Abstract
Novels in Latin America emerge in post-independent times when the inhabitants of the continent begin nation building. These novels have been called as the foundational novels and are premised on romances between white males and indigenous colored women. Garcia Marquez’s love stories take off against such foundational narratives to expose instead the falsity of such myths. This paper proposes to look at three novels to trace how different love stories premised on the social trappings of incestuous relationships as in One Hundred Years of Solitude, or racist agenda in colonial Latin America as in Of Love and Other Demons, or of unequal love as in Love in the Time of Cholera explode myths of foundational romances.
Foundational Fictions
The foundational fictions are the novels written in the nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth century. They are called “foundational fictions,” “national romances,” or “national novels” in that these novels were instrumental in molding the national identities of Spanish American countries. The main objective was to reconcile, unite and constitute a national matrimony between the marginalized and non-marginalized through love stories.
The Boom and Love as Antithesis
The Boom novels unwrite or rewrite the myth of the foundation of nation-states. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Macondo was founded on exile, violence, solitude, wars in place of peace and nonviolence. Instead of telling a love story, the novel rather deals with the theme of incest, violence and desolation. Garcia Marquez subverts the national imaginations of a Latin American country united by “chaste” love.
Postboom: Love Liberated
In the Postboom novels, love liberates itself from political and ideological burdens. Of Love and Other Demons narrates a prohibited love story between Sierva Maria de Todos los Angeles and Cayetano Delaura. Love in the Time of Cholera narrates love story between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza that lasts more than half a century.
Works Cited
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