Author Archives: David Peckham

Week 4: Mistral

To be honest, I was a little bit unprepared for this weeks reading, not unprepared as in not ready to read this weeks text, but unprepared for the themes and ideas that Gabriela Mistral discusses in her work. After reading through all her poems, I found it somewhat difficult to fully understand all the thoughts and feelings that Mistral expresses in her poems, but I could definitely pick out certain themes and emotions in many of her poems. After reading the introduction by Randall Couch and having finished reading all the poems, I started to somewhat glimpse into the reasons behind the language that Mistral uses in the original Spanish and the English translation by Couch. Although Mistral was born in Chile, she moved around all her life, spending her days in countries all across Latin America and Europe. She never stayed in any one place for any long period of time, instead she seemed to gain a cosmopolitan knowledge of the world and the cultures that she lived in. I also find it interesting that many of the poems that she writes, deals with the feminine ideals and expectations that Latin American and Western society had in the early twentieth century, and the way that she tells her poems seems like a reaction to those expectations or maybe as a way to personally reconcile herself with them.

One poem I especially liked was the Abandoned Woman, as it made me think of a phoenix from Asian folklore. The Abandoned Woman deals with abandonment as the title suggests, although it is undescribed as to who abandoned her, but the poem also has a heavy theme of moving on from personal relationships which have lead to a present that is no longer possible for the woman to inhabit. In this particular poem, I found it interesting how all the words that Mistral uses, have a connotation to either the beginning of life or the end of it. In the end, the woman decides to eventually carry on with her life despite the setbacks from her personal relationships and live for herself, she describes her new self as burning down the life she had before to create something new.

Overall, while I maybe did not fully understand all the ideas and emotions that Mistral was trying to convey in her amazing poems, I did thoroughly enjoy reading them, as I think that they have a very unique prose and I enjoy Mistral’s other works, and I especially appreciate her love for education, as she is known in my native Mexico where she helped to create the modern education system while she was residing there.

My discussion question is pretty simple: Is there an overarching theme to Gabriela Mistral’s Madwomen poems? If you think that there is, what theme is it?

Week 3: The Underdogs (Mariano Azuela)

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After finishing The Underdogs (Los de Abajo), I came to the conclusion that there are two ways to read and interpret this book. The first way is to read the book from the descriptions and explanations given to us throughout the character dialogues in all three parts, and to read the book quite literally as a embellished war memoir with a heavy nihilistic element, not too uncommon of the early twentieth century. The other way to read The Underdogs is as a great tragedy and epic, where the actions of the characters are directly impacted by powers outside their control and by the forces and events of the Mexican Revolution that lurk in the back, and how each character reacts to these events.

After reading the foreword before and after finishing the novel in all three parts, I could not help finding myself in agreement with Carlos Fuentes, who reaches the same conclusion that Azuela’s The Underdogs follows the Homeric epic tradition, pioneered by Homer’s Iliad. Carlos Fuentes explains his reasoning for this comparison by stating, that both The Underdogs and the Iliad serve as a national origin story for primary audience, there has certainly been praise for The Underdogs as THE novel of the Mexican Revolution, however I could not help but notice many more similarities between The Underdogs and Homer’s works and that is what led me to my analysis for the text. We can compare the roles that the characters of The Underdogs play as a mirror of the roles that the characters of the Iliad have. Demetrios Macias and Luis Cervantes are similar in character to Agamemnon and Menelaus respectively, Demetrios serves as the leader of the revolutionary band and Luis plays the part of the revolutionary spirit of the group. The main figures of the revolution also act like the Greek gods of the Trojan war, as their actions are what ultimately decide the fate of the characters of the novel, while we never see them, they hold a place of reverence among their supporters or demonized by their enemies, especially Pancho Villa and Victoriano Huerta.

We can also divide The Underdogs into two distinct episodes, first we have the romanticized first episode, where the Revolution fought by the disenfranchised indigenous campesinos and urban liberals fight together against the militaristic and fascist old regime, and resembles a romantic epic. The second episode of the novel, however takes a radically different tone and resembles more a tragedy, where the ideals of the revolution are tossed aside, in exchange for infighting and dividing the spoils amongst the victors of the Revolution. If we take the first episode of the novel as resembling the Iliad, we can take the second as the Odyssey, where Demetrio must make his way back to his home and family and faces numerous trials and tribulations.

Also found it interesting how the actions of the character of Luis Cervantes resembles that of the Author, so my discussion question is: Do you think that Mariano Azuela purposefully made Luis Cervantes actions in the novel reflect his personal experiences?

Week 2: Mama Blanca’s Memoirs

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The book Mama Blanca’s Memoirs is about the narrator who recalls her earlier years as a young girl and her time spent around the central figure of the novel, Mama Blanca. While the book itself is called Mama Blanca’s Memoirs, the novella is actually a memoir of the author or the narrator recalling her memories of Mama Blanca. In the novel, Mama Blanca is described as a strong willed, but kind hearted old lady, as she is described as being in her seventies, who enjoys playing Beethoven on her piano and spending time in the garden listening to the chirping of birds and other animals.

As described in the preface, the central theme of Mama Blanca’s Memoirs is the sense of past memory, or more accurately nostalgia. Both primary characters of the novel experience nostalgia, Blanca Nieve (Snow White), narrates the entire novel based on a feeling of nostalgia for a childhood past that she spent in the care and company of Mama Blanca, while we are given hints to Mama Blanca’s own past and her desire to return to that past. The sugar plantation plays an important role in the story as it reminds Mama Blanca of what she has lost in her life and the sweet memories that she associates with the sugar plantation. While de la Parra reflects on the lost memories and nostalgia for the past for both Blanca Nieve and Mama Blanca, she does not linger on the idea of a lost past for too long as she describes the beauty and wonder inherent in living in the present and how living in the present is usually a preferable way to live than dwelling on previous memories.

What I also find interesting is the use of ‘blanca’ or white to bring colour to the novel. Snow White and Mama Blanca (literally, ‘mother white’) share this connection with the colour white, as the classic fairy tale Snow White (or at least the familiar Disney version) describes Snow White’s name as coming from her “skin as white as snow”. Indeed refined sugar, which we associate with Mama Blanca’s sugar plantation, also shares the connection of the colour white through its appearance. I am sure that de la Parra used this use of white, as a symbol of youthful innocence and sweetness, both for Blanca Nieve’s youth and Mama Blanca’s youth.

Listening to the lecture provided by Jon, also made me wonder about the reliability of the narration throughout the novel, as we are told the story of Mama Blanca’s past through two different sources before it arrives to us, who is not to say that the story was embellished on the way to us?

My discussion is: What do you think is the symbolism behind the use of the colour white in Mama Blanca’s Memoirs?

Week 1: Introduction

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Hello Everyone, Hola Todos! My name is David Peckham, I am a second year arts student, double majoring in linguistics and latin american studies. I am very excited to be taking this course, as I have always been fascinated, intrigued and interested in latin american literature from a very young age. Since around the age of 9, I have read many books published in French and Spanish, stemming from my dual Mexican-Canadian identity and from my mothers love of latin american authors, in particular Isabel Allende and Gabo. I hope that taking this course will allow me to discover new latin american and spanish authors and literature, and learn about the backgrounds and context in which these works of literary artistry were written in. I am especially excited to be taking this course with our professor, Jon Beasley-Murray, as I have taken a previous literature course with him last semester and I am acquainted with his work in latin american studies, through exposure in latin american studies courses and his seminars with the department of french, hispanic and italian studies (FHIS). What I look most forward to in this course, is discovering new authors, or revisiting familiar authors, but through a new literary lens and questioning or generally engaging with the context that these works have appeared in or were driven by. I look forward to reading and discussing with you all!

I found the first lecture video had some very interesting ideas about the importance and use of context in analyzing literature and the authors behind literary works, and the importance in understanding the proper context of these works in to fully understand the ideas and themes that these authors use. I was especially excited by professor Jon’s mention of the idea of politics in literature, as I have previously analyzed how literature and essays in latin america have been used to further political ideas and sentiments in latin american countries in previous decades. As someone with a mexican background, I look forward to reading the mexican authors and texts described by professor Jon, and seeing how these texts and ideas have influenced my country. To answer one of the questions asked by professor Jon in his lecture video, I expect the readings will be very mindful and will reflect the life experience that each other has lived through, as one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman wrote that the world that an author writes about will always be a reflection of the world they live in.

My question for this weeks blog is, what piece of literature has impacted you the most?