5
reaching adulthood, was moving from the spurious peace of General Odría‘s dictatorship to the uncertainties and novelties of the return to
democratic rule in 1956, when Saúl and I were third-year students at San Marcos Llosa, 1991: 12.
That quotation from The Storyteller shows that the narrator told that it happened during General Odría‘s dictatorship in 1956. Peru, under General
Manuel A. Odría‘s regime, was still on its ‗sustained capitalist development.‘ Political stability invited many investments to this country. It affected the growth
of the economy. However, this condition did not satisfy all Peruvians. Apparently, it caused new gap http:motherearthtravel.com, May 24, 2012.
The two interesting things stimulate a question of what concept of nationalism the author tried to put in The Storyteller if he, himself, despised some
forms of nationalism he had mentioned in his giving Nobel lecture. The fact that this novel takes place in Peru more than a century after its independence also
raises the same question. It must have something significant since most of nationalistic novels such as Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal and Rumah Kaca
Glass House by Pramoedya Ananta Toer were written or, at least, its setting took place during independence war in colonial period Anderson, 1998: 229-234
Anderson, 1991: 184-185. Different from those novels, The Storyteller is depicted in 1950 until 1980,
more than a century after Peru‘s independence era. The key to answering the question of what concept of nationalism that has
been put in The Storyteller must be found in its author‘s life, Mario Vargas Llosa.
Mario Vargas Llosa, himself, is a Peruvian writer. He is also well-known as a politician for his becoming the candidate for president of Peru in 1990. During his
life, Mario Vargas Llosa spent years for his education in Peru. Later he began
6
living in other places far from his hometown like Madrid and Paris. Now, he lives in London http:www.nobelprize.org, May 24, 2012.
His life in politics and his concerns to social and cultural subjects are the things that decorate his works in literature. Those themes mostly appear in his
works as a part of his reflections of personal life and a way for criticizing historical calamities especially the ones related with Latin America The New
York Times , October 7, 2010.
From the brief description about Mario Vargas Llosa, it is quite clear that some aspects of his life must have influenced the description of certain concept of
nationalism in The Storyteller. He must have his own understanding of nationalism. Thus, in this analysis, the writer wants to figure out how the author‘s
understanding of nationalism is reflected in The Storyteller through the setting and main conflicts. The topic is chosen since it is eternal and debatable issue and also
can be put in the context of Indonesia. Moreover, it can give another perspective of understanding nationalism.
A. Problem Formulation
To analyze how Mario Vargas Llosa‘s nationalism reflected in The Storyteller
, three problems are formulated. 1.
How is the setting in The Storyteller described? 2.
How are the main conflicts in The Storyteller presented? 3.
How do the setting and main conflicts in The Storyteller articulate Mario Vargas Llosa‘s nationalism?
7
B. Objectives of the Study
Considering the purpose of this study that is to figure out nationalism in Mario Vargas Llosa‘s life, the analysis is aimed to identify, first, the setting and
main conflicts presented in this novel. Secondly, the findings in setting and main conflicts will be used to identify nati
onalism in Mario Vargas Llosa‘s life.
C. Definition of Terms
There is a terms related to the topic of this thesis and the analysis that follow that need to be defined. As the key concept of this study, the definition of
this term is worthwhile to clarify any misunderstanding that may arouse. The term is nationalism.
There are a lot of definitions of nationalism. The one used in this topic refers to Benedict Anderson‘s idea that nationalism is the result of certain
people‘s capability to imagine which community nation they belong to. They might be separated miles away from one to another but they can imagine or they
can consider that they belong to the same nation as an imagined community 1991: 5-6. This definition is chosen since it can cover the presentation of the idea of
nationalism in The Storyteller.
8
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Regarding the need to get more information about The Storyteller and the author, Mario Vargas Llosa, the writer uses some related studies. The significance
of these related studies is to provide the writer not only more information about The Storyteller
and Mario Vargas Llosa but also to give other perspectives related to the topic.
Juan E. de Castro in of his journal entitled Mario Vargas Llosa Versus Barbarism discussed that Llosa, according to him, is a neoliberalist whose works
deal with rearticulation of the opposition between civilization and barbarism. Although Llosa, himself, refused to be called a neoliberalist, his works show
many new understanding about certain issues. Related to civilization and barbarism, one of the footnotes in Castro‘s journal described Llosa‘s
understanding in one of his novels, The Storyteller. A similar lack of individuality as characteristic of non-Westernized
ind igenous communities is found in Vargas Llosa‘s description of the
Amazonian Machiguenga, in The Storyteller 2001b, first published in 1987, one year after the original Spanish edition of The Other Path. The
lack of a proper name, replaced by the name Tasurinchi, originally that of their creator deity, shared by all male Machiguenga, represents this
nonindividuation. As Kerr 1992, 209n35 notes: ―The name ‗Tasurinchi,‘ which the hablador [storyteller] uses to identify his different interlocutors
i.e. the members of the tribe with whom he has spoken and from whom he learns the stories he tells, functions as a provisional tag for every member
of the tribal community, none of whom has a proper name,‖ Castro, 2010.
9
That footnote explains that through The Storyteller, Llosa tried to say that he is against racial discrimination. He put that through the depiction of God in the
word Tasurinchi. It implies that different people in different places have their ways of naming God. Besides, he wanted people to respect local tribe like
Machiguenga. Upashana Salam gave another perspective related to the discussion about
Llosa‘s The Storyteller. Salam wearing glasses of postmodernism wrote this. Mario Vargas Llosa‘s El Hablador or The Storyteller presents the
postmodern emphasis on diversity quite effectively as the story itself is based on the lifestyle of an indigenous tribe of Amazonian forests. Llosa‘s
novel gives an unbiased look into the customs and traditions of the Machiuenga tribes, providing the readers with the myths and legends of
the tribes instead of stating an objectives history that could not possibly encompass their various cultures as the tales of the storyteller do. The
hablador or the storyteller, thus, becomes a narrative of their history, a source through which their culture is kept alive 2009: 5.
Salam revealed postmodernism issue in The Storyteller by looking at how Llosa put culture, especially the local one, in a position where people will see it as
the way it is. It means no matter how illogical a certain culture is, it still should be respected. The rejection of hegemonic power in The Storyteller was used by
Salam as the key to reveal the postmodernism issue. Another study about The Storyteller also came from Benedict Anderson.
In The Spectre of Comparisons, he argued that The Storyteller is novel of nationalism. ‗That El Hablador is a nationalist novel is beyond doubt,‘ 1998:
356. He figured it out by focusing on how Llosa put the description of Peru from its society and some conflicts.
10
The rest of this long chapter proceeds anonymously in this manner, and in the process the reader begins, as it were, to enter into the cosmology, the
history, the terrors, and the everyday lives, of the Machiguenga. At fitful intervals, images of the penetration of their wolrd by the dark external
force of ―unfortunatedamned Peru‖ appear: for example, there are references to the terrible time of the ―tree-bleeding‖ which the reader can
read as the brief rubber boom of 1900-
18, and to the ―white fathers,‖ who are evidently missionaries 1998: 341.
This quotation became one of the keys for Anderson to uncover how Llosa defined nationalism. Llosa tried to show the condition of his country whatever it
is. He even used the word ―unfortunatedamned Peru‖ to describe his country in The Storyteller
. Thus, nationalism is not only a matter of pride of country or nation but also realizing that his country also consists of bad facts.
The three studies mentioned are helpful to give the writer more information about The Storyteller and Mario Vargas Llosa. However, the most
significant thing is that they become the stand point for the writer to put the position of her thesis. Both Castro and Salam spotlighted how Llosa, in The
Storyteller , brought redefinition or rearticulation of certain ideas related to
Peruvian cultures. They used opposing dichotomy, such as civilization and barbarism; and also old and new cultures to explain Llosa‘s concerns put in The
Storyteller . This thesis also works with the term ―redefinition‖ but the subject is
on nationalism. It is different from Castro‘s and Salam‘s on the way that it does not focus on rearticulating two opposing ideas about culture but on how many
description about Peruvian cultures, including civilization, barbarism, inspired Llosa‘s redefining nationalism. This thesis is a contribution to Anderson‘s work
which tried to analyze The Storyteller as a nationalistic novel. While Anderson
