Author | Alicia Yánez Cossío |
---|---|
Language | Spanish |
Published | 1980 |
Publisher | Imprenta Don Bosco [1] |
Publication place | Ecuador |
Beyond the Islands (in Spanish: Más allá de las islas) is a novel by the Ecuadorian writer Alicia Yánez Cossío, published in Quito, Ecuador in 1980. [2] The plot, framed in the genre of magic realism, [3] follows the story of eight people who travel to the Galápagos Islands to escape Death. [4] [5] The work was translated into English in 2011 by Amalia Gladhart. [6]
Yánez has stated that it was the most difficult of her books to write, and she considered it the best of her novels. [7] [8]
The first version of the book told the story of a writer who traveled to the Galápagos Islands in order to forget about her marital problems, caused by her husband's infidelity. However, noting that the novel had acquired many autobiographical elements, Yánez decided to edit it, remove the character of the writer, and include a unifying thread of the storyline in the figure of Death, which had become one of the author's obsessions at the time. [8]
Yánez began writing the novel in the middle of 1976 and was finished in 1980. [9] To gather information about the Galápagos, Yánez made two visits to the islands, in addition to reading as many books as she could find about them. On the basis of these facts she created the characters, some of whom were completely invented and others based on real people and incidents. [7] One example was the visit of a European princess that Yánez witnessed during her stay in Galápagos, and for whose reception the school teacher prepared a great event which all the students participated in, but given that the princess arrived wearing jeans and casual clothes, nobody could recognize her. [4]
The novel is divided into eight chapters, each one of which follows a different character in their attempt to evade Death. [6] The chapters are narrated in the third person and take the name of the character in question, with relatively independent in that they contrast the problems of civilization with life in the surroundings of nature in Galápagos. [10]
Literary critic Miriam Merchán describes the novel as "a text full of lyricism". Additionally, she referred positively to the use of magic realism and to the criticism that Yánez made of what she described as the "flaws of a civilized society", among which were counted ambition, religious fanaticism, greed and the feeling of needing to go to extremes. [11] The writer Francisco Tobar García also praised the novel, asserting: "From the first chapter, maybe the finest of all, the writer takes us to that beyond, so difficult to be true poetry, moving poetry that weaves itself into the story. It is a strange, colossal, troubling book which many descriptions fit." [3]
The professor Lady Rojas Benavente highlighted Yánez's criticism of the abuses of religious institutions, asserting that Hispanic words needed more authors that made them, and comparing Yánez with the writer Clorinda Matto de Turner. [10]
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Author | Alicia Yánez Cossío |
---|---|
Language | Spanish |
Published | 1980 |
Publisher | Imprenta Don Bosco [1] |
Publication place | Ecuador |
Beyond the Islands (in Spanish: Más allá de las islas) is a novel by the Ecuadorian writer Alicia Yánez Cossío, published in Quito, Ecuador in 1980. [2] The plot, framed in the genre of magic realism, [3] follows the story of eight people who travel to the Galápagos Islands to escape Death. [4] [5] The work was translated into English in 2011 by Amalia Gladhart. [6]
Yánez has stated that it was the most difficult of her books to write, and she considered it the best of her novels. [7] [8]
The first version of the book told the story of a writer who traveled to the Galápagos Islands in order to forget about her marital problems, caused by her husband's infidelity. However, noting that the novel had acquired many autobiographical elements, Yánez decided to edit it, remove the character of the writer, and include a unifying thread of the storyline in the figure of Death, which had become one of the author's obsessions at the time. [8]
Yánez began writing the novel in the middle of 1976 and was finished in 1980. [9] To gather information about the Galápagos, Yánez made two visits to the islands, in addition to reading as many books as she could find about them. On the basis of these facts she created the characters, some of whom were completely invented and others based on real people and incidents. [7] One example was the visit of a European princess that Yánez witnessed during her stay in Galápagos, and for whose reception the school teacher prepared a great event which all the students participated in, but given that the princess arrived wearing jeans and casual clothes, nobody could recognize her. [4]
The novel is divided into eight chapters, each one of which follows a different character in their attempt to evade Death. [6] The chapters are narrated in the third person and take the name of the character in question, with relatively independent in that they contrast the problems of civilization with life in the surroundings of nature in Galápagos. [10]
Literary critic Miriam Merchán describes the novel as "a text full of lyricism". Additionally, she referred positively to the use of magic realism and to the criticism that Yánez made of what she described as the "flaws of a civilized society", among which were counted ambition, religious fanaticism, greed and the feeling of needing to go to extremes. [11] The writer Francisco Tobar García also praised the novel, asserting: "From the first chapter, maybe the finest of all, the writer takes us to that beyond, so difficult to be true poetry, moving poetry that weaves itself into the story. It is a strange, colossal, troubling book which many descriptions fit." [3]
The professor Lady Rojas Benavente highlighted Yánez's criticism of the abuses of religious institutions, asserting that Hispanic words needed more authors that made them, and comparing Yánez with the writer Clorinda Matto de Turner. [10]
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: |work=
ignored (
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