Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende (1942- )

Lecture Notes

Writing is an attempt to bring an illusory order to the natural chaos of life, to decode the mysteries of memory.
-Isabel Allende
Bio:

Born in 1942 in Lima, Peru
Father was a Chilean diplomat but parents were divorced in 1945
Moved to maternal grandparents house in Santiago, Chile
Mother remarries another diplomat and Isabel spends time in Bolivia, Lebanon and various European countries
1962 Isabel marries, daughter Paula is born in 1963
Family lives in Belgium and Switzerland
Allende returns to Chile in 1966 when son Nicolas is born
1967-1974 Allende works as a journalist
1970 Isabel’s uncle, Salvador Allende is elected president
1973 Military Coup d’etat under orders of General Augusto Pinochet results in President Allende’s “suicide”
1975 Allende moves to Caracas, Venezuela
1981 Isabel receives news that her 99-year-old grandfather is dying. She begins letter to him that eventually becomes the novel, The House of Spirits.
1987 Allende divorces first husband and moves to San Rafael, CA
1988 Allende remarries and becomes US resident
1990 Democracy is restored in Chile
1992 Daughter, Paula, dies exactly one year after she falls into coma. Allende writes novel, Paula, in 1995 about this experience.

Major works:
See link on author’s photo.

Literary significance:
Prominent female author who writes in Spanish and work is translated. She is understood to be a part of the Latin American feminist literary awakening. Best known for The House of Spirits. Her novel Paula about her daughter’s death is not in the tradition of her other works. Her most recent works has be “less literary” and more “popular.” She is still publishing quite frequently.

The House of Spirits:

The novel was first published in 1982
The novel is set from about 1910 to 1973
The book is working toward the present tense moment of the Epilogue where “historical writing replaces magical writing, tragic sentiments replace comic sentiments” (Antoni)
The novel moves away from Magical realism and more towards realism as it becomes less of Clara’s story and more of Alba’s story.
Novel is broken up into three parts: Chapters 3-5 are Clara’s family story, Chapters 7-9 are about love stories, Chapters 11-Epilogue are political history
Chapters 2,6,10 are interruptions from Esteban that indicate a shift in the story
Many of the characters are based on real people in history and in Allende’s life: Pedro Tercero is based on Victor Jara and “the poet” is Pablo Neruda. Additionally, Clara is very similar to Allende’s own grandmother. Many of Allende’s experiences are similar to those of Alba.

References:
Robert Antoni, “Parody or Piracy: The Relationship of The House of Spirits to One Hundred Years of Solitude,” in Latin American Literary Review, Vol. XVI, No. 32, July-December, 1988, pp. 16-28.

Sheri E. Metzger, “Overview of The House of Spirits,” in Literature of Developing Nations for Students, Vol. 1, The Gale Group, 2000

Kelly Winters, “Overview of The House of Spirits,” in Literature of Developing Nations for Students, Vol. 1, The Gale Group, 2000

“Certainly I write because I love it,
because if I didn’t my soul would dry up and die.”
Isabel Allende

Discussion Questions for Allende’s The House of Spirits

Explain the significance of the opening line: “Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.”

What affect is achieved through the use of multiple narrators (points of view, voices)?

What purpose does the supernatural serve for the women of the novel? Why are men rarely involved in these “magical” forces?

What role does silence play traditionally in this society? How is that role changed in The House of Spirits?

How is the act of writing used in this novel? What does is provide for the characters that use it?

Many have suggested that Allende’s female characters are feminists. How would you support or deny this statement?

How are the roles of the male and female characters in the novel indicative of Latin American culture?

Women were not allowed to vote in national elections in Chile until 1949. How does that compare with the United States? What comparisons can be made between these two cultures?

What is Clara’s gift to her granddaughter Alba?

What is the baby Alba is expecting at the end of the novel a symbol of?

One critic suggested that Allende would never be “a writer of worth” until she created a male character who was as strong as her many female characters. Allende responded, I wonder how many male writers have good female characters. Very few. And that doesn’t mean that they write badly or that they are recognized as writers…I’m not asking for any concessions because I’m a woman, nor do I permit superfluous demands to be made of me because I’m a woman.” What is your opinion on this debate?

What do you think about the United States’ role in the Coup that killed Allende’s Uncle and place Augusto Pinochet in power?

Source: http://intranet.micds.org/upper/english/Teachers/Mittler/LatinAm/Isabell%20Allende.doc

Web site to visit: http://intranet.micds.org

Author of the text: indicated on the source document of the above text

If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly. Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, search engines, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use)

The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.

Isabel Allende

The texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only.

All the information in our site are given for nonprofit educational purposes