Latin American gothic contains the
same classic troupes, common in all cultural variations of the genre; decay,
hidden identity, oppression, isolation and transgressed love, just to name a
few. As we continue to explore new cultural areas of gothic literature these
same troupes are continuous but with their own little “spin”. The “spin” in
Latin American gothic is magical realism. Magical realism turns aspects that
are familiar into dream like, and things that are not familiar become something
that we understand. The story in “The Gospel of Mark” is very familiar, but it
was unexpected for the teachings to end up being taken so literally. “If you
Touched my Heart” was vaguely familiar with the transgressed love in the
beginning but as the story progressed, it became more horrific and unimaginable.
Torture was present throughout the story, but not the same type of torture we
had previously experienced. This type of torture was some physical torture, but
more mental torture that only the characters would understand (although, Amadeo
does not really recall why the psaltery is so painful for him). In “A Very Old
Man With Enormous Wings” we see the familiar, mundane life of Pelayo and
Elisenda’s combined with a dream like world of flying and a spider woman.
While studying these three stories,
the motivation for them shows through. Borges views on the how literally
religion is taken shines through in “The Gospel of Mark”. We learned how to war
and long-term suffering of Chile is present in Allende’s “If You Touched My
Heart.” Márquez’s “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” is a tale of how
compassion is hard to come by, and how sometimes things do not need to be
identified in order to be. It seems that each cultural area has its own
motivation which is what influences the “spin” that was previously mentioned.
1 comment:
Andrea-
I really love your first sentence, "Latin American gothic contains the same classic troupes, common in all cultural variations of the genre; decay, hidden identity, oppression, isolation and transgressed love, just to name a few." It really identifies many of the tropes that the gothic genres share. I am at odds with the sentence, "In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” we see the familiar, mundane life of Pelayo and Elisenda’s combined with a dream like world of flying and a spider woman." The story was not about flying and a spider woman. The angel and spider woman were used as metaphors in a way. Marquez was trying to make a religious statement. He was using the spider woman as a metaphor for the new church/religions and the angel as the old church/religions. He wanted to make the point that all of the people will flock to the new religions when something comes up in their old religion that they do not understand. Marquez was very religious and want to message to be stick to the religion/ways, even if there is something you don't understand because there is always going to be something we don't understand. He also was making harsh criticisms of the church with his exaggerated explanation of the priest writing to the Vatican for explanation of the angel. I would also see expanding the statement, "We learned how to war and long-term suffering of Chile is present in Allende’s “If You Touched My Heart." Allende was also conveying the point of if people stand around and do nothing; they still are letting it happen. The final recommendation I would have is to have added some quotes from the worksheet we did in class for the gothic and Magical realism examples in class. I really thought your closing sentence wrapped up the blog very well because it is true that every culture has their spin on the gothic.
-Abbie
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