCES

1. Garfield E. Are the 1979 prizewinners OJ Nobel CIUS,V:’,%0.v Y of un inJmmmilon sci@ntMt. Philadelphia: 1S1 Press, 1981, Vol. 4. p. 64)%1’7. 2, ------The [980 Nobel pri~ewinner$. Emu.w o]”an information .s

118 12. Garc+ M5rquez G. Cien aiios de soledad. (One hundred years of solitude. ) Buenos Aires: !Mtorial Sudamericana, 1967.351 p. 13. Stone P H. The art of fiction LXIX: Gabriel Garcia M5rquez, Pans Rev. (82):44-73, 1981, 14, Kafka F. The metanrorphosi$. New York: Vanguard Press, 1946.98 p, 15. Garcfir M6rquez G. Leaf storm and other stones. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. 146 p. 16. Kiely R. Memory and prophecy, illusion and reafity are mixed and made to look the same, Review of “One hundred years of solitude” by G. Garcfa Mfirquez. NY Times Book Rev. 8 March 1970, p. 5; 24. 17. Chrfat R. A novel mythologizes a whole continent. Review of “One hundred years of solitude” by G. Garc~a M6rquez. Common wea[ 91:622-3, 1970. 18, Vargas Lloaa M. A morbid prehfitog (the early stories). Books Abroad 47:451-60, 1973. 19. ------Garcfi Mfirquez: hi$torrh de un deicidio. (Story of a deicide. ) Barcelona: Barral, 1971.667 p. 20, ------The green house. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.405 p. 21. ------Conversation in the cathedml, New York: Harper& Row, 1975.601 p. 22. GarcfA M6rquez G. La mala horn. (In evil hour. ) Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 1%6, 198 p. 23. ------El coronel no tiene quien le escriba. (No one wn”tes to tbe colonel.) Medellfm Aguirre, 1%1. 90 p. 24. Kennedy W. The yellow trolley car in Barcelona, and other visions. At[antic 231:50-9, 1973. 25. Garck Mhrquez G. La inc.efbfe y triste historia de la cfindida Er6ndim y de m afwela desalmnda, (The incredible and sad tale of innocent Er#ndira and her heartless grandmother. ) Barcelona: Barral, 1972, 163 p. 26. ------Innocent Etindim, and cdher stcmie$. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. 183p. 27. ------El otoiTo del patriarca. (The autumn of the patriarch. ) Barcelona: Plaza & Janes, S. A., 1975.271 p. 28, ------Chronicle of a death foretold. New York: Ballantine, 1984.143 p. 29. ------Chronicle of a death foretold. Vanity Fair 46(l): 122-224, 1983. 30. Rahasaa G. Garth M6rquez’s new book: literature or journalism? World Lit. Today 56:48-51, 1982. 31. Beff-VfUa& G H. Names and narrative pattern in One hundred yecw$ of so/imde. Lat. Amer. Lif. Rev. 9( 18):37-46, 1981. 32. Sexson M. Post modem paradigms: the enchantment of realism in tbe fiction of Italo Calvino and Gabriel Garc[a M6rquez. J. Sot. Bio/. Struct. 6:115-21, 1983. 33. Gonzilez E. Beware of gift-bearing tales: reading Garc;a M~rquez according to Mauss. MLN—Modem Lang. Notes 97:347-64, 1982. 34, Porter L M & Porter L. Relations with the dead in Cien afios de scdedud. Mosaic—J. Interdiscipf. Study Lil. 1S 119-27, 1982. 35, Fraser H M. The cockfight motif in Spanish-American literature. Revista Interamericana Bibliogr.—Inter-A merican Revie w Bibliogr. 31:514-23, 1981. 36. Meckled S. Tbe theme of the double: an essential element throughout Garcfa Mfirquez works. Cmrre Bag 6(2):108-17, 1982. 37. San Juan E. Literature and revolution in the Third World. Social Pmxis 6( 1/2):19-34, 1979. 38. Mens L 1. Bibliograf{a anotada sobre e] ciclo de la violencia en la Iiteratura Colombian. (Annotated bibliography on the cycle of violence in Colombian literature.) Lat. Amer. Res. Rev. 13(3):95-107, 1978. 39. MIJenky E S. Lateinamerika und die Dritte Welt, (Latin America and the Thkd World. ) Europa-Archiv 32:441-52, 1977. 40. Beff-VfUada G H. Two Americas, two worldviews, and a widening gap. Monthly Rev. 34(5):37-43, 1982. 41. Vargashfdakgo R. United States and Latin America under President Carter. Revista Politics [ntermrcional ( 155):7-43, 1978. 42, Hoy D R & Elbow G S. The use of literary works in teaching Latin American geography. J. Geogr, 75:556-69, 1976. 43. Gufbert R. Seven voice,. New York: Knopf, 1973.436 p. 44, Rsbassa G. Telephone communication. 20 March 1984.

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