MODERN  AND  MEDIEVAL  LANGUAGES  TRIPOS    Part II

 

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            Monday 31 May 2004     1.30 to 4.30

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            Paper Sp. 12

 

            LATIN-AMERICAN LITERATURE

 

 

Answer THREE questions, ONE, TWO OR THREE from Section A, ONE OR NONE from Section B, and ONE OR NONE from Section C. 

 

Candidates’ scripts as a whole must include ONE OR MORE answers that relate to poetry.

 

Candidates for this paper may NOT draw substantially on material from their dissertations or material which they have used or intend to use in another scheduled paper.  Candidates may NOT draw substantially on the same material in more than one question on the same paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may not start to read the questions printed on the subsequent pages of this question paper until instructed that you may do so by the Invigilator

 

            SECTION A

 

            Topics in Latin-American Culture

 

1          ‘Gran movimiento de entusiasmo y libertad hacia la belleza’ (Juan Ramón Jiménez). Discuss this characterization of modernismo with reference to AT LEAST TWO modernista poets.

 

2          ‘A poetry of hybridizations and dislocations, inhabiting the in-between spaces.’  Discuss this characterization of negrista poetry with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE poets.

 

3          ‘There is a fundamental tension in avant-garde poetry between the tendency towards verbal autonomy and the desire to break apart language and escape from the tyranny of Logos.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE avant-garde poets.

 

4          ‘Eso no puede escribirse’ (Luisa Valenzuela). To what extent is this the central problem underlying works dealing with dictatorship? Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE texts.

 

5          Discuss the ramifications of the ‘civilización/barbarie’ opposition in the narrativa de la tierra with reference to the novels or short stories of AT LEAST TWO writers.

 

6          ‘En la política, los poetas redescubren el poder transformador del lenguaje.’ Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE socially-committed poets.

 

7          ‘Far from exoticizing differences (be they cultural, sexual, geographical, racial, or temporal), magic realism questions the mechanisms which uphold difference, rendering the familiar strange and the strange familiar.’   Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE works.

 

8          EITHER (a) ‘La ciudad es lugar de encuentros insólitos, a veces fortuitos, a veces funestos.’  Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE urban narratives or films.

 

OR (b) ‘Experimentamos la cotidianidad urbana como un laberinto espacial y temporal donde nadie percibe la totalidad, nadie entiende las conexiones profundas.’  Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE urban films or narratives.

 

9          ‘Their poetry is full of silences, enigmatic gaps and absences. What remains unsaid is as important as what is said.’  How applicable is this statement to the work of TWO OR MORE Latin-American women poets?

 

10        Examine the use and function of THREE OR MORE of the following in AT LEAST TWO experimental texts: language games; mise en abyme; temporal jumps; doubles; monsters; proxy author figures; cultural references; music or musical structures.

 

11        ‘Prefiero una literatura que profundice en lo real y no que la siga como un perro’ (Alan Pauls). In the light of this statement, discuss the function of anti-realist techniques in TWO OR MORE works of historical fiction.

 

12        ‘En su afán por condensar experiencias, el cuento latinoamericano tiende a ser meta-cuento, se vuelve circular y autorreferencial.’   Discuss with reference to the works of TWO OR MORE short-story writers.

 

13        Examine the engagement with or questioning of cinematic realism in AT LEAST TWO Argentine films of the post-dictatorship period.

 

14        ‘The practice of escritura femenina in Latin America tends towards the political (in the broadest sense) rather than being merely some French-inspired translation of the pulsions and rhythms of the female/maternal body.’   Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE texts.

 

15        ‘Como dice Beatriz Sarlo, los latinoamericanos vivimos “el clima de lo que se llama ‘posmodernidad’ en el marco paradójico de una región fracturada y empobrecida”. Esto tiende a producir obras cuya estética es híbrida: cómplices de la cultura masiva pero críticas al mismo tiempo.’ Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

16        Discuss the ethical dimension of testimonial literature with reference to TWO OR MORE works.

 

17        ‘The gaze is always, in some sense, an encounter with otherness.’ Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE artists or photographers.

 

18        ‘El arte y cine surrealista en América Latina se inspira más en las experiencias propias del continente que en el movimiento europeo.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE artists OR film directors OR BOTH.

 

 

 

(TURN OVER

 

SECTION B

 

Poetry and Commentary

 

19        Answer ONE of the following questions:

 

(a) Write a critical commentary on the following poem. You may, if you wish, relate this poem to other work by Storni, but it is not necessary for you to be familiar with her poetry:

 

REGRESO EN SUEÑOS

 

Boca perdida en el vaivén del tiempo;

detrás de los paisajes escondida;

boca hacia atrás huyente en el espacio;

boca muerta que fuiste boca viva:

 

Torbellinos de rostros te apagaron,

tú, que eras rosa ya palidecida;

bloques de casas, cielos circulantes,

telones fueron a velarte esquiva.

 

Alguna vez la punta de la llama

pintó en el aire la ligera estría

de tu boca atersada a finos verbos:

seda en la seda, flor más florecida.

 

O levanté la mano para asirte

en la nube traslúcida que lucía

acuchillada del cuchillo mismo

que parte en dos la ya palidecida.

 

Y a veces, en el fondo de otra boca,

flor de agua pura aun más verdecida,

hube de hallarte. Mas se abrió tu boca

como la sal al viento en las salinas...

 

Pero anoche, ¿de dónde regresaste?

¿De tumbas de agua? ¿De raíz nutrida

en anchos bosques? ¿De trasmundos malva?

¿Qué cadenas de seres te fue guía?

 

Cortaste los paisajes y los rostros,

los circulantes cielos en huidas,

bloques de casas, hojarasca de horas,

y me hallaste no muerta, que dormida.

 

Pájaro de aire, reposó la boca

sobre la boca mía anochecida.

Mas no era boca. A musgo, macerado

en los soles de Dios, se parecía.

 

Alfonsina Storni (Argentina)

 

 

            (b) ‘Paz’s poetry is summed up in the paradoxical attempt to “decir lo que dice el río, larga palabra semejante a labios” while being condemned to use the shattered words of a fallen language: “sílabas de tiempo, letras rotas, gotas de tinta”.’  Discuss.

 

            (c) ‘The passionate commitment of Rubén Darío, be it to the creation of a new language and sensibility in Spanish, be it to the reality of his continent, is one
and the same.’  Discuss.

 

            (d) ‘In the poetry of Vallejo, there is an absolute divide between intellect (“soul”) and matter (“body”), between Word and World. This is why he turns so easily to traditional Christian paradigms even in his most revolutionary work.’   Discuss.

 

            (e) ‘Neruda’s poetry is obsessed with language and the failure of language.’ Discuss.

 

            (f)    ‘Existen dos estéticas: la estética pasiva de los espejos y la estética activa de los prismas. Guiado por la segunda, el arte hace del mundo su instrumento, y forja – más allá de las cárceles espaciales y temporales – su visión personal.’  How applicable is this idea to the poetry of Vicente Huidobro?

 

            (g)   Examine the confluence of politics and Christianity in the poetry of Ernesto Cardenal.

 

            (h)   ‘El neobarroco lezamiano crea un universo poético totalmente autónomo.’ Discuss with reference to the poetry of José Lezama Lima.

 

            (i)    ‘La poesía de Borges es la lenta y obsesiva fabricación de Dios.’  Discuss.

 

            (j)    Compare the way in which TWO OR MORE Latin-American poets exploit the tension in poetry between meaning and poetic form or style.

 

 

SECTION C

           

Narrative

 

20        Answer ONE of the following questions:

 

(a) ‘Las obras de Rulfo son laberintos verbales en que se percibe un solo lamento: el de la soledad.’   Discuss.

 

            (b)  ‘La forma breve resume toda la obra de Borges: ¿para qué describir un mundo si el lenguaje sólo fabrica y falsifica? Mejor es referir ese mismo proceso de falsificación de mundos posibles.’ Discuss this characterization of Borges’ work with reference to TWO OR MORE collections of short stories.

 

            (c)  Apply Alejo Carpentier’s concept of ‘lo real maravilloso’ to his own work, making reference to AT LEAST TWO texts.

 

            (d)  Examine the ramifications of the theme of solitude in the work of Gabriel García Márquez.

 

(TURN OVER

 

            (e)  ‘Cortázar’s work is an attempt to find and express that place in the mind where all of the oppositions of Western, rational thought dissolve.’  Discuss.

 

            (f)   Examine the function of TWO OR MORE of the following in the narratives of Carlos Fuentes: masks; doubles; sexuality; temporal cycles; hybrid cultures.

 

            (g)  ‘Las novelas de Vargas Llosa son una exploración de la naturaleza de la escritura y de los límites de la narrativa.’  Discuss.

 

(h) ‘La obra de Puig combina una especie de realismo experimental—oscuro y elusivo—con la idea de que la realidad que refleja no es más que una acumulación de imágenes y palabras vacías.’  Discuss.

 

            (i) ‘Paradoxically, it is through an exploration of small, intimate spaces and everyday tragedies that Traba manages to express the collective catastrophes and displacements underlying the momentous political upheavals of her time.’  Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE texts.

 

            (j)   ‘There is a curious disjuncture between the conservatism of her literary style and the radicalism of her subject matter.’  Discuss this description of the narratives of Rosario Castellanos with reference to TWO OR MORE texts.

 

            (k)  ‘Las novelas de Sábato nos obligan a enfrentar los lugares abyectos de la experiencia humana.’  Discuss.

 

 

END OF PAPER