Intersecting and Overlapping Histories and Fiction: Overturning Realist Conventions within The Secret History of Costaguana
15 October, 2024
A short excerpt from my essay:
In Juan Gabriel Vasquez novel, The Secret History of Costaguana, Jose Altamirano appoints himself as narrator from the outset, conflating his self-reflexive life-story as victim with a historical account of the imagined Costaguana. Altamirano's declaration as victim positions Joseph Conrad as guilty of two crimes: for having stolen his history to supplement the contents of his novel, Nostromo, and for obliterating him from the history of Costaguana. His self-depiction as a victim transforms the history of the novel into a historiographic argument, where it valorises itself with the same narrative techniques as fictional narratives. However, when Jose Altamirano attempts to distance himself from history, the ‘Angel of History’ intrudes into the imagined spaces of the novel like a returning ghost; casting a shadow over Jose Altamirano’s narration. These overlaps between history and fiction echoes Linda Hutcheon’s argument in Historiographic Metafiction Parody and Intertextuality of History, from here on known as Historiographic Metafiction. Hutcheon argues that “historiographic metafiction works to situate itself within historical discourse without surrendering its autonomy as fiction” (Hutcheon 4). The novel elucidates Hutcheon’s argument: fiction and history bleed into each other’s narratives; making it impossible to demarcate one from the other. Consequently, the novel can only “[offer] a sense of the presence of the past” (Hutcheon 4). The past can only be deciphered through its reworkings in historical and literary narratives, but it will never be fully realized. Thus, this essay argues that the novel’s historiographic meta-fictionality exposes the process of cross pollination at work between history and fiction, thereby illuminating how history and fiction coalesce — challenging the ontological certainty of the novel.
Grade: A+
Link to full essay: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Rf52CVs2eTlP9BNMBCM0iyLZ7qfleqS/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108672674616229631938&rtpof=true&sd=true
In Juan Gabriel Vasquez novel, The Secret History of Costaguana, Jose Altamirano appoints himself as narrator from the outset, conflating his self-reflexive life-story as victim with a historical account of the imagined Costaguana. Altamirano's declaration as victim positions Joseph Conrad as guilty of two crimes: for having stolen his history to supplement the contents of his novel, Nostromo, and for obliterating him from the history of Costaguana. His self-depiction as a victim transforms the history of the novel into a historiographic argument, where it valorises itself with the same narrative techniques as fictional narratives. However, when Jose Altamirano attempts to distance himself from history, the ‘Angel of History’ intrudes into the imagined spaces of the novel like a returning ghost; casting a shadow over Jose Altamirano’s narration. These overlaps between history and fiction echoes Linda Hutcheon’s argument in Historiographic Metafiction Parody and Intertextuality of History, from here on known as Historiographic Metafiction. Hutcheon argues that “historiographic metafiction works to situate itself within historical discourse without surrendering its autonomy as fiction” (Hutcheon 4). The novel elucidates Hutcheon’s argument: fiction and history bleed into each other’s narratives; making it impossible to demarcate one from the other. Consequently, the novel can only “[offer] a sense of the presence of the past” (Hutcheon 4). The past can only be deciphered through its reworkings in historical and literary narratives, but it will never be fully realized. Thus, this essay argues that the novel’s historiographic meta-fictionality exposes the process of cross pollination at work between history and fiction, thereby illuminating how history and fiction coalesce — challenging the ontological certainty of the novel.
Grade: A+
Link to full essay: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Rf52CVs2eTlP9BNMBCM0iyLZ7qfleqS/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108672674616229631938&rtpof=true&sd=true
