Costumbristas: A Narrative Analysis

Jorge Iscaas wrote the Latin American Maria between the years of 1864 and 1867, which would have been during the 19th century Colombia. Furthermore, this novel is considered to be one of the most important pieces of Spanish American literature due to its use of representative features of every day life, thus creating the literary term of costumbrist novel. A novel, which Jeanee Smoot, defines the as; “…recurrent glorification of the people of the provinces, seen in virtually all the writers of the nineteenth century and particularly in those most often called »costumbristas«, or regional realists” (Smoot 588). Nonetheless, this novel can be examined with a different model apart from the costumbrist features, a model that has been developed …show more content…
In this novel the examples are clear when the examination of regional language as well as cultural references are found within the novel. Given that the author was Colombian, the vocabulary will stress the importance of the novel’s regional diversity. The author’s editor must deciphered the continuous regional language usage for the purpose of fully comprehending the scenes and events occurring while the narrative voice narrates, further supporting this concept by Bakhtin. Additionally, strengthening the connection between the costumbrist element of the language and the society of the novel as mentioned in the article “For a History of Spanish Literature ‘Against the Grain’” written by Gumbrecht; the article states that “The costumbrist texts describe scenes from daily life, without having a plot” (Gumbrecht 290). For example, in the novel the word bravo is used to, when translated using the Donald McGrady’s edition of Maria, labels it as when one is angry (Isaacs 333). Also, the example su merced, which according to the Donald McGrady’s edition is used within the entire family and for the servants to their masters (Isaacs 61). Finally, the narratives voice narrates the novel with explicit detail the description of most meals with the family, including the name of dishes and