Talk:Gabriel García Márquez
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[edit] Valid Photo
Will someone find a photo of this guy on google images or something? Actually, here's the url http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/images/gabriel_garcia_marquez_1.jpg Someone else has to do it please.
[edit] Magical realism
While I have left the original reference to Magic Realism in, however this really is becoming a vexed term in the field of lit.crit.
There are 2 distinct origins for the term, one German post-surrealist, the other widely abused as a large catch-all for South American literature. It is the latter which is in debate here; many people see it as problematic on the grounds that it imposes an unecessary and unworkable categorisation.
In an interesting article at http://www.qub.ac.uk/english/imperial/india/Magic.htm , by David Mullan a neat summation of the problem is set out:
However, Anglo-American critics have given the term the definition most commonly associated with it, i.e. it is a mixture of the quotidian and the fantastic, both in terms of content and technique. Yet this is to impose a certain paradigm on non-Anglo-American literatures (especially the Spanish-American since the term is most closely associated with it). Essentially, to describe a work of fiction as "magic realist" is to impose a system of order in much the same way a colonial power imposes its idea of order on a subjugated social system. The problem here is that anything which seems uncanny or unfamiliar to Western eyes becomes "magic", while to a native of that culture the events or ways of thinking so described are "real". For the Anglo-American critic, the term becomes a tool which does little more than 'other' the culture a text describes. Additionally, the binarism of magic/realism sets magic as the lesser term when applied by a humanist thinker.
We really ought to be trying to avoid these cultural and ethnocentric shorthands in Wikipedia... sjc
I guess that's what I get for leaving the academic world for a couple of years. I had no idea this debate was going on. When I was in school, it was common to refer to Marquez as the founder of Magic Realism, which was not limited to the South American authors (for example Toni Morrison, and Kurt Vonnegut were considered part of the genre). I don't know what happened to turn the term into a culturally charged debate, but it is unfortunate.
Your above paragraph implies that Marquez would have actually thought he was describing "real" events when a corpse's blood flows out of the house, down the stairs, across town and up through the murder's door to his room. This is uncommon behavior for blood, and comes from a literalization of the "trail of blood" metaphor. To pretend that this is not an intentional mixture of the quotidian and the fantastic, and that it is the reader who imposes this "colonial and oppressive" order on the text seem to me absurd.
On the other hand, if the term is actually being understood by a majority of academics (not just American academics either) as a derogatory remark, we should certainly acknowledge that and change the article accordingly. Prejudice and real cultural imperialism are social practices which we need to strongly discourage in the wikipedia and in the world at large. --MRC
[edit] Memoria de mis putas tristes
Memoria de mis putas tristes was released last year, some one should update this page to reflect that. I'm not really confident in english to update it myself
[edit] First major work?
The article cites Relato de un náufrago as his first major work, but I believe Leaf Storm was published first, and GGM's autobiography depicts it as his first major work in his own eyes. It was also his first published fictional work beyond short stories, and since he's better known as a fiction writer, it might be misleading to use the nonfiction Relato as his "first major work." Can anyone provide a cite for the text in the article? | MrDarcy ¡digame! 17:33, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] barranquilla?
Hey As far as I know, Garcia Marquez is saluted as a Barranquillero -- he spent much time and wrote several of his works there (I'm not confident enough to list exactly which, but I'm pretty sure Cien Años at least...). Perhaps there should be some mention of this? 140.247.250.253 01:48, 19 March 2006 (UTC)eva
[edit] SHORT FICTION: What's a myth? ( Devin Moran)
I recently read The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World: A Tale for Children by Marquez, and I must say that I enjoyed it. I think that it was a great way in showing just how real it can be when a myth is started. I actally thought it was rather sad inthe way the myth panned out. One quote I like to phrase is everything is the dark soon comes to the light. and i think it was a sad day when the village people had to find this out in a rather abrupt way...
[edit] ISBN
I have added the ISBN number for this article. Kilo-Lima|(talk) 13:13, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
Shouldn't that be moved to the non-fiction section?
[edit] Year of birth
There is a discussion whether he is born in 1928 og 1927. According to one editor on the Norwegian Wikipedia his biography says 1927, so says the spanish newspaper El Pais. Encyclopædia Britannica says 1928, the same is written on his biography on the Nobel Foundation website [1].
It would be good to have this correct as he is 80 tomorrow, is 1927 is correct. Ulflarsen 10:21, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
- I would ask that an admin look into the changing of year of birth. Have checked with EB and New York Times, both state he was born in 1928. I have reverted it once, someone else take over now. Ulflarsen 15:21, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
He himself says in "Living to Tell the Tale" that he made himself a year younger by switching his birthday from 1927 to 1928 to avoid the Columbian draft. Somehow it stuck and in many places his year of birth is still reported, incorrectly to be March 6, 1928. Happy 80th Gabo!!!
- On the Norwegian Wikipedia we have checked with his agent and he reported that he is indeed born in 1927, so that should be correct and it is what we have used for his article in Norwegian. Ulflarsen 20:32, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Carlos Fuentes: as one of South America's best writers...
Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama to Mexican parents, therefore he should not be included among the South American writers (intro). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Eltri85 (talk • contribs) 05:34, 6 April 2007 (UTC).
