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Annotated Bibliography

Gordon Brotherston: “ La herencia maya y mesoamericana en Leyendas de Guatemala”

Brotherston talks about Asturias’ sources and inspirations. He claims that Asturias draws much from Popol Vuh, the collection of the stories and legends of the Quiché Kingdom. Later in the article Brotherston delves further into the topic of the impact of Mesoamerican texts on Asturias and Leyendas, such as Anales de los cakchiqueles, the legends (and creation myth) of kaquchikel. He also talks about Asturias’ European influences, and the effect that the years which he spent away from Guatemala had on the development of Leyendas. It also runs through a comparative analysis of earlier and later editions of Leyendas, with a particular focus on the illustrations that accompanied earlier editions but not later ones. Brotherston later also addresses the distinctions between the first half of Leyendas and “Los brujos de la tormenta primaveral” and “Cuculcan”, assessing the stylistic variances between them, but also finding sufficient similarities to reconcile them into the unity of Leyendas. The article then goes on to talk about the impact and significance of Leyendas in Latin American literature, influencing things such as later representations of time, of identity, and inspiring countless future writers to follow similar patterns. Possible wiki page categories: Asturias’ sources or inspirations – context – history – textual analysis – impact or significance.

Martin Lienhard: “Nacionalismo, modernismo y primitivismo tropical en las Leyendas de 1930”

This article approaches Leyendas from a bit of a critical perspective. Lienhard addresses Asturias’ earlier essay, “El problema social del indio” and compares his attitude to that in Leyendas via this lens of the “problema indigena”. He then addresses the issue of nationalism, which presents itself in Leyendas, saying that the formation of a Guatemalan national identity was his main goal for the novel. He analyzes this attempt of Asturias to save a country through its culture. After this discussion of the political context, Lienhard tackles the artistic context in which Leyendas was formed. He talks about the tropical atmosphere, and a recreation of the “poetica indigena” or the native forms of poetry. Also, a list of inspirations and friendships with authors, artists, and translators appears, as well as a re-examination of Asturias’ use of Popol Vuh and Anales de los cakchiqueles from a much more critical perspective. This is followed by a close reading and critical analysis of each legend, where Liehard ties in certain themes to its western literary or Mayan parallel. He also analyzes the stylistic techniques of Asturias’ writing, as well as the literary qualities of Leyendas within the context of the specific tales, and this mythical world of fluidity and magic. Possible wiki categories: political or historical context – Asturias’ inspirations or sources – literary analysis – links with Mayan culture – criticisms.

René Prieto: “La figuraciòn del surrealismo en las Leyendas de Guatemala”.

Prieto starts by defending Asturias from the public’s reactions to certain political stands taken by him as she attempts to negate this “leyenda negra” that exists around his persona. She further analyzes him through this political lens, for example via an interpretation or the messages carried within each legend in Leyendas. She then explores Asturias’ possible inspirations, focusing on a series of congresses he took part in, between 1925 and 1932, which all focused on the goal of a reunification of Latin American forces. On this thread to auto-identification Asturias was lead to explore the origins of Guatemalan culture and identity. Prieto also talks about Asturias’ inspirations, friendships, and travels, all as factors that lead him in the direction of writing Leyendas. She mentions Asturias’ publications of early versions of the legends in El Imparcial, a Guatemalan newspaper. She then analyzes each legend in Leyendas within its own internal context, analogizing the fictions with facts; for example she explores the truth behind the statement that Guatemala was constructed over buried cities. Preito finally claims that Asturias conveys his message through the contrasts between the techniques and the themes of Leyendas. She calls his mingling of native and Spanish elements, the past and the present, and the real and the exaggerated, “neoindigenista”. Possible wiki categories: political or historical context – literary analysis – literary themes – technique – message - Asturias’ inspirations or sources – defense against criticisms.

Arturo Arias: “Quetzacóatl, la hibridación y la identidad indígena: Leyendas de Guatemala como laboratorio étnico”.

This article focuses on Asturias’ recognition that Quetzacóatl was able to construct one of the greatest of all American myths, and more specifically on how Leyendas provides a hybrid identity for the Guatemalan subject. Asturias wrote Leyendas in order to reinvent a Guatemalan identity. Arias analyzes Ahora me acuerdo in great detail, distinguishing the elements of Mayan myth from those of Spanish colonial influences. He further discusses the hybrid nature of the text, introducing the “mal ladrón” in order to reevaluate initially marginalized subjects. Other examples of hybridity are presented, for example how the narrator, Cuero de Oro sings and dances, but he sings a-e-i-o-u – the vocals of the Latin alphabet. He claims Leyendas deviates from Popol Vuh in that it is something more sad, more violent, an origin story for the Mestizo, which came out of the conquest by Spain, an act which was bloody and violent in nature. Arias then describes the myth of Quetzalcóatl in its traditional form, and then contrasts it with the interpretations of Asturias. He also talks about a psychotic breakdown within the text in which the boundaries of real and not-real are blurred to the point where reality is lost. This breakdown results in seeing the world in a sensual, instinctive, and subjective way (ojos infantiles, el perro, etc). Basically he claims that the tension resulting from the vacillation of the hybrid subject is what is most powerful within Leyendas. In the end, Arias also explores sexuality that is present throughout the legends and how that ties in with this overarching theme of duality. Possible wiki categories: historical or literal context – hybridity in Leyendas – identity – Guatemalan identity – social factors – sexuality in Leyendas.

Isabel Arredondo: “¡Abróchense los cinturones!: el viaje al inconsciente en las Leyendas de Miguel Ángel Asturias”.

Arredondo focuses on the theoretical plans Asturias had for Leyendas, as well as how he implemented these, and compares Asturias’ interest in the Guatemalan legends with that of other figures in his time. She poses the question : Why was Asturias so interested in discovering and re-writing legends? Folklorists were interested in categorizing the legends by theme and motifs, anthropologists in the identities of the cultural communities, and writers each had their own interests. Yet generally a preoccupation with the question of identity was the most dominant push towards the study of legends. For Asturias, a legend is a cultural artifact in a state of constant change. Wanting to be part of this change, Asturias took popular and well-known legends and modified them, combining elements, and morphing some parts beyond recognition. For example, in order to introduce the world of desire, in Leyenda de Sombrerón he creates a duality between the boy and the devil, which was absent from the original story. Arredondo analyzes similar examples, then moves on to describe the intellectual climate of the 1920s and 1930s. She then explores the connections between Asturias and the unconscious – and the inability to categorize him as a surrealist. Arredondo cites Paul Valéry in saying Leyendas is a collection of stories-dreams-poems. She explains that through the rhythm of words, allusions to sensations, and associations, the prose of Asturias creates a hallucination-like experience. Overall Arredondo tells us to hang on and enjoy the ride. Possible wiki categories: intellectual or historical or literary context – deviation from traditional folklore – relation to traditional legends – textual analysis – literal analysis

Francisco Solares-Lavarre: “El discurso del mito: respuesta a la modernidad en Leyendas de Guatemala”.

Solares-Lavarre argues that in Leyendas, Asturias puts up a resistance and a form of criticism against modernity. His dualities of written versus oral, rational versus intuitive, homogenization versus singularity, all form a response against the rationalization and modernization of Hispano-America. He separates Leyendas from the traditional form of a legend and instead labels it as “mito crítico”, or critical myth; something that takes up the structural characteristics of a myth, but uses the stark language of modernity creating a strange sensation of surrealism. He emphasizes the importance of the mythical discourse throughout Latin American literature as a form of resistance to the assimilating forces of modernization. Solares-Lavarre makes a point of stating that he is not reading Leyendas through an analysis of magical realism, since he believes that Asturias is presenting the reality of the magical as the origin of Guatemalan identity, as this mythical thought process is what keeps the culture alive. Overall he concludes that Leyendas belongs in the genre of “mito crítico” rather than “realismo mágico”. He then presents a more in-depth analysis of specific stories, such as Guatemala in terms of the three above-mentioned categories of resistance to modernity. He also later contrasts the magical qualities of myth and scientific qualities of modernity in Asturias’ writing techniques and vocabulary, emphasizing detailed imagery and the vocal nature of his writing. He then moves on to an analysis of the content of each story in Leyendas discussing the topics of the magical logic and fluidity of faith, versus rationality, He also explores Asturias’ opposition to positivism, and how he embraces a hybrid identity without trying to assimilate and individualize. He presents the Mestizo as a solution to the clash of the Spanish and the native, which according to Solares-Lavarre represents his embracing of homogeneity over the singularity prescribed by modernism. Possible wiki categories: textual or literal or contextual analysis – rebellion against modernity – hybridity in Leyendas – mito critico – criticism of magical realism.

José Mejía: “Complejudad y riqueza cultural del mundo mestizo en la obra de Asturias”.

Mejia explores the culture that lives within Leyendas. Structurally he describes Leyendas as a fusion between poetry and prose. Thematically he discusses the intermingling of traditional Guatemalan culture and post-colonial elements. He makes a distinction between the legends in which Asturias takes well-known tales and those which he creates by taking various elements from folklore and forming new stories. He claims that Asturias is actually forming the origin stories of a Mestizo country, and therefore emphasizes the hybrid qualities of his stories. He explores the fluidity of time and space and of the imagery used in the stories. Mejia poses the question of why there are two introductions to the legends themselves, Guatemala and Ahora me acuerdo, and seeks the answer in the process of easing the reader into the different logical framework that the legends work within. For the overall structure of the book and the relations between each legend, Mejia proposes a concentric circular model of structure. He also claims that Leyendas is indeed the first work in which elements of magical realism appear (vs. Solares-Lavarre). He uses further analysis of the content of the legends as well as literary devices such as repetition used by Asturias to illustrate this claim. Possible wiki categories: structural analysis – literary analysis – hybridity – fluidity of time and space – magical realism

Selena Millares: El agua de los suaños: las Leyendas de Miguel Ángel Asturias”

Millares analyzes the magical and dreamlike qualities of Leyendas. She contrasts it with surrealism using the metaphor of reflections: if surrealism is like viewing the world through a concave mirror or a broken mirror, then Asturias’ style of writing is like seeing the world through reflections on water – emphasizing the natural qualities of his writing. The legends portray an atavistic lucidity, which further employs this magical and natural style. She analyzes the character of the great trickster in Cuculcán as he explicitly questions the truth of fiction and the falsity of reality. Millares elaborates on literary devices such as juxtaposition of what the natives describe as words that have never met before. She also touches on El espejo de Lida Sal, a continuation of Leyendas. The dominant characteristics of the indigenous paradigm that Asturias works within are: the main role of nature and natural forces, the genetic power of words, the mytheme of metamorphosis, and the pertinence of the dream-world and material imagination. Millares then traces these elements through each legend in Leyendas. Possible wiki categories: magical realism – aboriginal elements in Leyendas – literary analysis

Giuseppe Bellini: “Introducción al mundo mítico: Leyendas de Guatemala”

Bellini starts by putting Asturias’ childhood in the context of Guatemala’s history and a rise of a dictator which influenced his family, and how this lead to his political activism and artistic creativity in the future, making him a defender of his spiritually rich world; Asturias expresses man’s supreme aspiration for freedom and justice within his works. He was also involved in a fight against illiteracy in his youth. It was the violent climate of Guatemala in 1921-23 that led his parents to send him to Europe to study. Bellini (as well as some of the afore mentioned articles) emphasizes the relationships he made there, especially with his professor Raynaud, and surrealists, activists, and other authors of his time, both Latin American and European. Bellini also analyzes Leyendas through the foreword for the French edition by Paul Valéry, a text that is very important in the analysis of Leyendas. He also emphasizes the influence of Popol Vuh on Leyendas, as it brings the nostalgia and the theme of intimate contact with Gods and Nature that characterize each legend. He also analyzes the permanent presence of demons, and links that with colonial elements in the stories. He cites several textual examples form each legend and traces literary and contextual analyses and comparisons through them. He focuses a lot on imagery and the poetic atmosphere. Possible wiki categories: background on Asturias – background on Leyendas – literary context – historical context – influences – magical realism – literary analysis