SOURCE: "Patterns of Repetition in The Kingdom of This World," in Latin American Literary Review, Vol. XIX, No. 38, July-December, 1991, pp. 23-34.

In the following essay, Goldberg traces the instances of repetition in Carpentier's El reino de este mundo and discusses what the repetition says about his conception of history.

Alejo Carpentier's conception of history as based on repetition was first expressed through structural patterns in El reino de este mundo [The Kingdom of This World], at the levels of story, text and narration, as well as through explicit narrator-author declarations.

"Man never knows for whom he suffers and hopes. He suffers and hopes and toils for people he will never know and who, in turn, will suffer and hope and toil for others who will not be happy either, for man always seeks a happiness far beyond that which is meted out to him." In socio-political history, this...