Carlos Fuentes

“One puts off the biography like you put off death, To write an autobiography is to etch the words on your own gravestone.”

~Carlos Fuentes.

These words were by Carlos Fuentes often called as the ‘Mexican Man of Letters’, who died at the age of 83. Carlos Fuentes was one of the the most admired writers in the spanish-speaking world, Latin America. He writings included plays, novels(political non-fiction) as well as fiction many of which were chronicles of tangled love. Fuentes engaged himself in writing for magazines, journals and on political concerns. Although he was a bilingual, he chose to write in Spanish, because he believed that it offered more flexibility than English and that the english literary tradition did not need one more writer. He accredited his grandmothers describing how he was inspired by their tales of ‘bandits, revolutions and reckless love’; all of which connected him to Mexican culture.

His novel, “Where the Air Is Clear,” published in 1958 was a literary sensation which had a mixing of biting social commentary with interior monologues and portrayals of the subconscious. Rather than merely “writing back”, to the colonialists  the approach taken by writes such as Carlos Fuentes and Octavio Paz suggest how cultural differences are constructed by replacing the strong binary opposition “us“ versus “the other“ with concepts of hybridity, inbetweenness and border thinking. Early works by Carlos Fuentes (*1928) can be seen in an intermediate position between these concepts. Theme of otherness and opposition is evident in his work, and can be seen in La frontera de cristal (1995) and his novel Aura (1962). His writings are full of intertextual references which show his appreciation for both European and Latin American literary tradition.

Fuente was associated with the Latin American Boom also called as ‘El Boom’, a literary movement, the authors whose politically critical work broke established traditions. As part of the “Boom“ movement in Latin American literature he also uses supernatural and gothic elements that sometimes make it hard or even impossible to distinguish between reality and illusion. The ‘El Boom’ was influenced by modernist currents from both Europe and North America and characterized by the breaking of literary conventions such as originality, authorship and coherence. Although it had its influence on the literature of that time it was also a movement of political dimensions which tried to break free from colonial influence and create an own and unique Latin American tradition. His work, The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962) talks of the dilemma of national identity, limitless power of fantasy, history of the Mexican revolution. In his works Fuentes maintained a realistic stance of power and politics prevalent in his times – chronicles of the past and wide range of cultural references which he combined with social critique. The ‘Magic Realism’, a merging of reality and illusion emerged where no clear distinctions could be made; this tradition of developing a Latin American self awareness differentiated it from the former colonisers and is considered to be the origin of all Latin American culture. Fuente through his novel, ‘Terra Nostra’ contributes to a rewriting of the modern subject as argued by many scholars. This novel through its metafictional dimensions seeks to change the legacy of recoding subjectivities imposed during colonisation. This novel promotes a diachronic understanding of history into which notions of magic realism and material strands feed in.

After his death on May 15, 2012 numerous newspaper articles talked of how he and immensely contributed in restoring and sustaining the literary tradition of Latin America. Mr Beltran on the death of Carlos Fuentes said, “To speak about Carlos Fuentes is to engage inexorably in Mexican history and culture. We cannot fathom a debate on Mexican literary and humanistic traditions in which his name and work are absent.”

Postcolonial analysis of on being brought from Africa to America

By Phyllis Wheatley.

Post colonialism as a field of enquiry has instigated much to understand notions of identity and social relations within the larger tenet of colonial influences. Post colonial discourses have led to the re reading of texts (literary and otherwise) that were written even before colonialism metamorphisized into what we understand of it today .in such a rereading analysis of the notion of identity stands crucial

                          The poem on being brought from Africa to America written by 

Was written at a time when slavery was very dominant in America. It basically expresses the experience coming to America. The American’s whom the poet worked for encouraged her to write and also exposed her to English as a language. Her owner also helped in the publishing of her work.

A lot of postcolonial discourses can be employed in analyzing the poem within a postcolonial context. The poem expresses how the poet felt while being exposed to Christianity. This reflects the notion of the white mans burden where in the white man holds the responsibility of ‘civilizing’ the ‘the uncivilized’. The act of teaching English exposing her to Christianity all reflects the aforementioned white mans burden.

Colonialism and imperialist ideologies brought with it a hierarchy with set power play within it. Within this hierarchy the blacks occupy the lowest position while the white man occupies the highest. This hierarchy is based on the physical features, racial background. Based on such racial judgment’s the blacks the blacks are considered inferior to the white people and based on this theory the act of slavery was born.

Such social relationships of hierarchy are based on binary opposites. Therefore, what the white man is the black man isn’t. therefore, in the a need to civilize the Pagans, the white man introduces the notion of culture to the ‘uncultured’. In the process not only are the black people made to realize there inferior status but are also made to want to get ‘civilized’, as reflected in Frantz fanons “black skin white masks”. This idea is also manifested in the poem when the poet herself uses terms like “benighted soul” to describe herself.

Since the people whom the poet worked for were more or less kind to her as opposed to some other slave owners, the poet appears to be thankful.  Nonetheless the power play is still functioning and the sense of superiority and inferiority is still evident in the poem.

By Ronak giri

1214208-pseng.

Anita Desai- The Clear Light Of  Day

National Implication of female autonomy

In spite of the fact that The Clear Light of Day concentrates on the Das family, their battles and discontinuity are reverberated in the bigger account of the recently apportioned country. Tara and Bim both ponder this strain of at various times and battle to rethink themselves and move past the restricting stasis of their home and childhoods.

This try is reflected in the national battle of ladies to accomplish another political and social part in postcolonial India. Bishnupriya Ghosh contends that Desai's "examination of sex and legislative issues consequently reaches out into an evaluate of Indian patriotism, which avoided sexual orientation issues from its political talking points of liberation and restoration"

Tara and Bim both battle for self-sufficiency, attaining it in different degrees; Tara weds to escape Old Delhi and achieve more individual freedom, while Bim's training and independence concede her a certain level of opportunity.

Tara is however, truly reliant on her spouse, and Bim is in charge of Baba. Desai delineates the defenselessness with which Tara and Bim are both well known as a smothering, onerous experience.

Freedom and break are two main thrusts all through the novel. Through deliberately created delineations of the complex goals, battles, and tributes of Tara and Bim, Desai's written work quietly requests another level of self-sufficiency and strengthening for postcolonial Indian ladies, and a reinterpretation of normal residential parts.

Self-sufficiency and Independence

At first Tara and Bim may have all the earmarks of being finished contrary energies: Tara is adolescent and present day, while Bim is more established, in charge of dealing with their more youthful sibling, and as of now staying in their adolescence house. Yet the sisters are more mind boggling, eventually opposing paired definition.

Both Tara and Bim have made yields in their ways towards departure and autonomy, which they must face when they return to their childhoods. Tara wedded to escape Old Delhi, yet is presently subordinate to and reliant on her spouse; Bim declined to give up her obligation to her more youthful sibling, along these lines she surrendered a component of freedom she may have generally achieved.

This complex battle with self-rule and autonomy happens against the background of the recently apportioned country. Desai's written work unpretentiously reprimands the knowledge of weakness, and the novel eventually reaches out to request another part for ladies in postcolonial India, moving past conventional residential parts to another level of political and social strengthening.

Nitika Serene Yonzone

1214243

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

-Maya Angelo

And Still I Rise is one of Maya Angelou’s most widely known poems and personally, it has become one of my favourites. Angelou’s “sassy”, “haughty” and defiant oppressor gives a new dimension to the projection of images related to the oppressed. The confidence with which the speaker addresses the concerns and consequences of oppression is commendable. Rhetorical questions such as “Does my sassiness upset you?” “Does my haughtiness offend you?” show how the speaker is not afraid to speak her mind and assert her individuality. She is not the kind who will accept her fate as that which is sealed by her masters. There is no sense of inferiority that the speaker feels while directly posing questions to those who have oppressed her. The use of metaphors such as “I've got oil wells” used to mock the wealthy show the extent to which the wealthy people dominated the less privileged and used their economic assets to exploit them.

Referring to herself as the “hope of the slave”, the speaker brings into light the history of oppression the African Americans have been through. It is in a sense a tribute to the African Americans for all that they have been through, discrimination in all aspects of their life, slavery, racism and segregation. The concerns related to women are also boldly expressed by using stark lines like “Does my sexiness upset you? / Does it come as a surprise / That I dance like I’ve got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?” There is a sense of indomitable spirit where the oppressed herself has become the crusader for the oppressed. The history of oppression in America spirals to approximately three decades. The impact of this discrimination and exploitation that generations of families went through is inhumane and traumatic. The mental, psychological, physical and social repercussions of such kind of irrational discrimination are unimaginable. Writings like “Still I rise” are relief to the souls of the families who went through the discrimination and is not just a means of let out but also inspiration among all those who have had similar unpleasant experiences in their lives.

The main theme of this poem centres on hope, how one can overcome all difficulties in life by just standing up and facing the problems with unwavering strength and courage. It is a poem where Maya Angelou not only addresses the African Americans and women but all sections of society that are oppressed in any which way. There is a personal touch to the poem, since Angelou herself has faced so many hardships in her life and the tone of the poem is not passive in the remotest sense. Through the poem we see how Angelou while talking about the hardships she faced in the past asserts herself as a strong African American woman in the present. The repetition of the words “I rise” are of significance as they come after she addresses the oppressors, reminding them that inspite of all that she has been through she still made it to a platform where she can give voice to hundreds of those who were oppressed. The poem is extremely inspirational and empowering. It is a poem that is written like a Victory Song. It is motivating and reminds us that if we respect ourselves then the world will have no control over whom or what we are.

There is beauty in the emotion of the poem that is awe-inspiring and every time you read it, you will take a moment and it will leave a smile on your face.

Homecoming: Questions of Identity and Race

All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoesis the fifth installment of Maya Angelou’s intensely personal autobiographical narratives. It details her return to her African roots. Similar in theme to her other writings, most specifically I Know Where the Caged Bird Sings, the book depicts themes of displacement, home and identity. What distinguishes it from this and other books, however, is the complexity of the presentation of these themes.

The book details Angelou’s return to Ghana, the home of her ancestors. In the 1960s, following the independence of Ghana from British rule, the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah promises a new dream for the once colonized nation. Angelou joins other African Americans returning to the country in order to join this great experiment. In doing so, she expects to find herself among those who share both racial characteristics and a geo-political history. Her identity, so far fluid and unstable, will through this journeybe crystallised and rooted. As she states in her book “We were Black Americans in West Africa, where for the first time in our lives the color of our skin was accepted as correct and normal”. What she encounters, however, is not open arms and warm welcomes. Instead, she is met with a coldness and indifference that she was not prepared to encounter.

Through her encounters with various Ghanaians, Angelou discerned that common racial features were not corollary to common racial history. Angelou faces constant discrimination as an African-American: a hybrid identity. She is denied work except at the minimum wage. A more specific example would be the rude manner in which she is turned away from a radio station by the receptionist when she goes to enquire about a job.

 Race, then is not a simple binary construction of White/ Black, West/East and Occident/Orient. The mechanisms that construct these binaries are of equal importance. The experience of African slaves and of colonized Africans, though they may have inhabited the same geographical area are not the same. Further, the process of emancipation and attainment of civil rights of the two groups is vastly different. Race and racial history were thus not correlated in any way. The Ghanaians that Angelou encounters appear to be aware of that. This could be a possible reason for their rejection of her as a member of their community.

The realization of this fact does, of course, cause the writer unhappiness. On the other hand, it is also freeing. As Angelou states"Was it possible that I and all American Blacks had been wrong on other occasions? Could the cutting treatment we often experienced have been stimulated by something other than our features, our hair and color? Was the odor of old slavery so obvious that people were offended and lashed out at us automatically? Ha what we judged as racial prejudice less to do with race and more to do with our particular ancestors' bad luck at having been caught, sold and driven like beasts?" Section 2 (pages 32-58), pg. 35Was the slavery of the Negroid race due to socio-political motives rather than actual physiological disparities between the two races?

Angelou thus faces the typical problem all diasporic individuals encounter: that of hybridity. She is not wholly African, nor is she American. As an African-American, she exists both within and outside the both the constructions of the colonized as well as of the colonizer. In America, she faced discrimination for being African. In Ghana, she faces discrimination for being American.

Questions of identity also plague her son. This is especially apparent in the fight that she has with him regarding where he should live, how he should live and what cultural norms he should abide by. Identity is thus as much a problem for him as it is for her.

The duality and instability of the hybrid identity is thus brought to the fore in All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes. Race and racial hierarchies are also central themes of this work. A primary example would be the employment of a small boy or servant by Angelou and her housemates. Initially hesitant, she allows him to work for her when she hears that he wishes to further his education and is therefore asking for the job. The education he desires, however, is how to be ‘White’. The boy in fact belongs to a wealthy family. Through his employment in Angelou’s household, his family hopes to educate him in being ‘White’ and thereby constructing the “White mask” that so many “mimic men” adorn themselves in.

Race, racial history and questions of identity are thus beautifully depicted in this masterpiece. Its conclusion truly cements the primary theme of homecoming. While taking a trip to the small Ghanaian village of Keta, Angelou is mistaken by some village folk for an old relative, taken away by slave traders several years ago. The open joy at being reunited with a family member and the love and acceptance she experiences in this guise allows her to experience, if only for a fleeting moment, the homecoming she wished to experience that had so far eluded her. Identity, then, is not merely a set of markers: race, class, religion, nation and creed. That is the identity others construct for you. The identity you construct for yourself will remain stable only if it is constructed through introspection rather than searching for external markers.

Jorge Francisco Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Luis Borges was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet, philosopher and translator, and a significant figure in the Spanish language literature. His work clinches the character of unreality in all literature that he has produced, which include collection of short stories and poems. He was born in the year 1899, August 24, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He died on June 14, 1986, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Borges was one of the most projecting Latin American writers who, contrary to his contemporaries, were mainly concerned with the never ending questions of existence, parting political and social issues separately. He was most known for his poetry, but he also wrote essays and short stories. His short stories can be regarded as essays, or essays which have turned into fiction. He has achieved a great number of followers as his works encompassed modernism, political philosophy, philosophical study on reality and infiniteness, skepticism and existential philosophy.

Modernism had deeply influenced Borges. He was deep-rooted in the Modernism predominant in its early years and was influenced by Symbolism at large. He developed a great interest in his native culture with broader standpoints. With the background of his philosophical ideas, which could encourage multilingualism, he propounded his theories based on modernism. Unlike many other writers in his time, Borges continued a miniaturist. His work progressed away from what he referred to as ‘the decorative.’ Borges’ later elegance is far clearer, in comparison with his earlier works. Borges represented the humanist view of media that worried the social aspect of art enthused by emotion. If art represented the tool, then Borges was more interested in how the tool could be used to relate to people. Thus in simple words one can say that Borges was humanitarian with an aspect of modernism deep within.

Existentialism and its philosophical deviations had deeply influenced Borges. Existentialism as a philosophical concept or ideology developed by Soren Kierkegaard and Fredric Nietzsche explained their human struggle for existence, and existence in its fullness. This conflict of knowing one’s own existence and existential reality is seen in all his works in one form or the other. 

As a political conformist, Borges was revolted by Marxism in theory and practice. He has explained the Marxian ideology of power and discourse in most of his works. He was very particular about writing when it comes to revolution and peoples forward march. Doubtless to say, it was deeply rooted in Marxian perspective.  

"The Aleph" is a collection of short stories written by Borges. With a concise, occasionally short style, in an ironic and pessimist attitude, he deals with philosophical questions, history, time, personal identity, human ethics, and the mystical experience of the Oneness in his collection of short story. Borges had a metaphysical standpoint of reality and his fictional universe is absorbed in secret concepts and theological speculations on Gnosticism. Gnosticism is the philosophical concept which says that matter is evil. They hold the idea that knowledge should be present in a man rather than matter in order to make him or her human and fully human. He has used this idea throughout this collection.

The Aleph which is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is considered as the mystical letter through which it is possible to see the whole universe. So, it refers infinity, which is an inseparable part of Borges writings. Borges integrates this notion in his fixation to find the ultimate solution of life. According to Borges, the purpose of one’s life has no meaning, what is important is the ethical and intellectual character; reality is seen as ideas which persist while they are superficial, time has no beginning and is not infinite. In this unconceivable world, the self must be quenched in order to realize revelation.

To understand Borges is a difficult task as he uses number of philosophical technics at the same time in the same work. It requires rereading and interpretation, it requires an internalization of his philosophical perceptions which inconsistently means the unfeasibility of understanding.

José Julián Martí Pérez (January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. he was a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a poet, an essayist a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was an important symbol for Cuba's fight against Spain in the 19th century. Due to this he is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence”.

He was against the Spanish rule of Cuba and said that Cubans have a different way of living which is very different from the Spaniards and therefor he wanted them to leave their country. He wished for Cuba to be a democratic republic and not ruled by a foreign country. He wanted to establish a “patria” which means fatherland, with a good government where Cubans of all social classes and colours could unite and live in harmony. In 1889 there were talks of Cuba being purchased from Spain by the United States but Martí wanted full independence or nothing.  He also established the The Cuban Revolutionary Party which secretly organized the anti - Spain war. He was anti – American but he did recognize and admired the work ethic, education, agricultural advancement, right of speech and development of the Americans. He felt that the Latin Americans should consider imitating/mimicing the ways of the Americans to develop and better themselves. However he did not want them to imitate them politically as he felt they were ‘carnivorous’. Still, he did not want Cuba to be ruled by the Spanish or purchased by the Americans.

In his poem “I Dream Awake” he dreams of Cuba breaking free from the rule of the Spanish and being a free country. He sees a child calling out to him for help. The people of Cuba were treated cruelly by the government of Spain. This child symbolizes the children or the people of Cuba who are calling out for someone to give them independence from Spain and its cruelty. They are calling to him for help and therefore he feels that it is his responsibility to fight for his country, Cuba.

He gave importance to creating a Latin American identity, knowing the reality of their history and having their own national literature. He took upon himself the task of building national identity. We see this in his poem I Have a White Rose to Tend (Verse XXXIX) in which he shows his social and political hopes for his country. A white rose is a symbol of peace. He wants all the people of Cuba, irrespective of personal, ethnic, racial or any such differences to unite and live in peace. He wanted to establish a sense of national identity and a feeling of oneness and belonging amoung the people of Cuba. The act of giving a white rose to an enemy as well as a friend shows how the people should give up their personal differences and come together to unite as a nation against Spain. One should treat their enemy just as one treats their friend as they are all children of the same country.