Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

Lecture Notes

Bio:

  • Born on March 6, 1928 in Aracataca, Columbia (a small village near the Caribbean). Lives first 8 years of life with grandfather who did not approve of his parents marriage. Parents (Luisa Santiaga Marquez and Gabriel Eligio Garcia) married despite his father being a conservative of lower social status and the mother’s family being liberal. Grandfather was a retired Colonel. Their relationship was the basis for the love story in Love in the Time of Cholera between Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza.
  • Much of Garcia Marquez’s experiences as a youth were inspiration for both One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera.
  • Under the influence of his parents, Garcia Marquez studied law at the University. Due partially to a political situation, he is able to switch to studying Journalism and begins a career that guides his life as a writer.
  • Marries wife Mercedes Barcha in 1958. They have two sons (Rodrigo born in 1959 and Gonzalo born in 1962)
  • 1959-1961 he is sent to Havana, Cuba as a journalist and establishes a relationship with Castro. He eventually moves to Mexico City after pressure in the US over Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • 1961-1964 Claims to have experienced years of writer’s block. Break through novel comes in 1965 with One Hundred Years of Solitude.
  • Garcia Marquez uses his success to also fuel a career as a political activist drawing attention to problems in his native country as well as all of Latin America.
  • 1982 Garcia Marquez receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. Youngest recipient since Albert Camus.
  • 1985 Publishes Love in the Time of Cholera
  • Most recent work was non-fiction titled News of a Kidnapping in 1996
  • Diagnoses with Lymphatic cancer in 1999 but is receiving treatment

Literary Significance:

  • Greatly influenced by Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.” Seemed to give him the literary permission for using Magical Realism and incorporating the stories of his imaginative aunts and grandmother: “That’s how my grandma used to tell stories, the wildest things with a completely natural tone of voice.”
  • “The works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez have captured the imagination of people around the world for over thirty years. As an activist and an artist, he has asked people of all races and classes to examine the dangers of power, greed, selfishness, and indifference. And in the face of suffering, whether from death, sickness, injustice, or cruelty, his vision always seems to return to the healing power of love and compassion” (Fahy 21).

Love in the Time of Cholera:

  • Spans a period of 60 years from approximately 1875-1935
  • Has three distinct time periods: two years when Florentino and Fermina renew their courtship, their fifty-year history, political history of Columbia.
  • Written in the style of a 19th century Spanish literary form called the folletin. This is a type of work that sentimental, published in installments and usually has a love triangle.
  • Critiques the conventions of idealizing love by showing the love between two people in their 70s.
  • Addresses class distinctions and how they dictate people’s choices.

References:

Thomas Fahy. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera: A Reader’s Guide. New York: Continuum, 2003.