Chronicle of a Death Foretold mini essay

Academia Letters, 2021

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (CODF, 1981) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez can be seen as a therapeutic psychoanalysis session whereby the narrator is trying to get the witnesses talking of a murder that happened 27 years ago. Although, this entire activity cannot be taken in the conventional psychoanalytic process, yet a scope of it seems to be floating in the novel. The journalistic fervor of the narrator leads him to interview multiple witnesses and in the process reveals the conscious and the unconscious mind of the interviewees while challenging the notion of an "absolute truth". The subjectivity and relational aspect of truth emerges out of the multiple recollections of a set of people highlighting the diverse manifestations of an event and challenges the long accepted assumption of the unitary nature of truth. The act of murder can be said to be a continuing process through the assortment of multiple memories of individuals, all leading up to the murder. CODF as a post colonial novel structurally deviates from the Western notion of a novel. Marquez writes (like all of his other novels) in the "adept phase" of post colonial writing where we see a "declaration of cultural independence" as well as a reformulation of the form of novel. This reformulation can be said to be happening in the novel in various ways. We see that the novel is framed within a very long span of time, with frequent oscillations between different historical time and consciousness. The actual event, the Death that was 'Foretold happened 27 years ago from the act of its documentation. This wavering keeps on happening primarily through the synchronic act of recollection of events which reminds one of the modernist techniques of novel writing. But CODF stands different from modernist novels in the sense that the focus on individual psyche of modernist novels is broken down here by the inclusion and juxtaposition of multiple psyches, including the ones who acted, the ones who resisted, the ones who witnessed and the ones who let it happen. The singularity of individual

Evolutionary Perspectives on Death, 2019

This chapter constructs a framework for understanding depictions of death in literature and illustrates this framework with reference to specific literary works. The framework makes use of ideas from evolutionary psychology, human life history theory, terror management theory, the psychology of meaning, the psychology of fiction, and evolutionary literary theory. The chapter explains why humans create literary depictions of death, describes how imaginative meaning works in literature, characterizes the emotions evoked in literary depictions of death, and characterizes the attitudes toward death adopted by authors and characters. After constructing this theoretical framework, the chapter gives examples of literature that describe the whole span of an individual human life, then critiques three short stories that focus on specific themes in human life history. Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” illustrates survival as a motive. Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” illustrates death in childhood. D. H. Lawrence’s “Odour of Chrysanthemums” illustrates death in an intimate pair bond. A final section describes the state of research in the main fields that have contributed to the theoretical framework and suggests directions for further development.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most prominent writers from Latin America, who managed to capture the nuances of life in the sub-continent in a realistic yet magical fashion. His works have as their background, the throbbing, vital life of his native soil and this is best reflected

Irish Arts Review Yearbook, 2002

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 2003

This paper considers how death and dying are presented in literature. A wide range of texts, principally but not exclusively from the English language tradition, is used to illustrate themes. Broad categories are suggested for the study of death: some authors give personal accounts of their impending death or their sense of bereavement; some use literature to structure and order our thoughts about death; and some treat death as a literary device, using it, for example, as a symbolic representation of the decay of society. It concludes that the biggest obstacles that health professionals and patients face as they attempt to understand death in literature are concerned not with a lack of appropriate emotional depth, but with difficulties either in understanding the conventions of literature or in coming to terms with the cultural gaps imposed by time and place.

International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 2018

The theme of death has been long illustrated in literary works, not only in novels, dramas and poetry but it is also intensively discussed in short stories. Indian short stories also demonstrate outstanding realism and deal with wide-ranging themes, being rooted in traditional Indian setup. The distinctive treatment of death and use of several images to portray death as an abstract force stands remarkably in Indian short stories. The present paper attempts to meticulously examine and critically analyze these images of death in selected Indian short stories. Human existence is a mystery, an unsolved riddle, a journey that begins with birth and ends with death. In the path of this expedition, different individuals search differently for the meaning of their lives and this ride through world makes life interesting and enjoyable. Nevertheless birth and death are omnipresent episodes of human life as all human beings take birth and are prone to death and decay. Death is an integral and inevitable part of life, an ultimate end of the journey through world. Frank and Judith McMahon voice that "we may have seen death, read about death, or even close to death, yet we have never died. Thus, we face the ultimate unknown, and the fact that our society refuses to admit that death is a natural process". A sense of insecurity and immortality is a common feeling that is mutually shared generally by all the human beings. Literature as an art is the portrayal of life itself so; the theme of death is inevitable from it.

But not any longer. Not any more." 1 Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea "Every enquiry is a seeking. Every seeking gets guided beforehand from what is sought." 2 Heidegger Martin, Being and Time

AILIJ (Anuario de Investigación en Literatura Infantil y Juvenil) 16, 2018

In The Princess Bride, an adventure and fantasy epic novel that is intended for an ideal tenyear- old reader, death is only one element together with fencing, fighting, torture, poison, true love, hate, revenge, giants, etc. Its presence is very noticeable, since it is everywhere, both as the motivation and the result of the battles and fights that happen throughout the narration. In this work I analyze the novel through the words of the characters to determine different representations of death offered by its author, as a representation of the end of life, due to varying reasons, and also as a recurrent element of literary discourse. This work is a particular contribution to the area of study of children’s literature that focuses on deaths that are necessary and violent in the narrative fiction. It pursues as a general objective the defense of long books as a learning tool to promote reading and discussion among children about important existential subjects. In particular, it presents the The Princess Bride as an example, proposing a brief study guide of this novel, which consists of some easy tasks for approaching the concept of death. En La princesa prometida, una novela épica de aventuras y fantasía destinada a un lector ideal de diez años, la muerte es solo un elemento junto con la esgrima, la lucha, la tortura, el veneno, el amor verdadero, el odio, la venganza, los gigantes, etc. Su presencia en la novela es altísima, pues está en todas partes, tanto como motivación como consecuencia de las batallas y de los enfrentamientos que acontecen a lo largo de la aventura narrada. En este trabajo analizo la novela a través de las palabras de los personajes para determinar diferentes representaciones que de la muerte nos ofrece su autor, como representación del fin de la vida, debido a causas de lo más dispares, y también como elemento recurrente del discurso literario. Este trabajo es una aportación particular al área de estudio de la literatura infantil que se centra en las muertes necesarias y violentas de la ficción narrativa. Persigue como objetivo general la defensa de libros largos como herramienta de aprendizaje para promover la lectura y la reflexión entre los niños de temas existenciales importantes y, de forma particular, presenta la novela La princesa prometida como ejemplo de ello, proponiendo una breve guía de estudio de esta novela, consistente en una serie de tareas sencillas en torno al concepto de la muerte.

This paper compares two literary works written by an Indonesian and a British author. There are some different points of views regarding the phenomenon of death in these literary works. In contrary, there are also similarities between the two texts. Social, cultural and religious backgrounds influence the way of looking at and discussing the theme and the different way of solving a problem as well. This comparison of literary works provides an example of how an Indonesian and British person deal with the same theme in their literary works and make differences in terms of exploring the theme in their works.

International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, 2017