Mulata de tal

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Mulata de tal is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Miguel Ángel Asturias.

Asturias published his novel Mulata de tal while he and his wife were living in Genoa in 1963. His novel received many positive reviews; Ideologies and Literature described it as "a carnival incarnated in the novel. It represents a collision between Mayan Mardi Gras and Hispanic baroque."[1] The novel emerged as a major novel during the 1960s.[2] The plot revolves around the battle between Catalina and Yumí to control Mulata (the moon spirit). Yumí and Catalina become experts in sorcery and are criticized by the Church for their practices. The novel uses Mayan mythology and Catholic tradition to form a distinctive allegory of belief.

Gerald Martin in the Hispanic Review commented that it is "sufficiently obvious that the whole art of this novel rests upon its language. In general, Asturias matches the visual freedom of the cartoon by using every resource the Spanish language offers him. His use of color is striking and immeasurably more liberal than in earlier novels."[3] Asturias built the novel by this unique use of color, liberal theory, and his distinctive use of the Spanish language.[4] His novel also received the Silla Monsegur Prize for the best Spanish-American novel published in France.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Willis 1983, p. 146
  2. ^ Leal 1968, p. 246
  3. ^ Martin 1973, p. 413
  4. ^ Franco 1989, p. 871
  5. ^ Frenz 1969

[edit] References

  • Franco, Jean (1989), “Miguel Angel Asturias”, in Solé, Carlos A. & Abreu, Maria I., Latin American Writers, New York: Scribner, pp. 865–873, ISBN 978-0684184630 .
  • Frenz, Horst (1969), Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901–1967, Amsterdam: Elsevier, ISBN 978-9810234133 .
  • Willis, Susan (1983), “Nobody's Mulata”, I & L (Ideologies and Literature) Journal of Hispanic and Luso-Brazil Literatures Minneapolis 4 (17): 146–162 .

[edit] Further reading