Alejo Carpentier in Context examines one of the greatest novelists of Latin American literature in the 20th century. The Cuban Carpentier was one of the regions firmest supporters of the Cuban Revolution yet was revealed later to have hidden important details of his biography. A polymath of encyclopedic knowledge, contributions to this book showcase his influence, not only as a novelist but also as a musicologist, writer of ballet scenarios, radio broadcaster, opera aficionado and expert in modernist architecture. This volume offers perspectives on Carpentier's concept of the marvelous real, which later morphed into magical realism, as well as on the baroque as a defining characteristic of Latin American culture. Debates focus on Carpentier's role as a public intellectual in Cuba and abroad, on new revelations about his biography and readings of his major novels, introducing ecocritical perspectives, theories of intermediality and recent philosophies of history.
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Various perspectives on Alejo Carpentier's life and works in light of revelations about his biography, new translations, and consolidated archives.
1. Introduction: revisiting Carpentier Anke Birkenmaier; Part I. The
Making of the Author:
2. In search of lost columns: Carpentier and his father
Victor Wahlström;
3. Carpentier's farewell: El arpa y la sombra (Journey Back
to my Sources) Roberto González Echevarría;
4. Following Alejo Carpentier's
trail: the writer's formative years Graziella Pogolotti (translated by Joseph
Larson);
5. Self-fashioning and becoming Alejo Carpentier James J. Pancrazio;
6. The presence of Mexico in Alejo Carpentier's work Araceli García Carranza
(translated by Joseph Larson);
7. Carpentier and Haiti Elzbieta Sklodowska;
8. Carpentier's ecreption in Europe: the acse of Germany Carmen Reisinger;
Part II. The Polymath:
9. Alejo Carpentier on modern architecture Rubén
Gallo;
10. African ballast: actions in the poetic tone of Alejo Carpentier
Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz;
11. Carpentier's guide to opera: Caruso in Havana
Rubén Gallo;
12. Alejo Carpentier's ballet librettos: eclectic avant-gardism
and vicarious spectatorship Lester Tomé;
13. Carpentier and Latin American
art music Marysol Quevedo;
14. Carpentier's early musical collaborations and
the quest for creative identity Caroline Rae;
15. Carpentier's early music
criticism: influences and advocacies Caroline Rae;
16. Carpentier's radio
broadcasts Anke Birkenmaier; Part III. The Writer of Fiction:
17. Alejo
Carpentier and historical fiction: history in a time capsule Eduardo Becerra;
18. Alejo Carpentier's first novel: Écue-Yamba-Ó! Jorge Camacho;
19.
Translating El reino de este mundo Pablo Medina;
20. Making sense of the
senses in El recurso del método Rita de Maeseneer;
21. Carpentier and the
Hispanic tradition: the harp and the shadow Yannelys Aparicio and Ángel
Esteban;
22. The intermediality of Carpentier's La consagración de la
primavera Nelly Rajaonarivelo (translated by Dora Ahearn Wood); Part IV. The
Cuban Revolution:
23. Carpentier in revolution: 19591966 Jorge Fornet
(translated by Joseph Larson);
24. Carpentier: Melancholy and the revolution
Rafael Rojas (translated by Giovanni Molina Rosario); Part V. Envisioning the
Americas:
25. Antillean surrealism: the marvelous in José Lezama Lima and
Alejo Carpentier Ingrid Robyn;
26. An ecological marvelous realism:
Carpentier's teeming American tropics Charlotte Rogers;
27. About not
guillotining the past: the alternative modernity of Carpentier's Baroque
futurism Monika Kaup; Part VI. Carpentier for Debate:
28. The Alejo
Carpentier foundation Rafael Rodríguez Beltrán and Armando Raggi Rodríguez
(translated by Joseph Larson);
29. The Carpentier case: lights and shadows of
a literary legacy Amir Valle (translated by Joseph Larson);
30. Growing up
with Alejo Carpentier Antonio José Ponte (translated by Giovanni Molina
Rosario); Index.
Anke Birkenmaier is Professor of Latin American Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the author of the award-winning book, Alejo Carpentier y la cultura del surrealismo en América Latina (2006, Premio Iberoamericano LASA) and of The Specters of Race. Latin American Anthropology and Literature between the Wars (2016).
