124 Luis Leal and published by tho Rosi Revow by Anoni sy 6 Leal rofers hero to the Hispanic American movement of “Moder {istinguished from European and North American modernism, and closer to 10959) p 185 [The Bd ofthe (Neve Yorks Harper and Row, 1978), p. 248. Pietri, Angel Flores, Alejo Carpentier. See the essay by the later: “De lo reel marwillosamonte americano,” Tientosy diferencias (México, 1946), 1 Frant Roh, cited hy Juan Eduardo ection (Barcelona, 1956), p. 365, AMARYLL CHANADY ‘The Territorialization of the Imaginary in Latin America: Self-Affirmat ‘Metropolitan Paradigms and Resistance to Imaginary: Reason and Imagin In Control of the systematic con- ive conception of mimes tation of consecrated masters the most routine aspects of di imaginary replaces the Ch the same time was the desideratum of, politi- ” (31). Medieval theocentrism gives way to the cent ‘of reason, which leads contral ofthe imaginary In Latin America, however, Romanticism was characterized neither by ve self-reflection nor by the questioning of hegemonic models, the land that was to he replaced on the writ prevalence of deseri126 Amaryll Chanady iy and partly to the Latin American strategies of identity-construction that em specificities, The New Wor jrement that it express nation the precepts of European p imaginaty is subsequently controlled the example of Buclides da Cunha, who advocates the “marrage of science and a How can we reconcile the fictional Marquez, populated by characters ascending to heaven amidst bedshects, mysteriously levitating while den 4 world benighted deluge lasting several years and yellow flowers flling from the sky, with the claim that New World fition nary based on the mime cially bearing in mind dl to Control of the Imaginary that Costa Lima's inclusion of poiesis es the claims of the artistic imagination to subvert and go beyond the hegemonic paradigms regul lyin the major texts of Geri: ion between pedestrian faney and innes magical realism may be ani literary mode alongside a thoory emphasizing al realism seems to represen tion and academie popul ical Re Tervitorialization of the Imaginary 127 saginary enables us to effect a rereading of the literary mode and its confusing and contradictory theo I of Flores’ essay int contemporary novel he decade 1940-50, which saw the “most magnifi- de espera [The Wai opening sentences and talented wey worked128 Amaryll Chandy in aesthetic mysteries but versed in subilet imbued with centuries of culture, and the New World ex-colonies evolving tural rofinement—by demonstrating the accep ite present state of evolution w on a lower plane of Flores’ rejection of “needlessly baraque descr tumbres’” [“loca color cealism” ized by positivism (117, n. 1). In spite of his emphasis on the influence of Katka, Flores points out that Latin Amerion ing” already existed before 1935 (he mentions the “magical” elements of Columbus’ and Cabeze de Vaca's writings and te of wond and exot ihén Dario's stories atthe end of the nineteenth cen- tury), but differs from the “cold and cerebral and often erudite (113) of the magical realists, whose art consists in “the amal- sm and fantasy” and, inthe case of writers such as Kafka, reality with the though the common denominator between cexoticism, wonderment, the onciric, and the supernatural is supposedly nt taking of the same as the “cold and cerebral” narratives of authors such as Kafka and certain Latin American magical real contemporary “imaginative” writers consciously produce ating from the canons of realism wit preting the wor following expla the same preoccupation with style and also the same transformation of the common and the everyday into the awesome and the unreal ‘They all will subseribe to Chico's dictum: “What is most ofall nee- tion ofthe Imaginary 129 essary isto rid art of everything of the known which it has held ur and symbol must he put aside... ‘Thought must draw so far away from human fetters that things may appear to it under a new aspect, as though they are illuminated by a constellation now appearing forthe fist time” (214) tion developed relevant i the case of ma e chronicles deseriptive topot from fying off asin rather puzzling observa ry tales, to supernatu is certainly super- American authors such as “The Metamorphos ‘of magical realism cli We may find « parta aietion by considering the emphasis on the innovative character of the imaginary by avant-garde writers. Fery tales cannot be considered magical realist because they ad- the imaginary to even more than sm. Coleridge's distinetion between fancy and the130 Amaryl Chanady and the idealiaing and w endeavor, which Jochen Schulte- ing cro ‘Sasse compares with that hotween mimesis and poiesis? is also relevant to reality does not apply to Flores’ European fiction. However, Carpe: French Surre fice and based on stock m and his comment about cal realism. Although Flores ire for metrop min the nocentric term to emphasize the nature of Territorialization of the Imaginary 131 the imaginary. A par- garde fiction is ascribed to @ that isnot adequately jus tified in the argumentation of the essay. This justification had, however, already been carried out by Alejo Carpentier in his 2949 prologue to The Kingdom of this World (El reino de este mundo), but the author's ‘were apparen Before returning to Carpentier’ fore he trace back to the nf magical realism as an “attitude towards reality” that consists ofthe “discovory ofthe mys- terious relation bet In ovder to perceive the “mysteries of an extreme state [+ the example of Crisanto Bi inhabitant in Rémulo Gallegos’ novel Cantaclaro (1934): who explains to ‘the young man from the ca the character's perception. Leal adds that in magical realism the ‘events have no logical or psychological explanation, Though this state- ‘ment is also relevant to the fantastic fictions of Kafka, for example, and the inadequacy and irrelevance © of fictional events, Whereas Flores stresses fantasy as an esse for the creation of innovative fiction, Leal explicitly rejects the li imposed by reason. Although the significance of both essays weir arguments proceed i by the cultural establishment of the metropolis, even though, as I have132 Amaryl Chanady pointed out above, his emphasis on ‘that has liberated the imagi perceptively pointed out, while relegating it to an auta ined sphere of at. Such int jon of the imaginary, the in art sinee the end ofthe eightoonth century has effected a more devastat- ing control than that exercised by decorum and reaso. ies have pointed out, the fanta inomy between the laws of reason and ent, when ration ‘paradigms to astc fictions the premises of a frequently Enlightonment are deconstructed by the description of apparently super- natural events and constant reference to the fear ofthe protagonist in the face ofthe inexplicable, Although this ty tory— affirming and cf phasis is on the rationalizing at ‘mastery of the unknown and reco paradigms. Leal’s preoccup: ‘even though he a of fantastic narrative is highly ns. Rejecting Flores’ ed by the influence of Kafka, ‘emphasis has complex realism can be largely exp Teritorialization of the Imaginary 133 traces the emergence of the mode to Franz Rob's 1925 « 's 1948 discussion of the Lat and Carpentier’ on adopts Carp sertion of the existence of a marvelous reality, but does not eategori ized a literary marvelous, which Carpentier opposed to th ‘of European writers of fantast though Carpentier’, Lea's, iched in onto logical terms (Latin America is marvelous), the surr jons of their treatment of the imaginary indicate a more complex epistemological prob- first would be Huamin Poma's argument atthe be teenth century that the Ineas were already Christian imation of the colonial enterprise on334 Amaryl Chanady the grounds of evangelization’* The seoand alternative is illustrated by the Cuban essayist Jos Basing his argument on vas subsequently to hecome a eatchword for au- Marti advocated the h devlepment of loa tems everyone's things” (g13)- Here the emph of intellectual paradigms considered inadequate in the context of Latin American society. Reason and knowledge are consequently rol a general quest ial in Lat paradigms, became very influ Mexico. It was there that his diseiple José Gaos thinkers such as Leopoldo Zea.” ‘The third argument for autonomy, one based not on the claim of si- nilitude, or difference and equal difierent forms hefore and after independence. Inthe pet preceding and following independence, numerous Lat Dut on superiority, took two ra 1d immediately srade peninsular paradigms and adopt more efficient means of economie ‘management and government. By portraying a New World Adam working the land and contributing to the development of the continent, they val rized progress joting the eolonial heritage in 2 ty was thus transformed into an asser- Territorialization of the Imaginary 135 tions ofthe new hegemonie values is Jos6 Vasconcelos’ 1935 essay entitled The Cosmic Race (La raza eésmica) in which he mocked what he qualified ly by 8 vastly superior age of taste, to be brought about by the Latin American fifth race, amalgam of the four other races. He opposes intasy, the supreme faculty” and “constant 3m and tyranny” of the age of reason.” The antipasi subversion ofthe neocolonial hierarchy between the newly emerged world power to the north and of Rdé’s 1900 essay Ari European reason hi n the contrary, i sn argument that had already been developed by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno during their 2944 exile in California. According to Par, “the dreams of reason are intolerable” a forture chambers" In other essays, Paz explains that Mexico 1ose of progress and posi- ly led to a greater European rational canon. One of the criteria for the conceptual ‘of the colonized was their supposed absence of reasoning facul- debated whether the Indian had ‘who denounees the barbarity of the Spanish conquest and colonization,136 Amaryll Chanadty Claiming that a Latin American (or gene different hut equal to the Franco-German tr ing the elaim to universality of European a means of ques Leopoldo Zea recent projection of Europe's own negative qual -nporary challeng and the c thus compared to the attack on the canonical conceptual tution of knowledge within the metropolis. fis complex background of the colonized subject's re imposed models, the to neoeolonial domi stance of the newly independent mn and the European cemological para- jon of metaphysical and ¢ as opposed to the epi firming official values a srences, emphasizes national preo necessarily in the modern sonse). Latin American intellectuals have fre- of the Imaginary 137 ion of literature, even going so ive and dehumanizing and advocated a “marvelous” approach aki of the magico-mythic Peéltanschawung. of pri in Carpentier’s prologue to The Kingdom of this World, the Cuban outhor coins the expression lo real ‘ spontaneous, natural womai corruption of modern society involves # nostal | have remarked earlier in my discussion of ‘of the imaginary in Latin Ameri the marvelous is portrayed by Carpentier as artificial, while the authen-138 Amaryll Chanady tic marvelou: the Ni was considered by Breton’ group as a more authent al eriticism of dominant values and conceptual paradigms ied by Carpentier as in turn manifest fice, as just anot pean spirit. In order adds Carpentier, one must have Faith.” ‘This apparently paradoxical rej arpentiex’s rearrangement of the “nor ‘mal” chronology in The Kingdom of this World nse and structural experimentati insformation of aleatory events into a signifying network charac~ sd by meaningful correspondences reminds us of Borges’ botween the concept ‘worldview in which everytl realists in their narrative strategies of identity construction contributed to their enormous sucoess in Europe. Territorialization of the Imaginary 139 Another interesting pa of reason by members of ers chronological manipulation in ‘The Kingdom ofthis World. According to some Suet and objective abser- the perception It is not the parti ‘among events that pirical knowledge, imagination.* ‘The subject of Cortizan’s 62: Model Kit is not merely Parisian society and the peregrinations of Argentinian expatriates but the way in which the protagonist produces meaning from the bhim2S A rare Chateaubriand steak triggers a network of problematization. He rej product of the protagonist's imagination in what would then be a patently140. Amaryll Chanady Kafka’s “The Metamorphosi fon the margin perspective of Brazilian modernismo, jon and advocated “antlropoph or selective cannibalism, in rable are incorporated. In other est in oriental philosophical and religious systems indicates that Cortdzar ged in « general r of hegemonic Western models. In the case of magical realist narratives that attempt to reereate an au- tochthonous worldview, one ean also es influence. The Guatemalan a became acquainted portance af European ingel Asturias, for example, nous legends of his own country and developed a style that demonstrates his knowledge of modern literary techniques such as expr and Sur nonreflexive primitive s course of knowledge is dissolved by a novelistic discourse an indigenous worldview by means ofa non-European focalizer. The novel Men of Maize (Hombres de mais, 1949), for example, does not give us an ethnographic acoount, accompanied by lengthy explanati rogionalist and cost practices of the sta depiction of the quaint customs and religious jonous protagonists In spite ofthe lack of indige- 1 tion of the Imaginary 143 nous voices in a polyphonic narrative in the Bakhtinian sense, Asturias? novel produces a worldview different from the Western one and present sense defined by 1s unacceptable ring to the world of reason, magi ‘n Asturias juxtaposes two worldviews without establishing a hierarchy be- a marker of difference, and the general del ceptual frameworks of the past few decades. Iheoquont references are to Won B. Fa142 Amaryll Chanady 4 Foros, “Magi p22 in this volume, ns, Stephen Holmes and Press, 198) fomastique: La posiique de Tincertain (Pars: ofthe emergence 15 See Roger A. Zapata, Guan Por, indigenismo y esttin de la dependencia er la cultura perwana (Minneapolis: Insitute for the Study of Ideelogies end subject, ee Horna Vidal, Sco hitoria ras ongéicas (Minne te frthe Sty of Tdeologies and Literature, 1985) exp. chop. Vasconcelos, La race fi Jen (Lov Angel hispanoamericana: tres fornia State Universi. 1979) p27. Teritorilizaion ofthe Imaginary 143 +20 Octavio Paz, The Labyrinsh of Sond, trans Lysander Kemp 2950; row ed sng barbarism to the legacy ty accompanied by fant that of te worst Europea 22 Fora eritical di Allegory: The Funetion of Racal Difference in Cl exatue” (Creal Inquiry ‘he Conquest of Mesce” Cultura Critique 9 24 Leopoldo Zea, Discurso desde la marginacény ta barbare (Barcelona: Athro- pon 988), p 274 25 Fredric meson, “Third World Literature in the Bra of Mul fam.” Social Text 3 (8 Otherness and the 26 Fora discussion of this subject, 28 Piorre Mal 29 Alejo