Know Them, Read Them

HISTO-BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH

I. INTRODUCTION

When an author writes, it is expected that a part of his life is present in that literary piece. It is true because an author writes what is closest to his heart. That is why a critic could actually see a part of the author’s life in his piece. It could be the place where the author lived, the family of the author, the characteristics of the author, the status of the author, the emotions of the author and even the philosophy of the author. Some of these, if not all, could be present in the author’s work.

A person could not write something he is not familiar with. And the most familiar things he knows is his own life and his own surroundings. Goldberg (1986) said that a person’s writing would be more meaningful when he is writing about his life because it adds relationship and texture between the author and his piece.

This is also true in the case of Jan Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Since they are both authors, part of their life is inevitably written on their own works. The familiarity with their life would help to analyze their literary pieces using Historical and Biographical approach.

II. DISCUSSION

The analysis of a particular literary piece using the life and time of author is called Historical-Biographical approach. This approach sees a literary work as a reflection of its author’s life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work (Guerin et. al., 2005). The literary work that the author made reflects who he is and the time and the place he lived in. This particular approach will be used in the analysis of Jan Neruda’s The Vampire and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera. To analyze their works using Historical and biographical approach, it is necessary to know these writers first.

Jan Neruda was a writer, poet, and journalist born in Prague in Czech Republic. When he was young, he studied law and philosophy but he gave up both for journalism (Velinger, 2004). In his career as a journalist, he published a total of 2,260 feuilletons that is a part of a newspaper (Kerziouk, 2014). He was also considered as a leading light of Czech realism and promoted Czech patriotism. He was born on 1834 and died on 1891 at the age of 57 (N.A., 2012).

The focus of the analysis is the short story “The Vampire” that was written by Jan Neruda. The story started saying that the narrator was travelling through steamer from Constantinople to Prinkipo. After that, the narrator described his fellow passengers. First is the Polish family consisting of a father, a mother, a daughter, and her lover. Then he presented another passenger which he recognized as a Greek young man.

During their stay at the island one afternoon, they went to a higher area of the island where they could see the whole place. The Greek, who was an artist, seated against them trying to sketch which the group noticed and then ignored. The narrator looked at the beautiful scenery of the area and appreciated it.

When they went back to the hotel, the young Polish asked the innkeeper about the identity of the Greek artist. The innkeeper told him that they call him the Vampire because he only sketches corpses. When the young Polish girl fainted, her lover seized the Greek and his portfolio were scattered and they saw the face of the young Polish girl. That is the end of the story.

The story used certain places in story such as Prinkipo where the story happened. Prinkipo is an existing island located in Turkey which is now commonly known as Buyukuda. Jan Neruda (1920) also included the term nine islands of the “Prince’s Archipelago” which the Buyukuda or Prinkipo is a part of. The narrator in the story appreciated the Sea of Marmora which is the sea where the island of Prinkipo is actually located. Another detail to be recognized is that Greece is just a sea away from the island of Prinkipo. That is why the innkeeper must be really familiar with the Greek artist who always draw someone who is dead thus naming him Vampire.

The historical accuracy of the setting of the story only showed that Jan Neruda was familiar with the place. Since the places where he lived and in the story were on the Europe continent, his familiarity with it was not that surprising. He might also been there before since he was a journalist who travels a lot and the place was a tourist destination.

The application of historical and biographical approach clearly helps to the understanding of the short story “The Vampire”. Knowing first the author is the key in this approach because it would serve as a guide on how they add details of their life on their literary pieces. This time, the approach will be used to analyze Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Love in the Time of Cholera.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a Colombian author that was born in Aracataca, Colombia on March 1927. He became a journalist and his works introduced magical realism that combines more conventional storytelling with vivid fantasy. During his younger years, he listened to his grandparents’ numerous family stories including his parents’ dating adventures. This is the reason why the novel “Love in the Time of Cholera” was based on his parents’ courtship (N.A. 2016).

The novel runs about the story of the two very young lovers named Fermina and Florentino, but the novel didn’t start in their love story. It begins in the story of the old age husband and wife Dr. Juvienal Urbino and Fermina. When her husband died, the old Florentino came back to Fermina after 51 years and still in love with her. The story then goes back to the time when they were still young and showed how they were before. Then they were separated and the feelings of Fermina to Florentino lost. It only showed how impulsive young people are. But Florentino’s love is still for Fermina. Fermina got married to Urbino then Florentino had sexual affair to a lot of different women. After Juvienal Urbino’s death, the two old lovers were building back their relationship together. At the end of the story they settled in the ship by raising the cholera flag.

The flow of the story was actually like an old tradition where the parents would choose who they want their daughter to marry. It was like a fixed marriage. The story also showed the impulsiveness of a young person where they usually decides out of emotions without even realizing the consequences of their actions. Florentino showed that his love is everlasting by proving that even time flies, he would still love Fermina. Marquez’s magical realism was obvious on the flow of the story.

The novel does not name the actual city where most of the story happened. The novel only refers to it as “The City of the Viceroys”, but the place where the story happened had a great resemblance to Cartagena, Colombia (nan. 2017). Notice that the place where the story happened was also the country of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The novel was published on 1985. During that time, he was already 58 years old. Although he was not yet that old as to the age of the characters in the story, it might also be a reason why he made the characters that old already. Another possible reason for the old age of the characters is because he based it on his parents’ love story, thus using their current age at that time for the novel.

III. CONCLUSION

The discussion above clearly presents the application of historical and biographical approach to the works of Jan Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez which are The Vampire and Love in Time of Cholera. Knowing the life of the authors gave additional information and meaning to the literature itself.

A literary piece is the living part of the authors even though they are already dead because their lives and times are reflected to it. Their literary pieces were their living part in this world. A reader must at least have an idea about the author of the book or story he was reading to fully understand the literature he would read.

Reading biographies of the author would help an individual know more about the author he is working in to. Important details about the author that a critic must get can be but not limited to his life events, political views, economic status, educational background, and family. Knowing the time the book was written and published can also give a person some information about the literary piece.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Books

Goldberg, N. (1986). Writing Down The Bones Freeing the Writer Within. USA: Shambala

Publications, Inc.

Guerin, W. et. al. (2005). A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature 5th Edition. USA:

Oxford University Press

Electronic Sources

Kerziouk, O. (2014). The [literary] Godfather: Jan Neruda (1834-1891). Retrieved on August 2017

From http://blogs.bl.uk.european/2014/07/the-literary-godfather-jan-neruda-1834-1891.html

n.a. (2012). The Vampire by Jan Neruda. Retrieved on August 2017 from

http://chesscomicsandcrosswords.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-story-jan-neruda-1834-

1891. Html? m=1

n.a. (2016). Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Retrieved on August 2017 from

https://www.biography.com/.amp/people/gabriel-garcia-marquez-189132

n.a. (2017). Love in the Time of Cholera Analysis: Setting. Retrieved on August 2017 from

http://www.shmoop.com/love-in-the-time-of-cholera/setting.html

Neruda, Jan. (1920). The Vampire. Retrieved on August 2017 from

https://www.stevedustcircleus.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/the-vampire-jan-neruda.pdf

Velinger, J. (2004). A Look at the Life and work of Jan Neruda. Retrieved on August 2017 from

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czechs/a-look-at-the-life-and-work-of-jan-neruda