Alejo Carpentier Totally Explained

Everything about Alejo Carpentier totally explained

Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essay writer, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. He was among the first practitioners of magical realism and exerted a decisive influence on the works of younger Latin American writers.

Life

Early life and education

Carpentier was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. For a long time it was believed that he was born in La Habana where his family moved immediately before his birth, but following his death a birth certificate was found in Switzerland. His mother was a Russian professor of languages and his father was a French architect. At 12, his family moved to Paris, where he began to study music theory at the lycee Jeanson de Sailly. When they returned to Cuba in the 1920s, he began a study of architecture which he never completed. He also studied music.

Cuba and exile in France

Carpentier became a cultural journalist, writing mostly about avant-garde developments in the arts, particularly music. His journalistic work was also considered as leftist and helped found the Cuban Communist Party.
In 1966, he settled in Paris as he served as Cuban ambassador to France. In 1975 he was the recipient of the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca. He received the Cervantes Prize in 1977 and was recipient of the French Laureates Prix Médicis étranger in 1979 for La harpe et l'ombre.
Carpentier was struggling with cancer as he completed his final novel and he died in Paris on April 24, 1980. His remains were returned to Cuba for interment in the Colon Cemetery, Havana.

Themes and famous works

Carpentier is widely known for his baroque style of writing and his theory of "lo real maravilloso,". It was in the prologue to The Kingdom of this World, a novel of the Haitian Revolution, that he described his vision of "lo real maravilloso" ("But what is the history of Latin America but a chronicle of magical realism?"). Some critics interpret the "real maravilloso" as being synonymous with magical realism. His most famous works include:

Ecue-yamba-o! (Praised Be the Lord!, 1933)
The Kingdom of this World (1949)
The Lost Steps (1953)
El acoso (1956) (Manhunt)
War of Time (1958)
El siglo de las luces (1962) (Explosion in a Cathedral)
El recurso del método (1974) (Reasons of State)
Concierto barroco (1974) (Concierto barroco), based on the 1709 meeting of Vivaldi, Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, with cameo appearances by Wagner and Stravinsky, and fictional characters from the new world who inspire the Venetian composer's opera, Motezuma.
La consagración de la primavera (1978) (The Consecration of Spring)
El arpa y la sombra (1978) (The Harp and the Shadow) dealing with Columbus.

Quotes

"For what is the story of [Latin] America if not a chronicle of the marvealous in the real."

"[A] fuerza de querer suscitar lo maravilloso a todo trance, los taumaturgos se hacen burócratas." ([B]y creating the marvellous at all cost, the thaumaturgists become bureaucrats).

Further Information

Get more info on 'Alejo Carpentier'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://alejo_carpentier.totallyexplained.com">Alejo Carpentier Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.