How a Literary Work Becomes a Classic

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Original Article

How a literary work becomes a classic:The case ofOne Hundred Years of Solitude

Alvaro Santana-AcuaDepartment of Sociology, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 KirklandStreet, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract If meanings are so contested and changeable, how can individuals reach acollective agreement about what makes some cultural objects meaningful over time andacross space? And how can social scientists construe robust interpretations of culturalobjects whose meanings are shifting and malleable? These questions are pertinent toliterary classics, whose meanings relentlessly change, and yet people living in differentcountries and historical periods collectively agree about their significance. This articleargues that a literary work can become a classic when it transcends its original contextof production and its contents are progressively appropriated by actors and organiza-tions that had no share in their production. Using the case of One Hundred Yearsof Solitude, this article, first, studies 10 ways in which that novel transcended itsoriginal context and, second, documents the appropriation of some of its contents in56 countries between 1967 and 2013. To contribute to more robust interpretations of

meaningful cultural objects with shifting meanings, this article offers four patterns(lived experience, universalization, artistic commensuration and entrenched criticism)involved in the collective fabrication of the value ofOne Hundred Years of Solitudeas aliterary classic.American Journal of Cultural Sociology (2014) 2, 97149. doi:10.1057/ajcs.2013.16;corrected online 4 March 2014

Keywords:classics; literature; transcendence; appropriation; meaningfulness

Introduction

Classics of different sorts constitute an inescapable part of our everyday livesand imagined history. Numerous paintings, sculptures, movies and of courseliterary works are known to us as classics. They are consumed by actors andreproduced by organizations that had no share in their production decades orcenturies ago (Alexander, 1988; Mukherjee, 2010). To explain the long-lasting value of classics, the three main approaches in sociology of art

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(production of culture, art worlds and field) have emphasized the classicsattachment to its original context of production and early diffusion, but theyhave paid less attention to how it becomes part of our daily lives and history longafter its original context disappeared. Although these approaches remain vital to

understand organizational embeddedness (especially how an artwork is producedin the first place), they are less concerned with transcendence and appropriation,that is, the process by which an artwork transcends its original context and itscontents are appropriated by foreign actors and organizations. Yet analyzing thisprocess is critical to understand how a literary work can become a classic.Increasingly aware of this problem, researchers (Hennion, 1993; Witkin, 1997;DeNora, 2000; Fuente, 2007; Born, 2010; Domnguez Rubio, 2012) insist thatsolving it requires the acknowledgement that the artwork is involved in thedrama of its own making(Beckeret al, 2006, p. 3). By giving preference to theartwork rather than to the organizations that produced it, this article seeks to

show how a literary work can attain an independent life and career outside itsoriginal context of production. In order to do so, this article studies an elusiveand yet profoundly sociological cultural object, the literary classic.

The Argument: Transcendence and Appropriation

This article argues that a literary work can become a classic when (a) it transcendsthe organizational context in which it was initially produced and consumed,(b) its contents are appropriated and considered meaningful by actors and

organizations that had no share in their production, and (c) when such contentsoutlive both their original context and the foreign actors and organizations thatfirst appropriated them, and finally are appropriated by new foreign actors andorganizations, which, over time and across national and cultural boundaries,continue to find the literary work and its contents meaningful.1

Using the Colombian novel One Hundred Years of Solitude(OHYS, 1967),2

this article develops the aforementioned argument by studying two related

1 Although the argument is made on the basis of a single case, the analysis will also refer to literarycounterfactuals, namely, literary works contemporary to the case study that have not attained classicstatus.

2 OHYSis chosen for two reasons: (1) it facilitates the study of how a literary work can become a classicwithout considering a complex variable: tradition. Accounting for tradition is necessary for French,Russian and other major literatures, since readers and organizations would judge a new literary workby positioning it in relation to a well-known tradition. In the case of OHYS, by the time of itspublication, Latin American literature did not exist as a unified tradition (rather there were nationaltraditions; Mexican, Argentine, and so on) and thus, at first, transnational audiences could not valuateOHYS in relation to a specific literary tradition. And (2) OHYSwas not produced in a dominantliterary center (for example, London or Paris), but rather in the periphery. Thus, the case ofOHYSpermits us to understand how a literary work attains its value as aclassicafter its emergence in a non-hegemonic context of production.

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commensuration and entrenched criticism) that can contribute to a better under-standing of how literary content can be collectively regarded as meaningfuldespite its shifting meanings.

Along with disembeddings, the study of literary indexicals is central to detail

how non-vernacular organizational contexts (hereafter, non-VOCs), that is,conventions, actors and organizations with no share in the production and earlydiffusion ofOHYS, have appropriated its contents. As a result of this transna-tional appropriation, not only has OHYSbecome impervious to control by itsVOC but also resistant to control by any non-VOC.

Finally, since this article rejects the view that a literary work becomes a classicbecause it embodies universal truths, an additional advantage of focusing ontranscendence and appropriation is to offer diachronic evidence of the collectivefabrication of the value of a literary work as universal. To emphasize thisfabrication, this article uses the notion of conditional universal, which, simply

put, seeks to remind readers about the existence of a historical context inside ofwhich new generations of actors and organizations can agree that the contents ofa literary work are universal. Being aware of a historical context of conditionaluniversals is important because other cultural objects not just the classic experience disembeddings and produce indexicals. But only the classic canproduce indexicals that different audiences can collectively recognize as mean-ingful for longer periods of time and across national and cultural boundaries.

Exploring Meaningfulness, Rethinking Canonization

The analysis of how a literary work can become a classic poses numerouschallenges. To begin with, few cultural objects have meanings as contested,unstable and changeable as the classics. That cultural objects possess mobilemeanings has been a widely shared tenet across the social sciences over the pastthree decades (Griswold, 1987; Sewell, 2005; Lamont, 2009; Alexander et al,2012). Yet the liberation of meaning-making practices from the iron-cage ofstructuralist approaches (and subsequent research on multifaceted worlds ofmeaning) has also led to an analytical challenge (Reed and Alexander, 2009;Godart and White, 2010): If meanings are so contested and changeable, how

can people from different backgrounds reach a collective agreement aboutwhat makes some cultural objects meaningful in the long run? And how cansocial scientists construe robust interpretations of cultural objects whosemeanings are shifting and malleable? These questions are pertinent to literaryclassics, whose meanings relentlessly change, and yet actors living in dif-ferent countries and historical periods continue to agree about their signifi-cance (Alexander, 1988). An adequate answer to this challenge how toreconcile the multiplicity of meanings of a cultural object with the stability of

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the impression that national fields are either standing next to each other orfloating in a vacuum of causal space. Consequently, this approach argues that anartwork becomes a classic because of organizational struggles inside each field(Bourdieu, 1992, p. 354), in what constitutes a more sophisticated retelling of the

organizational-embeddedness-of-cultural-objects narrative.By concentrating on the intricacies of the organizations that produce artworks,

rather than on the trajectory of the artworks themselves, the field approach(1) cannot clarify whether and how artworks change while crossing from one fieldto another and (2) ignores that, upon entering a field and over time, foreignartworks can transform the receiving field. The transformative power that foreigncultural objects can have upon the functioning laws of different national fieldsremains underexplored in this approach. To address these limitations, this articleoffers an approach that understands artworks (and literary classics in particular) asagents of cultural formation endowed with a sui generis agency (Domnguez

Rubio, 2012). Accordingly, the case ofOHYS reveals that the appropriation ofsome of its contents over the past four decades by non-vernacular organizationsgradually transformed them and, in return, after appropriating OHYS, thetransformed organizations have modified their rules to valuate old and futureartworks in their national fields.10

In sum, the robust capacity of the three approaches (production of culture, artworlds and field) for explaining the vernacular production and early diffusion ofartworks has come at a price: they cannot convincingly specify how classic artworkscan attain an independent life and, over time, outlive the VOC that produced them.

Focusing on the trajectory of the artworks themselves (rather than on thedynamics of vernacular organizations) could show that national artistic fields,cultural industries and art worlds function in a larger and encompassing spacethat structures the conditions for the non-vernacular circulation of artworks. Thetranscendence of cultural objects of long-lasting value and their appropriation bynon-VOCs occurs in such a space.

Beyond Organizational Embeddedness: Transcendence and Appropriation

As researchers continue to develop analyses more attentive to non-vernacular

organizational factors, the literature on transcendence and appropriation isbecoming one of the recent moves in sociology of art and literature.

10 For instance, in the American and Chinese contexts, new actors and organizations that had no sharein the production of OHYS have related it to other locally produced artworks (for example,Faulkners novels of the American south or the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber) as wellas to new circulating artworks (for example, the reception of Roberto Bolaos work in theUnited States and the literary genealogy of Mo Yans novels; the 2012 Chinese Nobel laureate whoacknowledged Garca Mrquezs influence on his work).

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study of the making of Faulkners reputation reveals how non-vernacular forcesdecisively influenced actors and organizations. In particular, distinctive historicalconditions after World War II enabled the disembedding of Faulkners work asan emblem of the freedom of the individual under capitalism (ibid, p. 4).

Different non-vernacular organizations in Britain and the United States contrib-uted to the transcendence and appropriation of Orwells works, so that1984hasbecome a literary classic and its components (for example, Big brother) stand asliterary indexicals (Rodden, 2002). Arguments in favor of transcendence andappropriation are also finding their way in literary studies by interpreting classicsas works that travel to literary systems beyond their cultures of origin(Mukherjee, 2010, pp. 10351036).

As in other arts, the process of classicization in literature cannot be explainedby focusing on organizational embeddedness. For instance, Tompkinss approach(1985) can clarify the vernacular (that is, American) success ofThe House of the

Seven Gables (1851). But it cannot specify how the novel transcended its VOC, sothat more than a century later The House of the Seven Gables influenced thewriting of another novel (OHYS) by an artist (Garca Mrquez) in a foreigncultural location (Latin American) and embedded in a different organizationalcontext (the Boom novel movement) (Vargas Llosa, 1971).

Limitations of this sort have convinced researchers about not only concentrat-ing on readers fabrication of meaning the most salient development insociology of literature in the 1980s and 1990s (Griswold, 1993) but to considerthe importance of the transcendence and appropriation of cultural objects,one of the newest developments. Seeking to overcome Bourdieus retelling of theorganizational embeddedness narrative, Casanova (1999) proposes the transna-tional space known as the world republic of letters, while Heilbron (1999),Heilbron and Sapiro (2002), and Popa (2010) study the transnational circulationof book translations. Researchers also question the centrality of vernacular forcesin securing the classic status of a literary work over extended periods of time andspace (for example, nations and cultures). For instance, criticscontinuous supportsecured the canonization ofThe Awakeningbut not its classicization in the UnitedStates or abroad (Corse and Westervelt, 2002). Vice versa, critics and writersnegative initial reaction toTheir Eyes Were Watching Goddid not prevent it fromobtaining long-lasting value (Corse and Griffin, 1997). New research also serves asan antidote to accounts overemphasizing the importance of decisions in scholarly

communities about the inclusion and exclusion of literary works from theeducational curriculum. In Western societies, literature education is becomingmore student- rather than canon-centered and the institution of secondaryeducation critical in perpetuating the classical value of literary works is hardlya passive receptacle of decisions taken by scholarly communities (Verboord andvan Rees, 2009). And, despite national boundaries and changes in lists of canonicalworks (Guillory, 1993), new research finds that classical literary works and artistsdisplay remarkable spatial and temporal stability (Bevers, 2005).




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These contributions however face two problems: (1) The transnational is oftenformulated in terms of a center versus periphery model or alternatively as a biggerversion of the French literary field,11 which assumes that the principles andparameters governing the domain of literature are produced in a single, dominat-

ing center and next diffused to other locations. And (2) meaning is equated tomeaningfulness, which prevents researchers12 from distinguishing between con-stant changes in the meanings of a literary classic and the stability of its meaning-fulness. To tackle the first problem, the next section presents the principles andparameters operating beyond a single organizational context and underlying theclassical status of a literary work. As for the second problem, the ensuing sectionelaborates on literary indexicals, which permit us to distinguish between meaningand meaningfulness.

Conditional Universals: A Historical Context for Transcendence andAppropriation13

This section seeks to specify some key principles and parameters involved infabricating the universalvalue of the literary classic. I call them conditionaluniversals14 to underline the claim that the literary classic is imagined asuniversal only conditionally, that is, within a particular spatial and temporalcontext.15 Hence if a literary classic is praised as universal, it is because thereis a conditional consensus about what universal means and such a consensus

cannot be reached solely within a single organizational context (for example,the one in which the classic was originally produced), but it must be sharedacross multiple contexts (for example, the ones in which the literary work isappropriated and praised as a classic).

Recent research (Berkers, 2009; van Venrooij and Schmutz, 2010) finds that,along with their distinctive features, the VOC of an artwork is woven into a

11 Presenting the world republic of letters as a world literary field centered in Paris, Casanova (1999)argues that Latin American writers (including Garca Mrquez) only became successful internation-ally after coming to Paris. Santana (2000) demonstrates that their coming to Spain was far moredecisive. Contra Casanova, others favor the existence of multiple centers (Janssenet al, 2008) and thecritical intervention of actors and organizations beyond the publishing industry (Mukherjee, 2010).

12 An exception is Tompkins (1985).13 Readers aware of (or not interested in) the historicity of some of the conditions underlying the

collective valuation of a given literary work as a classic can skip this section.14 They differ from Bennetts historical universal (2005), which he uses to amend the lack of

diachronicity in field theory.15 Change of conditional universals is not generational but epochal the redefinition of the parameters

structuring an entire valuation system, what in return affects how people perceive art. This assertion isindebted to Baxandalls period eye (1972), although his ocular approach says nothing aboutparameters applicable to literature.

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larger cultural fabric, and that actors and organizations cannot construct bythemselves the value of a literary classic. Although value is contingent, allusionsto the endurance of certain literary classics serve to hide its contingencies (Smith,1983; Bourdieu, 1992; Pavel, 2003). Literary classics are imagined as highly

valuable cultural objects because they speak to all people across all periods andembod[y] universal human truths(Corse, 1997, p. 8). In reality, as Corse argues,the literary classic has no universal value that makes readers more vulnerable tothe story. Rather, they are vulnerable to the prevailing discourse about the so-called universal that such a story indexes better than competing stories. As Smith(1983) emphasizes, this discourse underlying the formation of artistic value(including that of long-lasting cultural objects) descends with remarkablecontinuity from Hume and Kant.16

For the sake of analytical clarity, conditional universals are here groupedin three interrelated and porous levels.17 At the micro level, (1) the literary

classic tends to frame plots as clashes between individuals and/or betweencollectivities more than against supernatural forces or because of divinewill18 (Bloom, 1994; Pavel, 2003); (2) upon reading, the literary classic issupposed to reveal self-evident truths about human life (which were oncethe prerogative of religious texts), and its characters and situations aresupposed to provide a moral repository of exogenous experiences thatreaders can use to frame and make sense of collective and life-course events(Williams, 1983); and (3) literary classics contain factsthat provide empiricaldemonstration or grounded knowledge about human affairs, even if thesefacts may allude (but not in ontological terms) to non-earthly realities(Chartier, 1996).

At the meso level, (1) the literary classic contributes to the development ofliterature19 as an autonomous domain of knowledge about human experience

16 Such continuity is not exclusive to literature. In music and painting the exaltation of certain artistsand artworks as classics popularized in the late eighteenth century (Haskell, 1980; Weber, 1986;Dowd et al, 2002). The notion of classic as an artwork of universal value was formulated then(Tompkins, 1985).

17 This inventory is not comprehensive. Here it aims to emphasize a plurality of historically situatedprocesses, representations and practices that (1) can underlie the classicization of a literary work and(2) are also beyond or not entirely under the control of the VOC that produced the literary work. Theinventory is the result of several rounds of adjustments between the preliminary theoretical

hypothesis, key works on the history of the modern novel and the emergence of the domain ofliterature, and the findings related to OHYS.18 This literary secularization of human experience includes, from the eighteenth century onwards in the

West, (1) the retreat of mystery and mystical narratives (for example, Bunyans The PilgrimsProgress, Teresa of vilasInterior Castle), (2) the shift from stereotypes (for example, the red fox inLe Roman de Renard) to characters (for example, Emma Bovary), and (3) the retrospectivesecularization of providential forces that played a key role in pre-literature classics (for example,HomersOdyssey, SophoclesOedipus the King, DantesDivine Comedy).

19 Since its introduction in the early nineteenth century, the term literature retains an impressivesemantic stability (Williams, 1983). Fine artsand classical musicbecame popular terms in the same




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eye.22 There are multiple types of indexicals (Fontdevila, 2010) and they can formorders (Silverstein, 2003). At its simplest level, this, here, now and yesterday,among others, are indexical expressions that depend on the larger context in whichthey are uttered not for the definition of their unequivocal meaning but for the

achievement of operational communication (Bar-Hillel, 1954; Silverstein, 1976).23Similarly, in literature, Sanchos those over there are not giants but windmills,Odysseuss helpless reaction to the Sirenssong, or Hamlets to be or not to beoperate as indexical expressions whose meanings remain contested but whosemeaningfulness enables effective communication about literature and everyday life(Bange, 1986). Expressions such as these index the conditional universals structur-ing the domain of literature. Their repeated usage and recognition lead to thecreation of patterns of shared meaningfulness that communities can recognizeacross different organizational contexts. As the analysis ofOHYSrevealed, literaryclassics seem to produce at least four of these patterns: lived experience,

universalization, artistic commensuration and entrenched criticism.In sociology, despite the contribution of ethnomethodologists (Garfinkel,1967, 2002; Rouncefield and Tolmie, 2011), the analytical potential of indexicalsremains untapped (Fontdevila, 2010). In particular, ethnomethodology bypassesthat the meanings of a text can be detached fromlocal contexts of interpretation(Smith, 1983, p. 266). Garfinkel (2002, p. 113) claimed that the properties ofindexical expressions are only locally and endogenously witnessable. Myresearch on literary classics reveals the opposite; the properties of indexicalexpressions in literature can be non-locally and externally witnessable.

It is worth emphasizing that the use of an indexical expression does not imply afixed meaning for what is indexed (for example, to be or not to be); rather theindexical expression stabilizes the collective recognition of what is indexed asmeaningful over time and across national and cultural boundaries, namely, itstabilizes, for instance, to be or not to beas a meaningful expression. Thus, thedistinction between meaningfulness and meaning is crucial because the formerseems to precede the latter. Operational communication is possible without thehearers complete discovery of the meaning of the utterance but not the opposite.In other words, actors can admit that to be or not to beis meaningful withoutagreeing on its meaning and still communicate among themselves effectively.

The analytical distinction between meaning and meaningfulness has often beenunspecified in sociology of art it was not part of the moves in sociology of

literature in the 1990s (Griswold, 1993). Liebes and Katz (1990) explore howthe meaning of the TV seriesDallaswas exported to 90 countries. Aware that thediversity of meanings in foreign contexts of reception was not an obstacle for the

22 The icon represents a similar kind ofsymbolic condensation(Alexander, 2010, p. 11). Whereas theanalysis of icons seeks to capture how meaning manifests through materiality, the indexical analysisoffered here pays attention to the material and non-material structures of meaningfulness.

23 The linkage between indexicals and meaning remains under debate in linguistics (Giorgi, 2010).




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OHYSbecame available in multiple formats (from trade paperbacks to scholarlyeditions) published by competing presses occasionally in the same country (Fau,1980; Fau and Gonzlez, 1986; Gonzlez, 1994, 2003, [s.d.]). The adoption ofthis capitalist publishing strategy (macro #3) has ensured that, since the early1980s,OHYSremains more visible and available transnationally than compet-ing Boom novels: for example, La casa grande (1962) by Cepeda Samudio(Colombia); Los albailes (1964) by Vicente Leero (Mexico); Pas porttil(1968) by Gonzlez Len (Venezuela).

The increase of translations (Heilbron, 1999) is part of the publishing industrydisembedding. In 1971 foreign translations of OHYS doubled and in 1973tripled. Figure 2 supports the claim that the process of classicization began in theearly 1970s, precisely when the Boom literary movement came to an end and thepublishers that promoted it faced internal decomposition and external competi-

tion. The figure also reveals that Garca Mrquezs Nobel Prize in 1982 did notsignificantly increase the amount of foreign translations ofOHYS.

Network disembedding

When an artwork is produced by an art movement, the disembedding from itsVOC is more likely to occur (Baumann, 2007). As the Boom movement becamemore personality- than group-based (Donoso, 1972), (1) tensions and ruptures

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1968 1978 1988 1998

Retreat of OHYSs VOC Nobel Prize

Numberoftranslations

Figure 2:Official foreign translations ofOHYS(19682001).Sources: Fau (1980), Fau and Gonzlez (1986), Gonzlez (1994 and 2003) and UNESCO Index Translationum(2002).




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Orientalism, Macondism has become a widespread (and contested) collectiverepresentation of Latin America as an exotic land of antediluvian nature, peopleof biblical age and virgins ascending to heaven (Fuguet and Gmez, 1996).International critics of Macondism argue thatOHYScontains no literary facts

but rather ideology (micro #3).38 Yet the enduring impact of Macondism hasinfluenced the creation of anti-OHYSliterary movements in the mid-1980s (forexample, the McOndo Generation) and, in the last 10 years, the development ofpopular initiatives such as attempts to rename Garca Mrquezs hometownMacondo (inspired by the case of Prousts hometown) and transforming hischildhood home (which inspired the one in OHYS) into a national monumentand museum (Martin, 2009).

Authorial disembedding

As detected for van Gogh (Heinich, 1991) and Beethoven (DeNora, 1995), massmedia coverage and scholarly research on Garca Mrquez show signs ofbranding since the late 1970s and above all have recently shifted from biographyto hagiography (macro #1).39 By now, although contested, equating GarcaMrquez to Cervantes has become standard practice (Martin, 2009). Multiplenon-vernacular audiences and organizations have intervened to construct andperpetuate his reputation as a genius. Since 1967 a deluge of distinctions, honorsand international prizes including the 1982 Nobel Prize in literature havebolstered authorial disembedding. Garca Mrquez has not simply becomea literary public figure but an individual-organization (cf. Lamont, 1987;

Bartmanski, 2012); not simply an artist but a celebrity, diplomat and broker ininternational political conflicts. In 2007 the Spanish Royal Academy of Languagecelebrated the 40th anniversary of OHYS by publishing an inexpensive, best-selling edition, with a new text revised by the author. (It was the second title of anongoing collection of Spanish classics inaugurated with Don Quixote.) In sum,the authorial disembedding has institutionalized a reputation (Fine, 1996) that isnot under the control of a particular organizational context.

As analyzed with more detail in the following section, another disembeddingcan be labeled asmaterial. As suggested for icons (Alexander, 2010), this kind ofdisembedding reveals that meaningfulness can manifest through materiality.

Indeed, references to OHYS have spread across other cultural objects: music(for example, Banana Co. by Radiohead (United Kingdom, 1996; rock),Florencia en el Amazonas by Daniel Catn (Mexico-United States, 1996; opera),

38 Such accusations have also been made against CarpentiersThe Kingdom of this World(1949). Butthis novella did not undergo ideological disembedding; it is merely presented as a forerunner ofOHYSs magical realism.

39 Contemporary sources (Piazza, 1968) suggest that, at the time, the rising Latin American star ininternational literary circles was not Garca Mrquez but Jos Donoso (Martin, 2009).

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Macondo Expressby Modena City Rambler (Italy, 1997; folk), MacondobyJuan Vicente Torrealba (Venezuela, s.d.; merengue)), blockbuster films (Sorcerer(1977), Pans Labyrinth (2006), Life of Pi (2012)), and plastic arts. Thesereferences to a literary work of long-lasting value like OHYS can attract the

attention of potential customers of such cultural objects and thus lead to a largerprofit for their makers (macro #3). However, makers do not always acknowledgethat OHYS is the original source of inspiration, which contributes to furtherdisembed the novel from its VOC.

In conclusion, the 10 arenas analyzed in this section have progressivelyempowered the disembeddedness of OHYS from its VOC and its circulationacross countries and cultural regions that did not have a share in its production.Since the mid-1970s, this transnational circulation has weakened (and in somecases erased) the linkage between OHYS and its VOC. Rather, OHYS nowbelongs to a larger socio-cultural formation encompassing multiple non-VOCs.

Although some disembeddings (for example, commodity and network) weremore influential in the 1970s and others have gained force in the followingdecade (for example, non-artistic organizations), this section found that (1) nodisembedding, when analyzed in isolation, can determine the process of classici-zation and (2)OHYS(and the definition of its artistic value) is no longer underthe control of a particular organizational context.

Literary Indexicals: Patterns in the Appropriation ofOHYS

By focusing on the text itself, this section details how a cultural object can acquiremeanings that go beyond the ones originally intended by its creator and, moreimportantly, beyond the meanings available in the cultural objects VOC (cf.Santoro, 2002). Hence, this section documents how different book elements inOHYS despite their contested, shifting and malleable meanings have becomemeaningful across national and cultural boundaries after 1967 and how, in theprocess, these elements have become indexicals of the literary value of OHYSas a classic. The six elements under analysis are: Macondo (the novels setting), theauthor, the novel as a whole, its opening sentence, its style (magical realism) andRemedioss ascent to heaven (this last element serves to jointly analyze a characterand an event). To support the analysis, the data presented in this section comprise 56

countries and 47 years (19671973). (For the full dataset, see Online Appendix A).Rather than a disorderly array of meanings, the data revealed four patterns of

appropriation of the six book elements under analysis. These patterns are livedexperience, universalization, artistic commensuration and entrenched criticism.40

Lived experience refers to transnational audiences use of book elements asindexicals of current and individual events. Universalization refers to audiences

40 As the analysis shows, these four patterns can overlap in particular book elements.




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transformation of book elements into indexicals that are supposed to haveuniversal reach. Artistic commensuration is the pattern that equates bookelements to those found in other cultural objects (especially classics). Andentrenched criticism refers to the pattern that, since 1967 to the present, compels

audiences to indexOHYSbook elements in order to express their negative viewsabout the novel. This pattern is particularly revealing because it demonstratesthat sustained negative attention can be reputation-building (Collins andGuilln, 2012, p. 539) and thus it can be pivotal to stabilize the long-lastingvalue of a cultural object. In fact, such criticism keeps making the cultural objectmore visible decades after its production and also after its VOC might cease toexist. This is why the indexical analysis presented in this section is primarilyconcerned with identifying agreement about meaningfulness (which reveals theexistence of an underlying indexical order), despite the existence ofdisagreementsabout the meaningsof the book elements under analysis.

These four patterns show how indexical usage can contribute to the making ofmacro-sociological orders (Silverstein, 2003). Precisely, because, as the datashow,OHYSbook elements are used to index conditional universals involved infabricating the classic value of a literary work. In other words, the six elementshave become not only qualities intrinsic to the text but also extrinsic; namely,non-vernacular audiences (common readers, literary scholars, critics, writers,public figures and organizations) use them to make sense of literature and areasbeyond literature. The data on indexicals are, in sum, offered as diachronic andqualitative evidence on how these audiences have fabricated the value ofOHYSas a literary classic.41

Macondo: A fictional Colombian village becomes universal

Over the past 47 years, actors and organizations in four continents have imaginedthe meaning of Macondo in multiple and conflicting ways, while stabilizing itsmeaningfulness via lived experience, universalization, artistic commensurationand entrenched criticism.

Lived experience

Audiences have used Macondo to index current events. Argentine writerAnderson Imbert (See Online Appendix A, Table 1, Macondo, 1976) and USscholar Peter Earle (ibid, 1981) indexed Macondo to express their views on thefate of Latin America in the 1970s, back then immersed in dictatorships and

41 Some readers might find puzzling that in this section I placed expert criticism alongside lay criticism.This analytical strategy seeks to support the findings of recent studies (Baumann, 2001; Brombergand Fine, 2002; Allen and Lincoln, 2004; Bennett et al, 2009), which minimize the influence experts(especially, critics and other gatekeepers) can have in shaping the long-lasting value of a culturalobject. Furthermore, placing together both kinds of criticism invites readers to consider a morehorizontal, interdependent relationship between the two.

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found for years 1971, 1978, 2006, 2007 and 2012. Finally, a particular instanceof universalization is the adjective macondiano, which has entered into languageand is spreading (Barcia, 2007). For instance, Colombian politician Bell Lemusclaims that macondiano is a universal adjective, such as quixotic and Kafka-

esque(See Online Appendix A, Table 1, Macondo, 2000).

Artistic commensuration

Over the years, the uniqueness of Macondo in literature has emerged as ameaningful subject of debate. For US scholar, Jos Saldvar, nothing like Macondoappears in world literature (ibid, 1991) and for Mexican writer Stavans it is alandmark (ibid, 1993). For others, on the contrary, Macondo presents clearsimilarities to modernist classics Ulysses, The Waves or Absalom, Absalom!,according to US scholar Morton Levitt (ibid, 1986), and to the story of AncientGreek heroes the Argonauts, according to Swiss scholar Siebenmann (ibid, 1988).

Furthermore, as early as 1968, audiences started to debate Macondos linkage toother classic literary settings, such as Prousts Combray, according to a Frenchjournalist (ibid, 2003), the Megalokastro of Greek writer Kazantzakis and theKfaryabda of Lebanese writer Maalouf, according to an Australian writer (ibid,1995), and especially Faulkners Yoknapatawpha County. On this Faulknerianlinkage, for Juan Bosch, a Dominican Republic politician, Macondo has nothing todo with Yoknapatawpha(ibid, 1968); for Italian scholar Daro Puccini, Macondomight suggest Faulkners nearbyYoknapatawpha County(ibid, 1989); and forUS writer David Young and scholar Keith Hollaman, the relations betweenFaulkners Yoknapatawpha and Garca Mrquezs Macondo are fascinating

to contemplate

(ibid, 1984). (On this linkage, see also ibid, 1987 and 2003.)Thus, over the years and across non-VOCs, a pattern of meaningfulness hasestablished and made Macondo commensurate to Yoknapatawpha. And this keepsoccurring as the meaning of that commensuration remains contested amongdifferent transnational audiences.43

Entrenched criticism

Paradoxically, since the 1970s, by challenging Macondos reality, universalreach or literary value, detractors keep contributing to its stability as an indexical.For instance, Meja Duque, a Colombian critic referred to the plague ofmacondism (ibid, 1973) and, three decades, an anonymous Barnes & Noblereader concluded that Macondo is clearly a world readers fail to directly relateto(ibid, 2005).

In conclusion, while Macondos meanings remain multiple and shifting, actorsand organizations outside OHYSs VOC have come to agree that indexingMacondo is a collectively sanctioned way of conveying meaningful information

43 Macondo also serves as inspiration for peer writers. For instance, literary characters such as MaconDead IIIin Toni MorrisonsSong of Solomon(ibid, 1977).

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translator (ibid, 1978) and former US president Bill Clinton (ibid, 2003) (meso #3).Yet, since the early 1980s, audiences started to index him in more hagiographic,universalizing terms (Heinich, 1991) (macro #1). For instance, as the absolutemaster, according to Spanish critic Garca Posada (See Online Appendix A,

Table 2, Author, 1994) or as the Master, according to an Amazon.com reader(ibid, 2010); Each book by [him] is a major literary event, wrote Canadian writerMargaret Atwood (ibid, 1990); he must live forever, commented an Amazon USAreader (ibid, 1997); for a Barnes & Noble reader, he is a true literary genius(ibid,2001); His perception into the human condition is amazing, wrote another Barnes& Noble reader (ibid, 2002); and a Turkish reader commented that Marquezcannot be described, he must be experienced(ibid, 2007) (see also ibid, 1980).


Audiences have regularly equated Garca Mrquez to literary characters, like

Madame Bovary (ibid, 1984), and classic writers and artists.44

For Greek trans-lator Sotiriadou-Barajas, he is comparable to Cervantes, Chaucer, Faulkner,Borges, Camus, Joyce and [classic Greek writer] Kazantzakis(ibid, 1992). Foran Amazon Japan reader, he represents the second coming of Cervantes(ibid, 2008), while Mexican historian Enrique Krauze indexed Garca Mrquezto argue exactly the opposite: he is not Cervantes (ibid, 2009). A US writercompared him to English writer Chaucer and French writer Rabelais (ibid, 1969);an Italian scholar compared him to Boccaccio (ibid, 2000); and for ananonymous Amazon Germany reader, he does not write books, he paints books.His paintingsare reminiscent of Picasso(ibid, 2005). As the Boccaccio andKazantzakis comparisons show, Italian and Greek actors can embed the referenceto Garca Mrquez in their own organizational context by equating him torecognizable authors of their own national tradition (for example, Italian orGreek literature). But this has not always been the case. In fact, there can bedisagreement within the same national context and audience. For instance, ratherthan comparing him to a French poet, a French scholar asked whether GarcaMrquez (a Colombian) would be the successor of Nicaraguan poet Rubn Daro(ibid, 1979), that is, this scholar opted for a Latin American comparison. And acouple of French scholars referred to how Garca Mrquez broke away fromFaulknerian tragedy(ibid, 1995), that is, an American comparison.

Entrenched criticismAs pointed out for philosophers such as Kant and Hegel (Collins and Guilln, 2012)and writers such as Faulkner and Orwell (Schwartz, 1988; Rodden, 2002), the

44 A more predictable ramification is his adscription to different schools of thought. For Argentinewriter Maturo, Garca Mrquez is a Neo-Platonist (See Online Appendix A, Table 2, Author, 1977),for Cuban writer Bentez (hinting to postmodernism), hemanipulates the Western literary discourse(ibid, 1987) and, for South African writer and Nobel laureate Coetzee, he is a psychological realist(ibid, 2006).

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shch (a national alcoholic drink, like sake) named One Hundred Years ofSolitude.

Universalization

In 1967, OHYS was published to target a specific audience, readers of Boom novels,and sought to offer a viable alternative to dominant literary styles in the 1960s.Accordingly, Spanish-speaking audiences celebrated OHYS for its return tonarrative imagination, as Spanish writer Pere Gimferrer put it (ibid, 1967); forrepresenting a narrative feat, as Spanish journalist Pascual Maisterra wrote (ibid,1968); and for being an atmospheric purifier, according to Spanish writer LuisIzquierdo (ibid, 1969). These indexical references occurred within the VOC ofOHYS. But data from the early 1970s show that, when indexing the book, newaudiences were often unaware of its VOC and instead they started fabricating itsuniversalism. According to US writer William Kennedy, OHYSis the first piece of

literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entirehuman race(ibid, 1970); another US writer, John Updike, wrote [it] has a textureall its own(ibid, 1972); for a Colombian critic, the novel is a synthesis of threethousand years of literature(ibid, 1977); for Argentine writer Borges, it is one ofthe great books not only of our time but of all time (ibid, 1980); an Amazon Canadareader wrote that the book applies to everyone and its themes and characters areuniversal (ibid, 2004); and a BBC news reader from Azerbaijan wrote that OHYS isa hymn to the solitude of each of us(ibid, 2007) (see also ibid, 1991).

Furthermore, non-vernacular actors have contributed to the universalization ofOHYS by using it to index multiple (and often irreconcilable) approaches tounderstand the most diverse aspects. For US scholar Gregory Lawrence, OHYSillustrates the Marxian conception of alienation (ibid, 1974); writing in theaftermath of the 1973 oil crisis, for US scholar Menton,OHYS marks the end ofcapitalist society(ibid, 1976); drawing on postmodernist theory, Peruvian scholar

Julio Ortega argued thatOHYSconstructs the world as an act of multiple reading(ibid, 1995) and US journalist Martin Kaplan called it a post-modernist jungle(ibid, 1978); for US scholar Robert Sims, OHYS reads like Lvi-Strausss structuralanalysis of myth(ibid, 1986). Similarly, in the 1990s, scholars in Israel and theUnited States pointed out indexical connections between OHYS and Hegelianphilosophy (ibid, 1992) and pragmatism (ibid, 1994). Currently, as environmentalissues gain global prominence, some have started to establish connections between

OHYSand environmentalism: for example, scholar R.L. Williams has indexed it asa work of ecological wisdom (ibid, 2010), that is, a literary work from whichlessons on human impact on nature can be drawn.


The fabricationOHYSs classic value has included strategies such as its comparisonto other cultural objects of long-lasting value. For instance, a Scottish scholarcompared it to Velzquezs paintingLas Meninas(ibid, 1975) and, 25 years later, a

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Barnes & Noble reader commented that if a painting, [it] would certainly bedisplayed alongside theMona Lisaat the Louvre(ibid, 2000). A Soviet translator(ibid, 1979), an Argentine scholar (ibid, 1981) and a Cuban writer (ibid, 1984)agreed in comparingOHYStoWar and Peace. A Puerto Rican writer (ibid, 1990)

and a Greek theologian (ibid, 1993) preferred to compare it to the Divine Comedy.For a Colombian scholar, in OHYS, the Bible functions as [a] kind of intertext(ibid, 1997); for US scholar Harold Bloom, OHYSis the newDon Quixote(ibid,1989); and for an Ozun Russia reader it is like Bulgakovs The Master andMargarita in its own way (ibid, 2001). Again, as analyzed above, artistic com-mensuration can entail the embedding of what is indexed in the organizationalcontext that it is more familiar to the reader (as the Russian reader did in comparingOHYS to a twentieth-century Russian classic). But this is not always the case.A Cuban writer opted for comparingOHYSnot to vernacular classics (for example,

Jos Marts poetry) but to non-vernacular classics such as War and Peace, Madame

Bovary,Moby Dick(ibid, 1984) and, for a US scholar, OHYSis comparable to aSophoclean tragedy(ibid, 1985), an art form dating from the first millennium BC.


Almost half a century after its publication, vernacular and non-vernacular actorsand organizations continue to value OHYS as a meaningful object of literaryquarrel. In the early 1970s, Guatemalan writer and Nobel Laureate Asturiasconsidered it a plagiarismof a novel by nineteenth-century French writer Balzac(ibid, 1971), so did using almost the same words Colombian writer Vallejo30 years later (ibid, 2002); for Mexican poet and Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz,OHYS is watery poetry (ibid, 1973); while recognizing its undoubted power,English writer Anthony Burgess wrote that it cannot be compared with thegenuinely literary explorations of Borges and Nabokov(ibid, 1983); curiously, forSpanish publisher and promoter of Boom novels, Carlos Barral, OHYS is not thebest novel of its time(ibid, 1988); inThe Telegraphan English scholar wrote in asection about the most overrated books of the past 1000 years, Let us hope that[OHYS] will not generate one hundred years of overwritten, overlong, overratednovels (ibid, 1999); an Amazon Germany reader confessed that I had to forcemyself not to throw the book out the window (ibid, 2005); and, for an Ozun Russiareader, it is a nasty book about a family of freaks and perverts (ibid, 2008).(An opinion similar to that of the Amazon China reader cited above.) In sum, these

data show how the contested meaning ofOHYShas contributed to its meaningfulnegative reputation over the years and across transnational audiences.

An imitated opening: Many years later, as he faced the firing squad

Lived experience

Rephrasing the opening sentence has become for some the best way of sharingwith other people memorable life experiences: for example, a Canadian critic




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compared his discovery of the totem poles in Stanley Park (Vancouver) to colonelBuendas discovery of the ice in OHYS (See Online Appendix A, Table 4,Opening, 1986). Others prefer to index the opening by recalling when they firstread it: for an Amazon UK reader, it became a touchstone in my memory

36 years ago(ibid, 2011). So does US writer Stephen Koch after an editor saidto him: Read the first sentence. Just the first sentence. He did and wroteI remember it still(ibid, 1976).47 And other readers, in trying to recall it, makemistakes. For instance, a Philippine businessman for whom the discovery was notabout ice: I look forward already to relive the trip to that mythical village ofMacondo and the first experience of ice cream(ibid, 1999).


Writers seeking a professional reputation (see commensuration disembedding) andcritics have emulated the novels opening sentence, contributing to stabilize its

meaningfulness. Famously, Indian writer Salman Rushdie used it in the firstchapter ofMidnights Children (ibid, 1981) as well as Chilean writer Isabel Allendetowards the end ofThe House of the Spirits(ibid, 1982). If she ever writes a book,an Iranian BBC News reader confessed that it will start by saying: And a hundredyears later(ibid, 2007). In addition, different audiences across cultural regionshave compared it to the opening of literary and non-literary classics: for US writer

John Barth, it is comparable to the opening sentences of Anna Karenina andFinnegans Wake (ibid, 1980); Livreria Bertrand in Portugal compares it to thecelebrated opening words ofDon Quixote or In Search of Lost Time(ibid,2013); and for an Amazon UK reader, the opening is almost a Ben Hureffect

(ibid, 1997). As for scholars, one in the United States considers it a

Vergilian scene

(ibid, 1987) and another US scholar compares it to Don Quixote (ibid, 1991),while for Italian scholar Moretti the opening functions as a Wagnerian leitmotif inDer Ring des Nibelungenor in JoycesUlysses(ibid, 1996). Finally, commensura-tion has also transcended the artistic arena: Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (ibid,1968) and an English scholar (ibid, 1995) have stressed the openings biblicalconnotations.

Universalization

Although the opening remains a meaningful reference, understanding its meaninghas prompted multiple interpretations using different approaches that havenothing in common with the novels VOC. Some of these approaches areFreudian (Argentine scholar, ibid, 1972), semiotic (Bulgarian critic, ibid, 1978),religious (Romanian scholar, ibid, 2003), postmodern (Canadian scholar, ibid,1985) and cinematic (Italian writer, ibid, 1974). Furthermore, a German writer(ibid, 1984) and South African writer Andr Brink (ibid, 1998), respectively,

47 Similarly, a Colombian journalist and an Amazon Germany reader agree that it is unforgettable(SeeOnline Appendix A, Table 4, Opening, 2001 and 2002) (see also ibid, 1990, 2000, 2008 and 2010).

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Critical voices have been important in stabilizing this indexical, becausechallenging OHYS as the best example of magical realism has made moremeaningful the indexical connection between the novel and the genre. An

Amazon Germany reader commented that there is no consolationin GarcaMrquezs magical realism, but there is in the magical realism of other non-Latin American authors, such as Salman Rushdie and Toni Morrison (ibid,2001). (Notice how, by indexing OHYS, this reader has expanded magicalrealism beyond its Latin American context of production to India and theUnited States.) A year later, an English editor proclaimed magical realism deador at least ready to receive the last rites(ibid, 2002) and, in 2010, an Argentinecritic reacted against Macondism by denying that magical realism has affinitieswith the reality of Latin America (ibid, 2010). (Two decades earlier (ibid, 1991),a US scholar denounced that the genre had progressively colonized Latin

American reality.) These data illustrate how entrenched criticism againstmagical realism has contributed to stabilizing the meaningfulness of OHYS.More broadly, the data reveal the strong indexical association between thegenre and the novel, which confirms that the globalization of magical realismhas been critical in disembeddingOHYSfrom its VOC.

Remedioss ascent to heaven: A literary event as an indexical

That a cultural object can acquire a set of meanings that go beyond the onesoriginally produced in its VOC is also exemplified by literary events in OHYS,such as the ascension of Remedios the Beauty to heaven (ch. 12). The eventoccurred when three women were folding sheets in the garden of the Buendashouse and suddenly one of them, Remedios, ascended to heaven and disappearedforever. Since 1967 the event has become one of the novels most stable indexicalstransnationally. Yet, as is told in the novel, the event due to its supposedlymiraculous and supernatural dimensions seems to contradict the three condi-tional universals that, as argued earlier, characterize literary classics. Namely,the nature of the event makes difficult an anthropocentric understanding of it(macro #2); by ascending a character to heaven, the event fails to secularize ahuman experience (micro #1); and an empirical demonstration of the literary fact(micro #3) is not needed for the event defies an anthropocentric and secular

explanation. In fact, for readers in Catholic countries, such as Spain, Peruand Italy, Remedioss ascent indexes a clear religious scene: the Virgins ascent(See Online Appendix A, Table 6, Remedios, 1978, 1984 and 2008). But even inthis case, there is no agreement about its meaning. The reference to the Virginsascent is ironic, as argued by Belgian scholar Jacques Joset (ibid, 1980); aparody, as claimed by the Director of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language(ibid, 2007); and a literary version of popular depictions of the event in religiousprints, as argued by Cuban scholar Gonzlez Echevarra (ibid, 1982). The event




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contested. In practical terms, the distinction between meaning and mean-ingfulness allows us to overcome the tension between the shifting meanings ofliterary works and the regularity of some of their elements (for example, tobe or not be, Remedioss ascent to heaven). Beyond sociology of literature,

this distinction could expand the boundaries of cultural sociology if the latter isdefined as being not only concerned with the ways [in which] meaning shapessocial life (Alexander et al, 2012, p. 22) but also with meaningfulness: themore solid ground that supports the multiplicity of meaning. There areencouraging signs in this direction. Cultural- and postcultural-turn scholarshiphas started to investigate the dual nature ofsystems of meaning(Reed, 2011),to develop an iconic approach to meaning (Alexander, 2010) and to acknowl-edge the need for understanding why there are meanings that are moresignificant widely, sharedthan others (Lamont, 1992, p. 178) and whyour grasp of meanings can be selective and incomplete and yet enable the

reproduction of the structures of everyday life (Biernacki, 2012). To move intothat direction, rather than a meaning-centered analysis, this article proposed ananalysis of cultural objects centered in their meaningfulness (1) as theytranscend their original context of production and (2) as their contents areappropriated by non-vernacular audiences. If taken in that direction, the studyof meaningfulness could help to develop more robust interpretations ofcultural objects, while continue to acknowledge their changing meanings.

Since the argument was made on the basis of a single case, a way of furthersupporting it would be to provide a detailed artwork-centered comparison ofsome of the 14 literary counterfactuals mentioned in this article, namely, worksthat were published before, the same year and after the release ofOHYSbut didnot attain classic status. Additional counterfactuals cases could be Hell Has NoLimits(1965) by Donoso (Chile), No Laughing Matter(1967) by Angus Wilson(England),En noviembre llega el arzobispo(1967) by Rojas Herazo (Colombia)andLa Saga/Fuga de J.B.(1972) by Torrente Ballester (Spain). This comparisoncould clarify whether the 10 disembeddings ofOHYSare all necessary for otherliterary works to attain the transcendence leading to classicization, and also thecomparison could reveal differences in the ways these works were appropriatedin non-vernacular contexts.

In addition, researchers could investigate other paths towards classicization,

since OHYS only typifies the standard path: from bestseller to longseller toclassic. Other relevant questions to be approached differently are: how anartwork comes to be seen as a failure and how lasting negative reputation canincrease visibility (Fine, 1996; Baumann, 2001).

The classicization ofOHYSis likely to continue. Peruvian writer Vargas Llosain 2010 and Chinese writer Mo Yan in 2012 won the Nobel Prize in literature,what further disembedded the Boom novel and magical realism as a universalliterary movement and genre respectively, and OHYS as their quintessential




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environment. For his work in this area he received in 2011 the Edward Shils-James Coleman Memorial Award for Theory and the honorable mention for theRichard A. Peterson Prize for Culture, and in 2013 the honorable mention for theEdward Shils-James Coleman Memorial Award for Theory, which were awarded

by the American Sociological Association.

Main Primary Sources Garca Mrquez, G. (1967 and 1971) Cien aosde soledad. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana; (1991) Madrid: Ctedra; and (2007)Madrid and Mexico City: Real Academia Espaola. Online reviews (19962013)Amazon stores (Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain,United Kingdom, United States and Amazon en espaol), Barnes & Noble(United States), Feltrinelli (Italy), la Casa del Libro (Spain), FNAC (France andSpain), Gandhi (Mexico), Tematika (Argentina) and Ozun (Rusia). UNESCO

Index Translationum(2002). For full list, see Online Appendix.

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How a Literary Work Becomes a Classic