SOURCE: "Some Examples of Irony in Carpentier's Earlier Fiction," in Chasqui, Vol. XVI, No. 2, November, 1987, pp. 3-9.

In the following essay, Eiríksdóttir discusses Carpentier's use of irony in his earlier work.

La Consagración de la Primavera, Carpentier's most committed novel, seems not to have gained acceptance as the masterpiece its author clearly intended it to be. It has been suggested that among the reasons for this is that it lacks irony. To that extent it seems to bear out Barthes' comment that Marxist writing "aims at presenting reality in a prejudged form." It is as though Carpentier had resolved, or repressed, his earlier doubts about the process and speed of historical change and about the capacity of individuals to accept it. In consequence, La Consagración de la Primavera, for all its length and complexity, presents a tidy, unambiguous picture of reality, which contains certain...