Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of this World was an exciting read. The novel touched upon interesting themes like colonialism, revolution, race, slavery, power dynamics, and, most importantly, magic realism—which I have placed most thought towards while reading. The novel is a masterful example of magic realism, blending the real and the surreal to create a […]
In this week’s reading, I read “The Kingdom of This World” by Alejo Carpentier. I quite enjoyed reading this story as I found the imagery to be quite powerful throughout the book, evoking strong emotions in me as the reader. This imagery was shown to be strong from the very beginning, with Ti Noel detailing […]
Primarily, Alejo Carpentier’s “The Kingdom of This World” is a book which surrounds itself with themes of conflict. Through portraying the violence that slave revolts might bring, as well as comparing it to the actual trauma that comes through the Haitian slave trade, it mirrors the internal struggle of ideology inherent in its […]
I found the structure of this book to be similar to Azuela’s The Underdogs, following the same progressive story split by short chapters. Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World, though, has titled chapters that I found excellently highlighted the topic of each part. Whether it was utilized for foreshadowing or emphasizing a relevant phrase, the […]
I’m personally a big fan of slave-owning white people being in extreme pain and suffering immensely, so I really enjoyed the beginning of this novel as well as a lot of the moments that depicted the plantations being take over by the workers (minus the part about the women and children). I didn’t expect this […]
I broke the rules a bit this week and ended up reading both Pedro Páramo and The Kingdom of This World since they were both on my reading list anyways. I enjoyed both, but I’m writing about the latter since I read it more recently so it’s fresher in my head. Though I don’t want […]
Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of This World
A conversation with Luis Duno-Gottberg
Questions about The Kingdom of this World
Carpentier videos
