Alejo Carpentier
by Graziella Pogolotti
Alejo Carpentier’s work has lost none of its validity over the years. Mainly distributed in western Europe and Latin America, it is now spreading to previously unexplored areas of the planet’s geography. It has penetrated the Arab world, China, Japan or South Korea. A very powerful transnational is preparing new translations of The Lost Steps and The Age of Enlightenment. This market disappeared abruptly with the collapse of the European socialist bloc, but there are signs of a slow recovery in countries such as Poland, Latvia and Romania.
For these reasons, and because of the intrinsic value of the work, the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Age of Enlightenment must be seen as a real event. The continuity of its resonance with successive generations of readers, its way of transcending time by offering citizens of the 21st century the latent potential of readings and interpretations attuned to fundamental issues of our time, give it the appropriate category one Classics of lyrics.
The mishap of the plane on which he traveled from Caracas to Paris forced the writer to stay and wait in Guadeloupe for a few days. There, chance would lead to the discovery of a character who would give a definitive twist to a novel that was already in the making. Victor Hugues proved an insignificant player in the process initiated by the French Revolution, which continued with the rise and fall of the Jacobins and the turn of Napoleon’s founding of the empire. Sent to America, much of its action took place on this side of the Atlantic, particularly in the Caribbean, from Guadeloupe to Cayenne.
Carpentier had found valuable material for projecting onto a broader horizon the fundamental transformation of the historical novel that he had initiated with The Kingdom of This World. Its story begins with the tremors that shake the house in colonial Havana, where after the death of their father, on the eve of coming to life, Carlos and Sofía remain imprisoned together with Esteban, their cousin, all dazzled by the innovations of science and Technology powered by the Enlightenment Century. Esteban will follow Víctor from Haiti, in the midst of an uprising against colonialism and slavery, to Paris in full swing of the revolution, before returning to America and will be by his side to witness the triumphant return of the Cayenne forces of reaction. He returns to Havana and Sofía will then contemplate the Frenchman’s decadence and the grotesque image of his last mask.
With the new historical novel, Carpentier develops a subversive and decolonizing discourse. This occurs through the superimposition of multiple shifts in perspective that shatter the foundations of the official narrative of the dominant metropolitan power, the historiography of modernity, legitimized by talented authors of high academic standing. The point of view that drives the story is set in the geographical space of our America, including the multilingual arc of the Antilles, making the Caribbean a true Mare Nostrum, counterpart to the Mediterranean, land of origin of Western culture, carrier of a civilizational model.
Although the planet began to shrink since the voyages of Columbus, the dominant quirk characterizes time from a chronology centered on the sequence of events that marked the rise and fall of the Jacobins, the events that coincided with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte , and the founding of the empire. The Century of Enlightenment is doubly transformative, traversing these turbulent years through the experiences of Esteban and Sofía, ordinary citizens, witnesses and secondary participants in the events. In doing so, it not only puts the perspective of the countries of the Americas and the Caribbean, but also builds a vision forged from below, thus pointing to a radical shift in power relations.
Simultaneously from the otherworld came the decree abolishing slavery and the guillotine, the urge for the emancipation of the oppressed, the “miserable of the earth”, according to Fanon, and the rational instrument of death always mentioned in the text, such as “the machine”, the serves its purpose effectively, designed by an engineer with the application of an impeccable geometric line, a true triumph of engineering. The historical cycle ends with the reintroduction of slavery and the infamous African trade. However, as reported by a Cayenne observer based in that colony, the “great maroonage is not over yet.” When Esteban and Sofía disappear in the midst of the popular uprising in Madrid against the Napoleonic invasion, we are on the eve of the start of the struggle for Latin American independence.
The recurrence of the “machine,” a technological advancement model for executing the damned, an instrument of death, reveals the irony of The Age of Enlightenment’s title. In an explicit dialogue with the painter Goya, Carpentier recalls that “reason makes monsters”. In order to build true knowledge of reality and the imperative commitment to transforming it, reason must be complemented with passion. It is the way of wisdom. For this reason, Sofia’s name was not chosen randomly, considering its etymological root.
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of The Century of Enlightenment, on September 17th, in the usual room of Book Saturday, the latest Cuban edition of this work, essential for several reasons, will be presented. It has been carefully prepared by researchers who have eliminated errata of varying degrees accumulated in successive editions and incorporated a number of annotations extremely useful to readers.
It is an invitation to introduce us all, both experts and novices, to a classic text from the perspective of our troubled contemporaries.” (Taken from JR)