Mientras maduran las naranjas

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Mientras maduran las naranjas (While the oranges are ripening) is a youth novel by Canarian author Cecilia Domínguez Luis ,published in 2009, which deals with the Spanish Civil War from the perspective of an adolescent girl.

content

action

The story extends over a period of around 13 years and begins with the birth of the first-person narrator, who tries to reconstruct her earliest childhood memories on the first pages of the novel. Subsequently, the reader is given a diary-like insight into the life of the protagonist , with everyday occurrences acting both as a framework and as a mediator of the historical events. The first-person narrator Sara, who is also the main character in the novel, was born in Tenerife ten years before the start of the Spanish civil war. In Mientras maduran las naranjas she recalls the following years up to the end of this tragic historical period . It quickly becomes clear that the relationship with the mother and the older sister in particular are formative for their development. In addition, it is predominantly events as a result of the civil war that have an impact on Sara. She experiences the imprisonment of her relatives, the humiliating treatment of other villagers, the secret listening to forbidden radio stations or the radical intervention of the police.

people

The main character of the novel is the first-person narrator Sara, who grows from child to adolescent in the course of the plot. Other important characters in Mientras maduran las naranjas are Sara's big sister Lupe and her mother Julia. These three people are at the center of the plot. Sara's relatives appear as secondary characters. To be mentioned here are Sara's four uncles Daniel, Nicolás, Juan and Ernesto as well as the aunts Isabel and Amalia. In addition, friends of Sara and Lupe and a few villagers are briefly mentioned in the novel.

Subject

Thematically, two focal points can be identified in the novel by the Canarian author. On the one hand, Cecilia Domínguez Luis deals with the events of the Spanish Civil War, especially in the Canary Islands. On the other hand, the focus is on the protagonist's growing up and growing up, as the title of the novel makes clear in metaphorical form. The novel skilfully combines individual human development with coming to terms with the social past .

shape

The narrative style of the novel, which is determined by the train of thought and the perspective of an adolescent little girl, is particularly striking. The protagonist describes her everyday life as a child. In doing so, she comments and analyzes the events from the perspective of her children's world. The limited perception of the childhood perspective acts as a kind of filter and yet conveys the harsh reality of the time. Even at the beginning of the novel it becomes clear that the first-person narrator has grown older. It therefore brings the events back to life in memory. What is remarkable about this is that she does not try to sort and analyze what happened in retrospect in her mature world of thought. The perception of the events is therefore determined by childish naivety and yet - or precisely because of this - this gives the narrative a special intensity.

literature

Text output

  • Cecilia Domínguez Luis: Mientras maduran las naranjas . Cam-PDS Editores SL, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2009, ISBN 978-84-937234-2-2 .

Secondary literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Juan-Manuel García Ramos: La guerra y nuestra literatura . July 4, 2010, accessed March 12, 2020.
  2. ↑ Daniel Duque: Una invitación a la memoria . In: Cuadernos del Ateneo de La Laguna , Vol. 29 (June 2011), pp. 122–130, here p. 124.