The Meaning of Failure in The Lost Steps
Keywords:
Baroque., The marvelous real, Surrealism., André BretónAbstract
In The Lost Steps, by Alejo Carpentier, the protagonist finds the utopian place inside the jungle: the city of Santa Mónica de los Venados. However, this place is not a paradise taken in its general meaning, and the protagonist fails when he wishes to return to that utopian place. In this article, we will analyze the meaning of the failure of the protagonist in relation to the author's ideas about the baroque in Latin America. The ultimate research objective will be to show that, for Alejo Carpentier, the surrealist movement corresponds to the searchers of utopia in Latin America, possessing a baroque culture. In this way, The Lost Steps would be a critical allegory against surrealism which, inevitably, is bound to fail.
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