Truth, History and Myth in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude

Abstract

Latin American writers learnt from Borges' fiction how to assimilate innovations of European modernism, thus becoming fully aware that were part of that movement, spite of their geographical or cultural marginality. And, as Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria demonstrates subtle essay dedicated to problems of contemporary Latin American novel, Borges was also one who taught those writers, especially Alejo Carpentier, Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, how they were and at same time were not part of Spanish literary tradition, with test being Cervantes' Don Quixote.2 A few years later, Carpentier offered perfect lesson transformation of Latin American history into fiction. This was new demonstration of how early American historiography and novel were linked from their very beginning, with linchpin being Cervantes' novel. (Garcia Marquez himself, addressing these issues his interview with Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, El olor de la guayaba [The Scent of GuavaJ, talked about the supernatural elements that form part of our daily life and that the Caribbean is different world whose first work of magical literature is The Diary of Christopher Columbus, book which tells of fabulous plants and mythological worlds.3) Thus it became clear that modern Latin American fiction mainly represents search for non-essential kind of essentialism, search for origins that are non-determining and stand precariously on break with past. And this was very first lesson to be learned from Borges' complicated and insidious rewriting of Quijote (Pierre Menard, Author of Quixote being, of course, perfect example). Other versions of Cervantes' narrator appeared field of 20th century Latin American novels: Melquiades and his manuscript One Hundred Years of Solitude or various textual plays with status of writing Yo el Supremo or character of Platino. They represent, collectively and individually, turns to second most important character created by Cervantes Don Quixote: not Sancho Panza, but author/authors fiction. By insisting on these elements, Latin American reading of Cervantes' masterpiece uncouples creation from any essence that gives text an ontologically determined or revealing order. Because Echevarria is right: the second lesson to be learnt from Latin American rewritings of Quijote is that Cervantes as figure of author is more important than Don Quijote character, whereas Spanish readings Don Quijote is more important.4Garcia Marquez' s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude was published 1967 and was considered multi-layered book, new version oi Don Quixote, written Latin American key, as Carlos Fuentes demonstrated well-known essay that analyzed mechanisms of a second reading. The book is, on first examination, long, episodic and sometimes violent story of Buendia family who establish town called Macondo, somewhere (South American) jungle - or perhaps even out of known world. After century of incredible stories (and histories) of characters and of their fictional world, Macondo is destroyed by wind, thus existence of this family and of their town is ended. Of all contemporary Latin American novels, none has captured public imagination more than One Hundred Years of Solitude, book selling tens of millions of copies all over world. And, as D. P. Gallagher points out, in Latin America it appears, remarkably, to appeal to most people who can read.5 Nevertheless academics also praised novel highly. One possible explanation for such phenomenon may be that One Hundred Years of Solitude can be read on many levels and interpreted from various points of view, following example of Cervantes' Don Quixote. First there is superficial level on which Garcia Marquez' s novel sustains an obvious appeal: town of Macondo that author had been inventing for many years (traces of it being identifiable his short fiction, rightly called by Mario Vargas Llosa veritable prehistory of Macondo6) is an extraordinary place, populated by extraordinary people whose antics appeal on first reading, sometimes lending impression that novel is full of caricatures. …