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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Phd at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/109065/ Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications SHARED SOT.TTODE: RE-IHTBGRAT OH OF A FRACTURED PSYCHE A comparative study of the works of Gabriel García Márquez and Wilson Harris Patricia Murray Submitted for the degree of Ph.D at the University of Warwick Centre For British and Comparative Cultural Studies August, 1994 SYSOPSIS This thesis provides an analysis of the works of Gabriel García Márquez and Wilson Harris in the cross-cultural context of the Americas, emphasizing the importance of myth as well as history in their attempts to explore the hybridity of post-colonial identity. García Márquez' phrase “la soledad compartida" is interpreted as the process of a spiritual Journey in which both writers articulate the quest to re­ integrate the fractured American psyche. Historical and political contexts are provided to focus the nature of fragmentation, and insights from the new physics to re-iterate the presence of the 'real world' which continues to inform both writers in their experiments with linguistic and literary conventions. Realism is seen as insufficient for defining the reality of the Americas and a framework of magical realism is offered as a more appropriate context in which to approach both writers. My methodology is cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, referring to a variety of Latin American and Caribbean writers, and drawing on history, myth, psychology, and physics, as well as debates about post-colonialism and postmodernism, to support my argument that Harris and García Márquez present a vision of the world in which there is creative hope for the future. GQITEITS Prefatory note: i Foreword: ill Introduction: IDENTITY AND ACADEMIC STUDY 1 PART ONE: 'CONTEXTS' Chapter 1) REALITY I: HISTORY (a> History and Modern Political Reality 21 (b> Literary Response - Literature of Commitment 26 <c> Discovery and Conquest 53 <d> Limitations of Realism 64 Notes: 68 Chapter 2) REALITY II: MYTH (a> 'Flower and Song' of Amerindia 74 (b> The Logic of Wings: Afro-American Realities 85 <c> The Unconscious and Mythical Archetypes 96 Notes: 105 Chapter 3) MARVELLOUS AMERICAN REALITY (a) Magical Realism 110 (b> Textual Analysis: Hombres de maíz, The Bridge of Beyond. La montaña es algo más que una Inmensa estepa verde 115 Notes: 125 PART TVD: ' THYTS' Chapter 4) DRAMAS OF TRANSITION (a) Wilson Harris (i) Transitionary Discourses 128 <ii> Journeys of Transition/ Into the Unconscious 133 (b) Gabriel García Márquex Ci) Transitionary Frameworks 144 <ii> States of Transition/ States of Consciousness 151 Notes: 162 Chapter 5) SOLITUDE AND THE QUEST FOR INTEGRATIOff 167 Rotes: 191 Chapter 6) SHARED SOLITUDE AND PSYCHIC RENEWAL 194 Rotes: 222 Chapter 7) COLLECTIVE CORSCIOUSNESS ARP THE RATURE OF PSYCHIC VHOLERESS 225 Rotes: 244 Conclusion: CARRIVAL: A TIRE FORCELEBRATION 246 Rotes: 249 Bibliography: 250 PREFATORY NOTE Presentation of this thesis has followed 1CHRA guidelines in conjunction with the guidelines of the Warwick Graduate School. The following note is intended to clarify some of the conventions used. Full details of each text are given in the first footnote reference; later references are abbreviated and full details appear in the bibliography. Page numbers are used with extended references to the same text, and with ongoing references to García Márquez' Cien afina de soledad and Harris' Carnival. The Infinite Rehearsal and The Four Banks of the River of Space. Harris' trilogy has been collected as The Carnival Trilogy but my references are to the separate Faber and Faber editions. In references to all texts the date of the edition I have used is given, with the original date of publication in square brackets. Where there are multiple places of publication the first named place is listed, except where two separate publishers are in collaboration and then each place is given. Where publishers have changed place of publication over the years, the place on the edition used is indicated. All translators are noted where appropriate; where different parts of a single text have been translated by separate people and at different times the editorial note in that text must be consulted. Terminology remains a problem for the post-colonial critic and certain categories are inevitably Eurocentric and inadequate. The terms Amerindian, native Indian, and indigenous peoples are used throughout but specific cultures are identified wherever possible. The use of the term 'primitive' is not intended to signify inferiority or simply an 'early' stage of civilization; though this teleological bias may be present in some of the quotations (eg. from Jung and Lévi-Strauss) it should be clear from the context that I am using the term to distinguish an alternative cultural framework to that of the modern European. Though Euro-American is written in accordance with the conventions of capitalization, Afro-american is used to signify the focus on the first part of the compound, and consistent with the use of Afro-hispanic. Though the term African American is more generally preferred now, terms such as Afro-Saxon continue to expose the partiality of all such categories. In order to reproduce the accent on initial capitals this typescript makes the accented letter look smaller than the rest; though this is clear with Alvaro, the use of Úrsula may look ambiguous. There are three versions of Harris' 'History Fable and Myth in the Caribbean and Guianas' and the most recently revised version in Explorations has been used, except where reference is made to extracts not reproduced here in which case the reader is directed to the original Georgetown publication. The bibliography references all texts and authors that have been cited directly in the thesis, with a division into 'Primary' and 'Secondary' texts. All texts by Harris and García Márquez, including essays and interviews, are listed as 'Primary Texts.' An indication of the wider research, especially in the areas of history, politics, myth and critical theory, is included as 'Secondary Texts.' I would like to signal particularly the work of feminist and post-colonial theorists that have increasingly informed my thinking and supported my commitment to the subject. FOREWORD This thesis began as an attempt to cross-culturalize the study of Latin American and Caribbean literature in the wider context of the Americas, and by focusing on two key writers from the respective regions to demonstrate how each could be used to provide insights into the other. Recent years have seen a variety of works published that now sustain and extend the area of study. José David Saldivar's The Dialéctica nf Pur America; Genealogy. Cultural Critique, and Literary History (Duke University Press, 1991) and Antonio Benitez-Rojo's The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Pnstmnriern Condition, translated by James Maraniss (Duke University Press, 1992), for example, reveal a similar focus on hybridity and interdisciplinarity, the latter's use of the new physics as a relevant context in which to approach the literary output of the Americas being particularly relevant to my own. Recent novels such as Lawrence Scott's Wltchbroom (Oxford: Heinemann, 1992) and Alfredo Véa Jr.'s La Maravilla (New York: Plume, 1994) reveal Trinidadian and Chicano writers experimenting with, and extending the field of, magical realism, confirming it as an appropriate genre in which to explore the hybridity of consciousness. Michael Bell's recent book on Garcia Márquez, Gabriel Garcia Márquez: Solitude and Solidarity (London: Macmillan, 1993), also goes some way towards reinvesting the importance of solitude as a means to communication and integration, concluding that: 'Márquez' containing narrative, like his fiction at large, shows that solitude may be a necessary condition, and an exemplary form of solidarity.” (p.146) It is my hope that critics will continue to respond to opposites as facets of the same reality, to the value of cross-cultural study, and that this thesis will make some contribution to it. - 1 - Introduction: IDENTITY AMD ACADEMIC STUDY Wilson Harris and Gabriel García Márquez are both writers of the Americas. Colonialism has left them a language barrier and academic study uses this barrier to define one a Caribbean, the other a Latin American writer. But the distinction becomes absurd when we remember the geographical proximity of Colombia and Guyana and the native history and legends which they share. Harris uses the term •Americas' and in Tradition, the Writer and Society explains that: "When I speak of the West Indies I am thinking of overlapping contexts of Central and South America as well."1 García Márquez defines himself as a Caribbean writer and his early writings reveal a profound identification with, and indeed a championing of, the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Although it has often been remarked that the narratives of Wilson Harris resemble more the 'magical realism' of Latin America than they do a tradition of Caribbean literature, no specific study has been carried out in this area and it is hoped that this thesis will reveal the value of a
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