ESeweek3.htm

Seminar Presentation.
Leaders: Naomi Larson, Bradley Martins, and Leslie Talarico

Summary Conclusion Questions Glossary Bibliography

There is one other invaluable way in which literature communicates irrefutable and condensed human experience- from generation to generation. In this way it becomes the living memory of nations. In this way it keeps warm and preserves within itself its lost history in a way not subject to distortion and falsification. Thus literature, along with language, preserves the national soul (Solzhenitsyn 20).

Barbarism, civilization, language, and literature all play intricate roles in establishing the identity of a nation. Romulo Gallegos' Dona Barbara analyzes these concepts through his fictional narrative. The" Five Crises of Nation Building", from Countries and Concepts, by Michael G. Roskin, provides a framework that unifies and illustrates the relationships among these themes. The crises are identity, legitimacy, penetration, participation, and distribution (Roskin 5).

The first step in developing a nation is creating a unified identity. National identity is developed once a population aligns there identity, not with a regional, or local group, but with the ideology of the nation (ibid 5). Before being able to derive this one must first ask, "who are we?" "how did we get here?" and "how do we want to be represented?". The answers to these questions allow the process of identity formation to begin.
In Gallegos' novel, Santos Luzardo, the returning owner of the great plains known as Altamira, brings his knowledge, and thus civilization, to the land. Marisela, Lorenzo Barqueros' daughter, and Santos Luzardo's cousin, begins her education and search for identity with Santos as her leader. The wild and free Marisela's lessons begin during her first encounter with Luzardo. Luzardo takes Marisela to a clear pool next to the marsh and washes her face and arms with water. The clean water seems to lift the dirt, and take a part of the old Marisela away with it. Such a simple show of generosity left Marisela with two immeasurable gifts, "The freshness of water on her cheeks and the emotion roused by words she had never before heard"(Gallegos, 128-129).

Santos brings Marisela to his home at Altamira to further her education and refinement. Santos revives Marisela's knowledge of reading and writing as well as refining the rough edges acquired in her primitive living conditions. Marisela is not always willing to be subject to Santos' harsh scrutiny. Her struggle comes in the form of the words, "Let me go back to my woods again"(182). Posing this request reveals Marisela's slight desire for what she had, the way of life that she was used to and confident in. The imposition of manners and the cultured civilization of city life that Santos attempts to press upon Marisela also have the tendency to put her emotions somewhere between excitement and frustration. She is being thrown into a way of life that is like that of a foreign land for her. The language she speaks, the way she dresses, and the very way she thinks is altered by Santos. Santos sees Marisela's, "alternately rude and docile naturalness", as a "(…) personification of the soul of the Plainsman, open as the prairie and improved by every experience"(185). So while Santos is seeing his alteration of Marisela as a marvelous success, he also admires that wildness inherent in her and hopes to preserve it in her new identity.

After a profound and prolonged stay at Altamira, Marisela feels as though her attempts to become a part of the civilized world have failed and she returns to her home in the woods. Marisela assumes that she will be able to return to the life she left behind in the same easy way she left it; however, upon her return she is forced to make a serious identity check. Much like the time when a colonizer leaves the colonized, Marisela realizes that she is not who she was before her time in the Altamira household. She is forced to ask herself, "who was I and who am I now?". She quickly realizes that her old living conditions are no longer tolerable to her refined taste, and that she must find a new way to live.
Marisela takes her last step in becoming the civilized woman Santos hopes she will become, when she experiences deep sorrow over the death of her father, Lorenzo. She feels peace at the realization that this part of her heart has been filled. Marisela describes her new feelings to Antonio, "Peace… A delightful restfulness… I feel peaceful all over, the way the pool there must feel when it reflects the palms and the clouds and sky and the herons on the edge"(371). In her new found sorrow and kindness Marisela is finally able to reflect and respond to the emotions of those around her, and open herself up to something outside of herself.

Santos Luzardo's expression of love and request for her hand in marriage is the final stage in sealing Marisela's identity. By asking her to marry him, Santos is giving Marisela the opportunity to participate in the world he has shown her, it as though he is inviting her in. Marisela needed someone of a similar identity to be a mirror for her new identity. Identity, like a particular language, essentially does not exist without a counter-image.

Following the establishment of identity, a nation then faces the crisis of legitimacy. This crisis is the point at which a population accepts the new nation as rightful (Roskin 5). Lorenzo Barqueros exemplifies the failure of legitimization to create a new national identity. Lorenzo moved away from the old ways of the plains to the new ways of the city. He went to Caracas and enrolled in the university. The young Lorenzo was a symbol of hope, for the possibility of change and civilization. Santos revives the words and concepts behind a speech that Lorenzo gave during his days in the life of the city while he visits the hut:

"You remember the speech? The theme was 'That centaur is barbarism, and therefore we must put an end to him.' I learned then that you had stirred up the traditionalists with that theory, which pointed out a more useful direction for our national history, and I had the satisfaction of proving that your ideas had marked an epoch in the manner of viewing the history of our independence"(Gallegos 116-117).

Lorenzo embodied the ideal of eradicating barbarism and bringing civilization to the land. Despite all the prospects, the call to return to the land and to avenge his father's death brought about a change in his countenance. Even stronger than the call of the land was the realization of different aspects of falseness found within the realms of the civilized world. Lorenzo denounces that history as a lie: "I began to loath the University, and city life, the friends who admired me, my sweetheart, everything that was the cause or effect of that self-deception"(120). As Lorenzo's intelligence grew, so did his ability to analyze the structure he was becoming a part of. His reformed mind was able to see through the holes in the structure and the legitimacy of its foundation began to give way. Thus, he returned to his former way of life with an even greater intensity. Without legitimization it is impossible to spread the ideologies of a new nation.

As the power of a government expands into a new nation it must overcome resistance. This crisis is referred to as penetration. A nation that is unable to establish its authority is volatile. Once authority is established and people are familiar with it, the nation shifts to the next crisis, participation (Roskin 5). Santos Luzardos' arrives in the countryside and encounters resistance from the inhabitants and the Plain itself. Santos brings to the Plains a desire to civilize that involves changing the landscape of the Plains as well as the lifestyles of its inhabitants. While Santos encounters resistance from individuals determined to maintain traditional customs, his fiercest opposition is the landscape that possesses its own will. The will of the Plains is enforced in the way the burning of the prairies affects Santos: "It was the rebellion of the Plain, the work of the indomitable breath of the limitless land against civilizing changes" (Gallegos 244).

Once authority has penetrated the entirety of the nation, a turning point is reached. People want to participate in their governance (Roskin 5). In Dona Barbara, this transition is expressed in a description of No Pernalete, aptly an agent of authority: "No Pernalete did not tolerate refutation of his opinions or criticisms of his procedure, it was also certain that if he found contrary opinions convincing he would immediately adopt them when there seemed to be any advantage in so doing" (Gallegos 339). Here is the first stage in the participation crisis, acceptance of new authority. A further example of this acceptance is Antonio's statement, "I'm for what the Doctor has shown me is right. Fences all around and everybody taking care of his own cattle on his own land" (360). Antonio represents a class of people whose tradition springs from the land and whose acceptance of change is all the more important.
Following the acceptance of new authority is the desire to participate in this authority. The clearest example of this is Pajarote's statement to Santos:

"A peon is a peon, and it's up to him to obey when his master gives orders, but let me remind you that a Plainsman is a peon only when he's working. Here, at this time and place, we haven't got a man and a peon, but one man, that's you, and another man who wants to show him that he's ready to give his life for him" (382).

Pajarote declares himself to be an equal of Santos, authority is not above him but something of which he is a part. Once individuals participate in a nation, distribution is the next crisis to arise.

Distribution, in a political sense, deals with the division of resources and wealth of a nation (Roskin 5). Ownership of these resources gives the individual power and ability to work within the nation. To broaden the idea of national resources it is important to look at language, literature, and education as tools of power. If literacy and education are withheld, the individual has no power of expression, no voice, and little to no leverage within the society. Marisela changes due to Luzardo's influence in her life. As a result, Marisela can never return to the person she once was. When Marisela returns to the palm grove and must decide how to survive she realizes that, "It could no longer be a case of climbing trees like a monkey to appease her hunger, it would have to be a matter of securing a certain and permanent means of subsistence" (Gallegos 330). Marisela is no longer satisfied with mere subsistence, but has seen a new world with a new future.

Distribution of education and literature changes a national identity as well. A nation's leadership can then gain further legitimization and participation in its own ideologies through education and national literature. Santos Luzardo dreams of seeing the plains become "civilized". He wants to abolish the custom of round-ups and institute the idea of fences protecting private property. This is the first step of a dream where he sees population, sanitation, and even a train whistling through the plains. Antonio responds, "Maybe you are right, but to do that you'll have to change the Plainsman first" (137). This brings us back to the concepts of legitimacy and participation. Distribution is the last crisis and one that continues on as a nation progresses (Roskin 5). The story is not finished as we reach the end of Dona Barbara, "The posts were already set up, the lines of wire were reeling off the rolls, and in the land of uncounted paths, the wire fence began to trace a single straight way towards the future" (Gallegos 440).

Conclusion

As a result of discussing these five crises it became clear that each crisis should occur in a particular order for a nation to develop smoothly. For example, unless the identity is clear and defined it is impossible to really judge the legitimacy of that identity or the ideology behind it. This is not to say that the stages do not overlap or intermingle, but that no one stage should be skipped or switched with another.

Also discussed in seminar was the role played by internal resistance, or Santos' personal struggle, in Dona Barbara. What was determined was a striking similarity between the struggle undergone by Santos and Lorenzo. While both characters went through similar situations they arrived at entirely different outcomes. These outcomes serve to contrast the crisis of legitimacy.

The concept of "World Literature" or a "World View" presents a broader spectrum to view the importance of a national literature. Using national literature as the sole representation of a nation can lead to many misconceptions. Literature may be written by an exclusive elite whose political, religious, philosophical, or economic motives may grossly misrepresent the public. The reader may also view the literature through their own countries perspective and impose value judgements based on that knowledge. Value judgements often create illusions of superiority, which can then lead to conflict between nations. Perhaps, the representation of the process of nation building as opposed to crystallized and dogmatic representations would produce a literature better able to unite the countries of the world.

Questions for Discussion

1. Does this model of political development fit with what we know of the development of Venezuela? Of the United States? (Roskin, 5)
2. What happens when one or more stages are bypassed or when the sequence gets jumbled (5 Crises)? (5)
3. Could you thread each character through each of these crisis in the
development of their own identity?
4. Is naming an indispensable step in the process of identity? If so, why?
5. Why did Gallegos choose a woman to represent barbarism and a man to represent civilization?
6. If "barbarism" controls through cruelty and force, "civilization" comes along to tame barbarism and to alter it through law and order. This produces a crisis where one must move forward and the other must retreat. If "barbarism" retreats, where does barbarism go? Is "civilization" always in fear of its return? If "barbarism" does not retreat, what is the outcome?
7. Luzardo's use of force to enforce order on the Plains is a contradiction of his previous philosophy. This contradiction leads us to question the role of internal resistance within the governing body of a new nation. What part does it play within Dona Barbara?
8. Do you think that World Literature really could help people of a nation to not repeat mistakes made in the past? Why or why not? How could Solzhenitsyn's concept of a "world view" be positive or negative? What types of changes could this world view bring about?

Glossary

Barbarism: 1. the use of words or expressions not in accordance with the classical standard of a language especially such as are of foreign origin… rudeness or unpolished conditions of language. 2. barbarous social or intellectual condition; absence of culture; uncivilized ignorance or rudeness(Cuddon).

Civilization: 1. a lawful act of justice or judgement, which is performed by turning an information into an inquest or the contrary. 2. The actions or process of civilizing or being civilized. 3. civilized condition or state; a developed or advanced state of human society; a particular stage or a particular type of this (Cuddon).

Identity: 1.a. the quality or condition of being the same in substance, composition, nature, properties, or in particular qualities under consideration; absolute or essential sameness. 2.a. the sameness of thing at all times or in all circumstances; the condition or fact that a person or thing is itself and not something else; individuality personality (Cuddon).

Language: 1. a systematic means of meaningful communication by the use of conventionalized symbols and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community (Cuddon).

Nation: 1. aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, speaking the same language 2. a body of people associated with a particular territory that are sufficiently conscious of their unity to seek or possess government of their own ( Cuddon).

Literature: 1. aesthetic works of verbal expression, oral or written that creates a particular relationship between the author and an engaged reader with the intent of affecting the reader's perspective (Cuddon).

Bibliography

Cuddon, J.A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Cambridge: Blackwell Reference, 1991.
Gallegos, Romulo. Dona Barbara. New York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, INC., 1948.
Roskin, Michael G. Countries and Concepts: An Introducation to Comparative Politics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. Simon and Schuster, 1998.
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksander. The Nobel Lecture on Literature. New York:Harper and Row Publishers, 1972.