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The Kingdom of This World
Henri Christophe
AuthorAlejo Carpentier
Original titleEl reino de este mundo
TranslatorHarriet de Onís
LanguageSpanish
GenreHistorical novel
Magic Realism
PublisherEdición y Distribución Iberoamericana de Publicaciones (Spanish)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (English)
Publication date
1949
Publication placeCuba
Published in English
1957
Media typeHardcover and paperback
Pages198 (Spanish)
190 (English)
ISBN[[Special:BookSources/ISBN+970-749-012-8+%28Spanish%29%3Cbr+%2F%3EISBN+0374521972+%28English%29 |ISBN 970-749-012-8 (Spanish)
ISBN 0374521972 (English)]] Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

The Kingdom of This World (Template:Lang-es) is a novel by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier, first published in 1949, and translated into English in 1957. It tells the story of Haiti before, during, and after the Haitian Revolution. The central character Ti Noël serves as a connecting thread, as he witnesses the occurrences recounted in the novel. Carpentier's work has been influenced by his own personal multi-cultural experience, other authors, and by his passion for the arts such as theater. The novel stems from the author’s desire to retrace the roots and history of the New World. This work's historical content is embedded with magical realism,[1] hence it is an important novel in the development of magical realism in Caribbean and Latin American literature.

Throughout The Kingdom of This World, the different perceptions of reality that arise due to cultural differences between the various characters are emphasized and contrasted. The themes that appear in this work include hybridization, nature, voodoo, ethnicity, history and destiny, confusion, violence, and sexuality. The author's style is a mixture of history and fiction and involved the use of repetition in order to emphasize the cyclical nature of events. This work was overall well-received and much attention has been paid to Carpentier's inclusion of magical realism in the novel, however some aspects of his style have been ignored by the academic community.[2]

Background

The Author

Alejo Carpentier was born in Havana, Cuba on December 26, 1904.[3] He subsequently moved to France in 1933 (at the age of 29) and returned to Cuba from six years later, in 1939.[4] Once in Cuba, Carpentier joined a group of young writers whose goal was to establish a literature faithful to the New World, by means of recovering origins, history, and tradition.[5] In 1943, he travelled to Haiti,[6] where he was made aware of Dominique Hyppolyte’s play, Le Torrent, about the Haitian Revolution, which featured a character named Ti Noël.[7] As The Kingdom of This World coincides with Carpentier's return to Cuba, it is very much influenced by the author's re-encounter with himself and his origins.[8]

Map of Haiti

The Setting

The Kingdom of This World takes place prior to, during, and after the Haitian Revolution which led to the declaration of Haitian independence in 1804.[9] This revolution was a turning point in global history because it was unthinkable and therefore challenged the prejudices of its time.[10] Through this revolution, Haitians became the second nation to break from its European colonizer (following America, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776).[11] The Haitian revolution differed from the American one however, as it involved the formation of a new national identity.[12] Unlike in America, the entire social and economic order that had been put in place through the practice of plantation slavery in Haiti had to be transformed.[13]
In contrast to the intense single character focus of his first novel, ¡Ecue-Yamba-O!, Carpentier offers a diversified understanding of black society and their beliefs in The Kingdom of This World. There exists remarkable respect for accuracy on all sides including historical facts, character names, place names, and even street names.[14] This adds to the key blend of marvellous fantasy and historical accuracy.

Influences

Other Authors

Carpentier was influenced by a number of other authors. Jean Price Mars’s Ainsi parla l’oncle presents two arguments that Carpentier applied to his historical approach: firstly, from the perspective of a Haitian peasant, the Revolution did nothing more than replace leaders, since the exploitation continued; secondly, Price Mars assumes the authenticity of the belief in African gods, in contrast with a shallow Catholicism.[15] William Seabrook’s The Magic Island made connections between religion and history and was considered a beautiful book by Carpentier.[16]

Carpentier was a great admirer of Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes, having cited him in a number of different texts throughout his career.[17] The Prologue begins with a quote from Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, which is subsequently mentioned, with a focus on the character of Rutilio.[18] The mention of Rutilio is noteworthy, as the episode has been of interest to critics due to its magical subject matter, concerning lycanthropy.[19] Both works feature a distant and exotic land where the marvellous is present by means of metamorphoses, and viewed from the characters’ perspective.[20]

Theater

Theater has also greatly influenced Alejo Carpentier's work.[21] In all his work, Carpentier uses the characters he creates to explore the notions of subjectivity and identity, analyzing the way in which individuals see themselves and others within cultural settings.[22] In order to achieve such an analsis, Carpentier makes use of spectatorship: his characters perceive a spectacle in alterable ways which parallel their alterable ways of experiencing the world.[23] Spectacle situations are also sometimes used by Carpentier as a tool for the characters to reframe and rethink the world,[24] as well as to establish individual and group identity.[25]

Front view of Sans-Souci Palace
Front view of Sans-Souci Palace

As an example, the execution scene in The Kingdom of This World puts European and autochthonous cultures in opposition through the use of the spectator-performer relationship.[26] In this spectacle situation, Carpentier is able to juxtapose the Europeans' experience of Mackandal's body falling into the flames with the autocthonous (Afro-Haitian) experience of Mackandal's body flying off the stake.[27] Through the different, mutable views of the performance that he creates, Carpentier is able to represent an unstable cultural identity.[28] As a second example, the scene that Ti Noël constructs around himself after the sacking of the Sans-Souci Palace presents the reader with a dramatic rehearsal in which Ti Noël represents culturally mobile subjectivity by performing different identities on his own.[29]

Carpentier lastly equates the idea of Western theater with that of a sham through Ti Noël's realization that disguising oneself to assume a role does not lead to community[30]: "Como Ti Noel sólo era un disfrazado, que en modo alguno se connsideraba solidario de la Especie, se refugió, solo, debajo de su mesa." [31] Theater is also undermined when Ti Noël flees with Ruth (his wife and an actress), and in the end is faced with nothing but theater on her behalf.[32]

Plot Summary

Battle on Santo Domingo, a painting by January Suchodolski depicting a struggle between Polish troops in French service and the Haitian rebels
Battle on Santo Domingo, a painting by January Suchodolski depicting a struggle between Polish troops in French service and the Haitian rebels

Prologue

The prologue to the novel is Carpentier’s most often quoted text,[33] in which he coins the term "lo real maravilloso" (“marvellous reality”) in reference to seemingly miraculous occurrences in Latin America. This is contrasted with the lack of magic and imagination in European folklore. Furthermore, his trip to Haiti in 1943 is recounted, as well as some of the research he did to gather facts for the novel. Carpentier also denounces the commonplace and formulaic marvellous that is found in surrealist novels due to its inorganic and false origins, as opposed to the natural magic that is found in Latin America.[34]

Plot

Part One
I. Ti Noël recalls the tales that a fellow slave Mackandal would regale on the plantation of their master Lenormand de Mezy. Mackandal would tell tales of magical characters and the great kingdoms of Popo, of Arada, of the Nagós, and of the Fulas.
II. Mackandal is said to have qualities irresistible to the black women and the ability to captivate men. There is mystical, magical description of cities with rivers rising in the sky before such narrative is abruptly interrupted by an accident in which the left hand of Mackandal is caught in machinery and his arm up to his shoulder is dragged in. There is a call to sharpen the machete to be used in the amputation.
III. Mackandal departs for the mountains and discovers many secret herbs, plants, and fungi that appear to have magical qualities. Ti Noël joins Mackandal and both learn about the magical attributes of the herbs, plants, and fungi. Mackandal suggests the time has come and the following day he is absent from the plantation.
IV. After the passing of the rainy season Ti Noël meets a thin Mackandal in a cave populated with strange items. Mackandal has established contact with surrounding plantations and gives instructions to ensure the death of cows using secret herbs.
V. The poison spreads killing livestock by the hundreds and also killing Frenchmen, wiping out adults and children. Madame Lenormand de Mezy dies as a result and the deaths continue with entire families suffering the same fate. At gunpoint a slave eventually explains that Mackandal has superhuman powers and is the Lord of Poison.
VI. Death returns to a normal rate and the Frenchmen return to playing cards and drinking as months pass with no word of Mackandal. Mackandal, now with the ability to transform into animal, bird, fish, or insect, visits the plantation to affirm faith in his return. The slaves will wait four years for Mackandal to complete his metamorphoses and once again become a human with testicles like rocks.
VII. Mackandal, after four years, returns at a celebration and all present are delighted. The chanting alerts the white men and preparations are made to capture Mackandal.
VIII. Mackandal is captured and tied to a post to be lashed and burned in front of massive black crowds. Mackandal escapes, flying overhead, and lands among the crowd. He is again captured and burned, but the slaves are certain that he has been saved by African Gods and they return to their plantations laughing.

Part Two
I. Lenormand de Mezy's second wife has died, the city has made remarkable progress, and Henri Christophe is a master chef. Twenty years have gone by and Ti Noël has fathered twelve children by one of the cooks; he has told them stories of Mackandal and they await his return.
II. There is a secret gathering of trusted slaves and Bouckman, the Jamaican, speaks of possible freedom for the blacks emerging in France, but also of opposition from the plantation landowners. An uprising is planned.
III. Conch-shell trumpets sound and slaves, armed with sticks, surround the houses of their masters. They kill white men, drink much alcohol, and this section concludes with Ti Noël drinking alcohol and then raping Mademoiselle Floridor who is Lenormand de Mezy's latest mistress.
IV. The uprising is defeated and Bouckman is killed. Lenormand de Mezy arrives in time to spare Ti Noël and other slaves, but there remains talk of complete extermination as the black slaves pose a threat with their voodoo and secret religion. Lenormand de Mezy takes Ti Noël and other slaves to Cuba.
V. In Cuba Lenormand de Mezy is lazy, conducts no business, enjoys the women, drinks alcohol, and gambles away his slaves.
VI. Pauline enjoys sexually tempting the men on a ship returning to Haiti and Solimán, a black slave, massages her body and lavishes loving care on her beauty.
VII. Leclerc develops yellow fever and Pauline trusts in the voodoo and magic of Solimán to cure him. Leclerc dies and Pauline returns to Paris while the Rochambeau government treats the blacks very poorly. However, there is the emergence of black priests who allow the slaves to conduct more business internally.

Part Three
I. Ti Noël has been won in a card game by a plantation owner based in Santiago and Lenormand de Mezy dies in abject poverty shortly afterwards. Ti Noël saves enough money to buy his passage and although twice branded he is now a free man and discovers a free Haiti.
II. Ti Noël, now much older, realizes he has returned to the former plantation of Lenormand de Mezy. He sees great development and the land has come under the control of the black man. Abruptly he is thrown into prison and once again made to work as a slave among children, pregnant girls, women, and old men.
III. Henri Christophe is using slaves to construct lavish statues, figures, and a magnificent fortress. Ti Noël considers this worse than the slavery endured at the hands of Lenormand de Mezy because it is worse to be beaten by someone as black as oneself. In times past the loss of a slave would be a financial loss, but as long as there are black women to continue supplying slaves their deaths are insignificant.
IV. Ti Noël escapes and returns to the former plantation of Lenormand de Mezy. He remains there for some time and later returns to the city to find it gripped by fear of Henri Christophe's regime.
V. Henri Christophe is tormented by thunder strikes and ghosts of formerly tortured subjects.
VI. Henri Christophe and Sans Souci are being overrun by the blacks and by voodoo. Henri Christophe is left alone and commits suicide.
VII. Henri Christophe's body is taken by the remaining African pages to the magnificent fortress where they bury him in a pile of mortar. The entire mountain becomes the mausoleum of the first King of Haiti.

Part Four
I. Solimán finds himself in Europe enjoying the summers, as he is treated well and tells embellished tales of his past. He encounters a statue of Pauline whose form brings back memories and sends him into a howl. The room is rushed, Solimán is reminded of the night of Henri Christophe's demise, and he flees before succumbing to malaria.
II. Ti Noël recalls things told by Mackandal and the former plantation of Lenormand de Mezy has become a happy place with Ti Noël presiding over celebrations and festivities.
III. Surveyors disrupt the peace at the plantation and mulattoes have risen to power. They force hundreds of black prisoners to work by whiplash and many have lost hope as the cycle of slavery continues. Ti Noël, thinking of Mackandal, decides to transform into various animals to observe the ongoing events; he transforms into a bird, a stallion, a wasp, and then an ant.
IV. Ti Noël becomes a goose, but he is rejected by the clan of geese. He understands that being a goose does not imply that all geese are equal. He is not accepted by the geese and returns to human form. The book concludes with the end of Ti Noël's life and his own self-reflection upon greatness and The Kingdom Of This World.

Characters

The characters in the novel are integral to its understanding. Not only do they highlight the temporal and political context of voodoo and other forces, but they also allow Carpentier to surpass temporal and spatial limitations to reach the ultimate reality of life: the universal essence that lies in every human being.[35]

Ti Noël

Ti Noël, an illiterate slave, is a protagonist of African origin.[36] He begins as a young slave who, during the unravelling of the novel, travels to Cuba before returning to Haiti. He is twice branded as a slave but now is a free man. Although he grows old, he remains a witness rather than actor and more often reacts to, as opposed to causes, events throughout the novel:[37] he accompanies his master to the barbershop and compares the wax heads on display to the heads of white men being served at a banquet. He is in admiration of Mackandal's qualities prior to the loss of Mackandal's arm; he accompanies Mackandal into the mountains and is saddened by his departure.

Ti Noël is well established early on as not only a witness to events, but also as someone who makes observations and offers reflection. It is he who considers slavery under Henri Christophe worse than that under French rule because blacks are now enslaving fellow blacks. It is also he who offers reflections about the difficulty of this world allowing for the possibility of greatness during the concluding remarks of the novel. His perspective represents that of the folk, including his belief in the African gods.[38]

Ti Noël has been considered a product of creolization, combining the African magical perspective of Mackandal with the Catholic realism of Henri Christophe.[39] A key aspect of the novel is that the main character is of interest not because of his skin colour, but rather for his human attributes that allow universal reflection beyond the realm of race. In this sense, magical realism is a necessary tool of expression and the technique serves to confront the novel’s hero, better develop his purpose as a man, and advance a simultaneously profound and straightforward understanding of the human experience.[40]

Mackandal

Mackandal on a 20 gourde coin, 1968

Mackandal is a black slave, first introduced on the same plantation as Ti Noël. He is admired for his qualities that are irresistible to black women and his ability to captivate men. He regales tales of great kingdoms and speaks of epic battles in which the animals were allies of men, of the incarnation of the serpent, of a queen who was the Rainbow, and of horses adorned with silver coins. Mackandal has his left arm amputated after a machinery accident on the plantation of Lenormand de Mezy and, unable to complete heavy work, is put in charge of pasturing the cattle. He departs for the mountains and discovers many secret herbs, plants, and fungi about which he is taught more by an old, mysterious woman who is something of a witch. Mackandal leaves the plantation, attains the ability to transform into various beings, and is represented as having superhuman powers due to his possession by the gods.[41]

He spreads poison and kills much livestock and many Frenchmen to prepare for an uprising, but is forced into exile as the French become aware of his actions and begin to search for him. He returns after four years, but is captured and tied to a post to be lashed and burned in front of a massive black audience. While tied to the post, he metamorphoses into an insect and flies overhead before landing in the crowds. During the ensuing pandemonium he is again captured by ten men and burned in the fire. The slaves are certain that he has been saved and remain in defiant and jubilant spirits. The memory of Mackandal is not extinguished in the flames. Ti Noël tells his children the stories he was told by Mackandal, and they await his return many years later.

Mackandal represents the link between spirituality and history[42], he is the inspiration for the rebellion, and the first one to employ the marvellous as a weapon of resistance.[43]

Henri Christophe, a key figure in winning Haiti's independence from France during the 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution

Henri Christophe

Henri Christophe first appears at the beginning of Part Two. He is described as a black master chef who has just bought the lodgings at the Auberge de la Couronne from Mademoiselle Monjean. His dishes are famous for the perfection of their seasoning and/or for the abundance of ingredients that allow for visitors from across the world to be satisfied. He is said to have a magic touch with turtle vol-au-vent or wood pigeons.

In Part Three Henri Christophe has become the first King of Haiti and subjects the black population to worse slavery than that experienced under French rule. His regime carries out brutal torture and grips the city in fear. He is later tormented by thunder strikes and magical, ghostly appearances of previously tortured subjects. As the black population revolts against his rule he finds himself alone and deserted. In this state he commits suicide by shooting himself. His body is taken to be buried in a fortress on a mountain and this becomes his mausoleum.

Pauline Bonaparte

Pauline Bonaparte by François-Joseph Kinson (1808)
Statue of Pauline Bonaparte.

Pauline Bonaparte first appears on the ship of dogs being transported from Cuba to Haiti in Part Two of the novel. She is described as a beautiful woman who, despite her tender years, is familiar with the male body. She enjoyed tempting the men on board and for that reason would let the wind ruffle her hair and breeze through her clothes to reveal the grace of her breasts. She would also sleep out in the open. Pauline has Solimán massage her body and tend to her beauty. They form a relationship and when her husband, Leclerc, falls ill she puts her faith in the voodoo of Solimán designed to cure him. Leclerc dies and Pauline makes her way back to Paris.

Pauline Bonaparte is represented as immature, expecting an ideal life of fantasy in the Caribbean, while engaging in affairs with young officers.[44] Her function in the novel has been a matter of debate, with different critics viewing her as a representation of white decadence,[45] the immorality of the colony,[46] or sexuality.[47] It is a statue of Pauline that causes the beginning of Solimán's madness.

Lenormand de Mezy

Lenormand de Mezy is the white master of a plantation and owns Ti Noël and Mackandal among other black slaves. He has multiple wives, mistresses, and sexual encounters during the course of the novel. Following the quelled black uprising in Part Two Lenormand de Mezy leaves his state of hiding and arrives in time to spare the lives of Ti Noël and some of his other slaves. He takes them to Cuba to protect his assets, but while in Cuba he gambles with his slaves, drinks much alcohol, enjoys the company of women, and loses what remains of his wealth. Having lost Ti Noël in a card game Lenormand de Mezy dies shortly afterwards in abject poverty.

Minor Characters

Bouckman: Bouckman is of Jamaican origin and leads the secret gathering of trusted slaves where he speaks of French requests for freedom for black slaves, but also speaks of the resistance displayed by plantation landowners. He is present when staff is named and an uprising is planned. After the uprising is defeated, Bouckman is killed at the same location as Mackandal is burned alive.

Solimán: Solimán is first introduced in the text as the slave who receives the fortune of massaging the body of Pauline and also lavishing her beauty with great care. He begins to conduct voodoo rituals with Pauline for the sake of Leclerc who has contracted yellow fever. Following the demise of Henri Christophe, Solimán ends up in Europe where he enjoys the summers. He is given food and drink freely and his appearance is the subject of much attention. He regales exaggerated and embellished tales of his past and even makes an appearance at theatre performances. He later comes across a marble statue of Pauline and this coupled with memories of the night that witnessed the demise of Henri Christophe causes him to fall into madness, flee, and eventually succumb to malaria.

Major Themes

Reactionary vs. Revolutionary

At its core, The Kingdom of This World has a deep focus on the nature of revolution, and the novel itself can be viewed as a reflection of Carpentier's ideological perspective.[48] The concept of revolution is necessarily linked to progress; however, what is often deemed a "revolution" does not always produce progress.[49] The notion of revolution without progress is best described as a reactionary process. In the case of Carpentier's novel, the Afro-Caribbean slave population violently react to the oppressive regime imposed on them by the French colonials. The end result of this armed reaction is the emergence of a brutal regime in which the oppressed become the oppressors. Sadly, the heads of the newly produced regime, fail to break the mold imposed by the French colonials. More specifically, the ruling Afro-Caribbeans end up enslaving and oppressing their own kind. Ultimately, progress is the key element that is absent from the equation. Indeed, the violence and revolt result in social stagnation at best and societal retrograde at worst.[50] Carpentier's perspective on the Haitian revolution is revealed in the way that he portrays the cyclical nature of reactionary violence. To that end, the Haitian revolution was not truly a revolution in an ideological sense since it failed to produce progress.

Hybridization

Hybridization, or the formation of a hybrid identity, is a theme commonly found in texts that deal with cultural differences. The theory of hybridization was originally developed by Homi K. Bhabha in an effort to explain the effects interacting cultures.[51] Bhabha's theory contends that, through the process of what he refers to as cultural translation, the interactions between two distinct cultures results in the formation of a hybrid identity. As the word "hybrid" suggests, the new identity is a mix of the two original cultures and the end result is a cultural entity that is distinct.

In The Kingdom of This World, Carpentier writes about the struggles and conflicts that arise between the French colonials and the Afro-Caribbean population in Haiti during a time of revolution. Carpentier's prose is rife with examples of hybridization. One of the most striking examples is found in the chapter titled "San Trastorno," where black priests combine Voodoo and Catholic religious practices to form a hybridized religious entity.[52] In this sense, the hybridized religious entity, or the "other," can be viewed as heretical since it is a blasphemous, bastardized departure from both pure Voodoo and Catholic practices. In reality, much of Carpentier's novel is subject to distortion and change, and evidence of hybridization is present even in the titles of the chapters themselves. For instance, the chapter titled "Las metamorfosis," does not tell the mythic stories of Ovid, but rather speaks of the metamorphosis of the slave Mackandal.[53]

Carpentier's fascination with the notion of hybridity, and the associated cultural distortion is inevitably a reflection of his own search for cultural identity. During his time in Paris, there was a profound public interest in the Americas.[54] Although well versed in the French surrealist tradition and possessing a deep mastery of the French language, Carpentier never fully identified himself as a French writer. Instead, he preferred to define himself as a Spanish American writing in French.[55] Furthermore, Carpentier was known to shuttle between claiming French or Spanish as his mother tongue, which further illustrated his cultural indecisiveness.[56] Given this information, it is not surprising that the politics of cultural negotiation are played out in his novels, and specifically in The Kingdom of This World.[57] In the end, Carpentier's own feelings of being somewhat of a hybrid entity himself, due to his conflicting cultural influences, are mirrored in his prose.

Nature

Aerial view of the Citadelle Laferrière, in northern Haiti
Aerial view of the Citadelle Laferrière, in northern Haiti

Mackandal has expert knowledge of the nature of the forest, using its herbs and fungi as weapons against the planters.[58] The ecological landscape of Haiti is used to represent the wreckage of the Revolution, being initially described as fertile and bountiful with the plantations, but later as worn down and bare.[59][60] The powerful climate of the Caribbean is more similar to Africa than Europe, making nature an ally of the slaves.[61] Natural elements also act on their own, with Henri Christophe’s Citadel being attacked by fungi and thunderstorms before its completion.[62]


Voodoo: Original Areas

Voodoo

Although Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a pivotal figure in the Haitian Revolution, is barely mentioned in the novel, the one page dedicated to him emphasizes his connection to African gods while neglecting to mention any of his other features that made him an effective leader.[63] While Dessaline’s belief in African gods is highlighted, Henri Christophe’s abandonment of the religion is stressed, being identified as the reason for his downfall.[64]

The drum is the main feature of African Voodoo in the novel, always accompanying the slaves.[65] Drums, including conch shells and even thunder, announce all the armed revolts by the blacks and serve as a means of communication during war.[66]

Vodou Artefacts, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Contrast Between Black and White Ethnicities

Carpentier’s historical account is greatly simplified in order to increase the contrast between the white land owners and their black slaves.[67] The marvellous, one of the most notable features of the novel, is used as a marker of contrast between the two groups: firstly, because mention of the magical always takes the form of the slaves’ point of view, while the more real interpretation of each event being from the whites’ perspective;[68] secondly, because the marvellous is used as a weapon to fight injustice.[69] Instances of cruelty and violence between the groups are recounted grotesquely in great detail, which enhances the rivalry.[70]

History and Destiny

A sense of destiny is present in the novel through patterns of repetition, including reversals of destiny in a number of characters.[71] Characters who are paired together tend to suffer the same destiny: Ti Noël and Monsieur Lenormand de Mezy both witness the marvels of the age and slowly decline; both Pauline and Solimán indulge in their wealthy positions and then sink into madness.[72] There is a clear pattern of succession from fortune to misfortune.[73]

There is a socio-political cycle of order and disorder where, regardless of who is in power, the same injustices take place:[74] when the blacks take control, they betray their own traditions and follow the example of European states.[75] By means of these repeated scenarios, history is presented as a cyclical re-enactment of the same human dilemmas.[76]

Confusion

The theme of confusion appears through the transplantation of characters from one world to another, for example from the characters' childhood culture to the one imposed upon them as occurs in The Kingdom of This World.[77] Often, the characters find that reality does not lie entirely in either world.[78] It is possible that this theme is well-developed in Alejo Carpentier's work because of the author's own personal experience with cultural transplantaion (Carpentier was born and grew up in Havana but later moved to France for six years and has travelled extensively).[79]

Battle at "Snake Gully" in 1802.

Violence and Sexuality

The brutality of the Spanish American dictatorship is omnipresent in The Kingdom of This World through the images of torture, fire, suppression, and hungry dogs for example.[80] Carpentier's characters often find consolation in sexuality (which is closely related to the sadism of the violence theme) after experiencing violence.[81]

Genre

The Kingdom of This World is a work of historical fiction.[82] While the setting and the majority of the characters are based on fact, many of the events that occur during the novel are Carpentier's rendition of the actual events that took place during the course of the Haitian revolution. In the Prologue to the novel, Carpentier defines the phenomenon of lo real maravilloso, which has been considered one of the starting points for the genre of magic realism. His conception of 'marvellous reality' revolves around the natural fantastic qualities of Latin America and the Caribbean, as opposed to the overly forced and cliché efforts by European surrealists to portray magical occurrences. The result was the presentation of impossible or fantastic events described as if they were completely usual and natural, such as the metamorphoses of Mackandal and Ti Noël. These events, however, often represent the beliefs of other characters in the novel. For a more detailed account of the differences between magic realism and Carpentier's real maravilloso, see the page on magic realism.

Style

There are many instances of marvellous occurrences in the novel, such as Mackandal[83] and Ti Noël’s[84] metamorphoses and Henri Christophe’s encounter with a spectre.[85] Carpentier mixes elements of history and fiction with no clear division in between the two,[86] which has been said to increase the liveliness of the novel.[87] Furthermore, the lack of transition in between perspectives grants authenticity to the marvellous.[88] The historical episodes and characters were chosen based on which are the most interesting and unusual and not on which are most important to accurately recount the history of Haiti.[89] Roberto González Echevarría questions the historical accuracy of the work by arguing that Carpentier manipulated dates so that he could achieve meaningful associations in his novel.[90]

Most moments in which there is a fantastic occurrence constitute a change in point of view, from the omniscient narrator to a specific character with particular beliefs.[91] The introduction of magical events from the perspective of the slaves highlights their otherness, because while they may believe, for instance, that Mackandal survived his execution, the whites, and especially the readers, know that he did not.[92] The marvellous, emphasized in the Prologue, is a product of the characters’ beliefs, which is why there is the shift in perspectives when presenting it.[93]

Repetition

Carpentier reduces the individuality of the characters, enhancing the notion of humanity, keeping in line with the theme of history as a repetition of patterns regardless of who is in power. The simultaneous presence of fact and fiction and the cycle of reversal of fortunes presents characters as functional variants of each other.[94] Through frequent use of metonymy, whereby a part replaces a whole, for example, referring to soldiers as “uniformes”[95] (uniforms), Carpentier shifts the focus from individuals to the collective.[96]

In The Kingdom of This World, Carpentier creates a succession of characters that engage in very similar actions. This repetition, a stylistic tool that resembles baroque writings, constructs a cyclical pattern in the novel which depicts the author's social views.[97] The succession of characters (as well as places) that replace each other without fully developing on their own (or blocked from developing, in a sense) represent Carpentier's view of the social context in which forces are preventing characters from developing.[98]

Reception

Although the presence of magical realism in The Kingdom of This World has been acclaimed by critics and discussed at length within the academic community; this concern, however, is paralleled by a lack of interest in Carpentier's technical work in the novel.[99] In particular, his vision of time has been widely ignored.[100]

Notes

  1. ^ Rama 1998, p. 227
  2. ^ Rama 1998, p. 225
  3. ^ Stimson 1998, p. 149
  4. ^ Stimson 1998, p. 149
  5. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 115
  6. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 5
  7. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 117
  8. ^ Rama 1998, p. 225
  9. ^ Dash 2005, p. 16
  10. ^ Dash 2005, p. 18
  11. ^ Dash 2005, p. 18
  12. ^ Dash 2005, p. 18
  13. ^ Dash 2005, p. 18
  14. ^ Barreda-Tomás 1972, p. 40
  15. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 117
  16. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 117
  17. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 297
  18. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 5-8
  19. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 298
  20. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 310-315
  21. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 58
  22. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 58
  23. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 59
  24. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 59
  25. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 68
  26. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 69
  27. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 69
  28. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 69
  29. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 70
  30. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 70
  31. ^ {{Harvnb|Ccarpentier|2004|p=139
  32. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 71
  33. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 116
  34. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 5-12
  35. ^ Barreda-Tomás 1972, p. 42
  36. ^ Unruh 1998, p. 70
  37. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 120
  38. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 120
  39. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 120
  40. ^ Barreda-Tomás 1972, p. 41
  41. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 37
  42. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 122
  43. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 310-311
  44. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 125
  45. ^ Shaw 1985, p. 30
  46. ^ Speratti-Piñero 1985, p. 580
  47. ^ Torres-Rosado 1991, p. 212
  48. ^ Bosch 1976, p. 82
  49. ^ Bosch 1976, p. 84
  50. ^ Bosch 1976, p. 86
  51. ^ Kefala 2007, p. 1
  52. ^ Kefala 2007, p. 1
  53. ^ Kefala 2007, p. 1
  54. ^ Henighan 1999, p. 1014
  55. ^ Henighan 1999, p. 1014
  56. ^ Henighan 1999, p. 1015
  57. ^ Henighan 1999, p. 1015
  58. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 122
  59. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 122
  60. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 92
  61. ^ Goldberg 1991, p. 26
  62. ^ Goldberg 1991, p. 26
  63. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 123
  64. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 124
  65. ^ Goldberg 1991, p. 28
  66. ^ Goldberg 1991, p. 28-29
  67. ^ Pontiero 1970, p. 529
  68. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 312
  69. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 314
  70. ^ Pontiero 1970, p. 530
  71. ^ Pontiero 1970, p. 531
  72. ^ Pontiero 1970, p. 531-532
  73. ^ Pontiero 1970, p. 533
  74. ^ Goldberg 1991, p. 24
  75. ^ Goldberg 1991, p. 25
  76. ^ Sokoloff 1986, p. 39
  77. ^ Stimson 1959, p. 149
  78. ^ Stimson 1959, p. 149
  79. ^ Stimson 1959, p. 149
  80. ^ Stimson 1959, p. 150
  81. ^ Stimson 1959, p. 150
  82. ^ Rama 1998, p. 225
  83. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 48
  84. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 147
  85. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 114
  86. ^ Serra 1995, p. 622
  87. ^ Pontiero 1970, p. 528
  88. ^ Sokoloff 1986, p. 47
  89. ^ Pontiero 1970, p. 529
  90. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 117
  91. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 311
  92. ^ Paravisini-Gebert 2004, p. 127
  93. ^ De Armas 1981, p. 315
  94. ^ Sokoloff 1986, p. 39
  95. ^ Carpentier 2004, p. 119
  96. ^ Sokoloff 1986, p. 44
  97. ^ Rama 1998, p. 225
  98. ^ Rama 1998, p. 230
  99. ^ Rama 1998, p. 227
  100. ^ Rama 1998, p. 225

References

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