Comparing and Contrasting the Narrative Strategies of Isabel Allende in The House of the Spirits and Manuel Puig in Kiss of the Spider Woman
Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits (1982) and Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) are two of the most celebrated Latin American novels, offering profound insights into the cultural and political climates of their respective societies. While both authors employ distinctive narrative techniques, their approaches to storytelling diverge in several significant ways. Allende’s novel combines magic realism, multivocal narration, and family sagas, while Puig’s work explores psychological realism, dialogue-driven narrative, and the themes of sexuality and political oppression. This comparison will delve into the different narrative strategies employed by both authors to create their unique worlds, addressing elements like point of view, structure, and use of symbolism.
1. Narrative Structure and Voice
Isabel Allende in The House of the Spirits:
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Allende employs a multivocal narrative structure in The House of the Spirits, where the story is told from various perspectives. The novel spans several generations of the Trueba family, and Allende uses the voices of different family members, each contributing their individual perspective on historical and personal events. The alternating viewpoints allow the reader to experience the historical and social changes from multiple angles, offering a comprehensive view of the family's sociopolitical struggles.
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Narrative voice in Allende’s novel shifts between third-person omniscient narration, providing a broad, historical perspective, and first-person accounts, where individual characters share their personal experiences. For example, Clara’s psychic abilities and Esteban’s political ambitions are both conveyed in different narrative styles, showing how the personal is intertwined with the historical and political.
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Allende also blends magical realism with historical fiction, using supernatural elements as part of the family’s everyday life, which creates a sense of fluidity between the real and the imagined. The supernatural is treated as a natural part of the characters’ lives, integrating emotional and political conflicts with fantastical elements.
Manuel Puig in Kiss of the Spider Woman:
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Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman is structured almost entirely as a dialogue between two characters, Molina and Valentín, who are in a shared prison cell. The novel uses a two-character dialogue format that is both minimalist and intensely focused on the psychological interaction between the characters. The majority of the narrative unfolds through their conversations, which reveal their contrasting worldviews, personal histories, and the political landscape of the 1970s Argentina.
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Narrative voice in Puig’s novel is more confined than in Allende’s, focusing heavily on the direct exchange of words and the inner thoughts of the two characters. The form of dialogue allows the author to express themes like sexuality, power dynamics, and political oppression through the subtle tension between the characters. As the dialogue unfolds, the characters' personalities, fears, and desires are slowly revealed, using psychological realism rather than external narration.
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Puig’s use of cinematic references and the integration of films as part of the characters' lives is another unique feature of his narrative strategy. Molina often narrates movie plots, blending fantasy and reality and providing a contrast to Valentín’s more political and ideological perspective. This inclusion of popular culture creates a distinctive narrative that contrasts with the historical weight of Allende’s work.
Comparison:
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