Macondismo

The term Macondismo (English Macondoism ) is a derogatory term for a literary movement in Latin America , which was widespread from around 1940 to 1990. It is named after the fictional, nostalgic, timeless place Macondo , where Gabriel García Márquez set his novel Hundred Years of Solitude , and can largely be equated with magical realism . Occasionally, critics also count works of Argentine fantasy in the successor of Borges , such as those of Federico Andahazi and the late Costumbrismo, to be Macondismo.

The term Macondismo was coined with critical intent by the Chilean center-left politician, cultural critic and essayist José Joaquín Brunner (* 1944). He describes Macondo as the “final aristocratic gesture of a semi-developed continent that is forced to recognize itself as modern” (“the final aristocratic gesture of a semideveloped continent that is finally obliged to recognize itself in modernity”). Critics like Brunner accuse the representatives of magical realism that by constructing and idealizing a rural, ethereal mestizo milieu (the so-called macondización , “Macondization”) with its angelic female figures , they involuntarily promoted a reduced view of the culture of Latin America and of the the colonial past of the subcontinent, which continues to affect the present. A younger generation of writers (the Macondistas ) such as Isabel Allende and Laura Esquivel have continued Macondization in view of the strong demand in Europe and the USA for this type of idealizing literature with commercial interests. After all, Macondismo was taught in literary workshops, since 1995 by Sandra Cisneros (* 1954), a Mexican-American author.

Anti-Macondismo, Desmacondización ("Demacondization")

An early critic of magical realism was the Colombian Andrés Caicedo (1951–1976). More massive criticism of the exoticism of Macondismo and its commercial exploitation first arose in the 1990s in Chile among the representatives of the McOndo group (a mutilation of Macondo and McDonald's, also the name of an anthology published in 1996 ) around Alberto Fuguet (* 1964) and Sergio Gómez (* 1962) and in Mexico with the authors of the group of drugs called. Generación crack to Eloy Urroz (born 1967), but also in Guatemala , Colombia (duch Juan Gabriel Vásquez ) and Cuba (by Reinaldo Arenas ). The authors of Generation Crack also referred to Macondismo as “magical neoliberalism” or “postmodern costumbrism”.

The Guatemalan novelist Mario Roberto Morales (* 1947), a former activist of the student movement, questions the image of Guatemala drawn by Miguel Angel Asturias and calls for a departure from Macondismo ( desmacondización ), which promotes the good conscience of the former colonial rulers with the image of a harmonious hybrid culture and do not do justice to the complex reality of Latin America. Instead of a post-colonial society, he finds an ethnically divided country that is helplessly at the mercy of the ideological and goods flows of globalization.

The Colombian-American translator Erna von der Walde described Macondismo, which was celebrated in the metropolises, as an element of a hegemonic discourse that was presented as an expression of an authentic third world identity.

Michael Rössner states that the literary construction of a unified, peaceful, mestizo identity and the political commitment that goes with it have failed. He also ties in with the theory of post-colonialism when he describes the “narrative elemental force” of Latin America as a “consumer good for the center” that is marketed here.

Emil Volek from Arizona State University accuses Macondismo of suggesting a postmodern reality of Latin America, of overlooking the secular constructional flaws of Latin American societies and thus of skipping the need to fight for and the problem of modernization. Unfortunately, Macondismo has found an heir: US Latin Americanism , a Macondismo cultivated by American intellectuals with US touches , which does nostalgic memory work.

Post-Macondismo

In post-Macondismo , mass media influences and popular genres gained in importance, especially the detective novel. The great narratives were replaced by more intimate, private, culture-unspecific stories; They mostly play in the big city, but are often no longer precisely located topographically and socially.

literature

• Emil Volek (Ed.): Latin America Writes Back: Postmodernity in the Periphery. An Interdisciplinary Cultural Perspective. New York, London 2002.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Janet L. Sturman in: René TA Lysloff, Leslie C. Gay, Jr. (Eds.): Music and Technoculture . Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 2013, p. 155.
2. ↑ José Joaquín Brunner: Traditionalism and Modernity in Latin American Culture , in: Volek 2002, pp. 3–31, here: p. 17.
3. ↑ María José Sabo: La "nueva narrativa" en los años noventa: El Manifiesto Crack en la teoría-crítica latinoamericana. Ed. Eduvim, Córdoba (Argentina) 2015, p. 79.
4. ^ Mario Roberto Morales: La 'desmacondización' de América Latina , in: voltairenet.org, May 20, 2002.
5. ↑ Erna von der Walde: Realismo Mágico y Poscolonialismo. In: E. Castro Gómez, S. Mendieta: Teorías sin disciplina. Mexico City 1998, p. 109.
6. ↑ Michael Rössner: Hybridity as 'Anti-Macondismo': Paradigm Shift in Latin American Literature at the Turn of the Millennium? In: Alfonso de Toro, Cornelia Sieber, Claudia Gronemann, René Caballo (eds.): Estrategias de la hibridez an América Latina. Frankfurt, New York 2007, pp. 395-407.
7. ↑ Michael Rössner: "Latin Literature's New Look" in "old" Europe. In: Diana von Römer, Friedhelm Schmidt-Welle (ed.): Latin American literature in German-speaking countries. Iberoamericana Ed. 2007, p. 114.
8. ^ Emil Volek: Beyond Latin Americanism and other Accidental / Occidental tourism: Guatemala (NS) in search of cultural theory, and more. In: Universum 20 (2005) 1, online
9. ↑ Doris Wieser: 'Literatura gay' in Brazil and Portugal. In: Susanne Klengel u. a .: Novas Vozes: On Brazilian literature in the 21st century. Frankfurt 2013, p. 57 f.