Magic Surrealism as a Magical Tool in Creative Writing
The idea of recreating the world where there is a juxtaposition of magic and reality, where one has the power to decide how the world runs and who gets to dwell in it, and the freedom to utilize modified empirical methods to redefine what is the norm in the world has been one of my major interests as a student writer. I am not referring to the Dadaist style known as surrealism, but a more complex yet fascinating narrative style that has been one of the characteristics of the twentieth-century Latin American literature: Magic Realism.
Magic Realism is considered as the most important trend in contemporary international fiction and proposes a new theory to re-define reality using mysticism, magic, and a great deal of imagination. While studying narration styles in creative writing classes, we learn that we must have a story, characters -one of them plays the role of the narrator, a plot, a turning point, and a meaningful theme that needs to come across the narration in a way that it engages the reader to believe what is being said in such story. Thus, the narration we are creating is linear and predictable: there is a start, a turning point, and an end that encloses the plot of the story.
What motivates us to write is an empiricism which we take as logical and normal for us. We want to express in writing that experience/knowledge seen through our own vision and understanding of logic, life, reality. In a writer, there is the need of canalizing and thus portraying everyday events which are familiar to him or her, and he or she takes them as true or real. Furthermore, these events are the history of the writer and become part of a mimetic narration. This type of narration is characteristic of realism. In realism, a writer utilizes history, Naturalism, cause-and-effect rationalization, and familiarization to imitate life (qtd. in Simpkins: 141)[1]. However, in realist narrative there is an expectation of a setting where the actions and events need to be “justified by the physical world or [the] normal acceptance” (qtd. in Simpkins: 142).[2]
Magic Realism deconstructs this narrative style by redefining reality adding a touch of magic and mysticism to the story. As a deconstructive movement, Magic Realism is a nihilistic view, a counter-argument that restores reality and contradicts the empirical truth. That is, it is a philosophical, pedagogical structure that turns political and historical views –characteristics of realism, into subjective and mythical. This movement was originated by the art historian, Franz Roh in Germany, and it was called Magischer Realismus. Roh was a post-expressionist who captured through visual arts the magic in each element of reality and turned the simple things of everyday life into more magical elements[3]. When his works were translated into Spanish and disseminated through the magazine “Revista de Occidente,” as Simpkins mentions in his article, his style was adopted by Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinean writer, who later influenced Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other Latin American writers to use that style as a new way of telling stories[4]. Magic Realism then became the narrative style in the twentieth-century Latin American literature.
One of the reasons this movement has been well accepted and adopted in Latin American literature is because of the flexibility and freedom it gives the writers. Making reality subjective instead of objective or concrete allows the writer to deconstruct realism –including political and historical views with the psychological analysis –and supplement it with a (restored) reality that only the author visualizes and thus establishes in his or her narrative. This does not imply that Magic Realism creates imaginary worlds or distorts reality, however, as Luis Real asserts in the essay by Rodriguez Monegal (qtd. in Monegal: 649)[5]. And this is where many scholars confuse Magic Realism with surrealism creating a hesitation to accept this style as another post-modernist movement, as Jeanne Delbaere-Garant explains in her essay “Psychic Realism, Mythic Realism, Grotesque Realism: Variations of Magic Realism in Contemporary Literature in English.”
The freedom and flexibility that Magic Realism gives writers to expose in a legendary way the political and historical views have been a crucial factor in the in Latin American literature and its renaissance in the twentieth century. Octavio Paz, in his book The Labyrinth of Solitude, indicates that the long periods of dictatorship have led people –including writers and other artists, become more cautious about expressing points of view (21). Utilizing Magic Realism as a narrative style which deforms a reality that suppresses public opinion and freedom of expression is a way of criticizing and annihilating realism, which is seen as a negative movement in Latin America. Paz asserts that the conception of realism in Latin America equals pessimism caused by colonialism (23). Looking back at history, these countries were founded upon imposing monarchies and long dictatorships that have only left negativism in these countries.
As one of the major exponents of Magic Realism in Latin America, Gabriel Garcia Marquez redefines in One Hundred Years of Solitude a reality exposing historical and political events that happened during the post-independence movement through the early twentieth century where several revolutionary wars arose[6]. The narrative highlights the struggles and experiences of a traditional Colombian family that throughout several generations intends to define itself as committed, conventional, and devoted patriarchal family based on the traditions and creed of the Colombian society[7]. However, Garcia Marquez de-familiarizes the history and political events of the country making them seem more mythical and mystical. The fact that the founder of this family, Aureliano Buendia, dies at an early age, and his wife is the one that dictates the destiny of the family de-centers the conventionalism of a patriarchal family[8] in the Hispanic culture.
Garcia Marquez, in addition, utilizes magical supplements through the characters to illustrate the mysticism and redefinition of reality. For instance, Melquiades is a mystical gypsy that goes to Macondo, the town where the story develops, and sells random items such as magnets -which he makes people believe are magical and attract gold, that he brought from different parts of the world. He then decided to come back to the town and live with the Buendia family until his death. While he is waiting to die, he starts to predict the story of the Buendias by writing it in Sanskrit on scrolls. After several years and two generations, the scrolls began to reveal to Aureliano Babilonia, who becomes an eventual narrator in the story when he is able to decipher some of what Melquiades wrote in the scrolls. In fact, Melquiades appears to him several times giving him hints about the scrolls. Aurelanio Babilonia has reminiscence about Melquiades before he was born even though he never met him. Here, the author creates a special bounding between the two characters.
Aureliano Babilonia does not realize that he is predicting his own death and the birth of new generations who will eventually marry each other and commit incest. Aureliano Babilonia overwhelms himself with the translation of the scrolls and finds out he knows too much about this family and its future. At the end of the novel, he eventually dies hidden in the room where he found the scrolls after he finished translating the last scroll (471). Both Melquiades and Aureliano Babilionia play the role of narrators: one predicts the future of the story and the other interprets it. Both Melquiades and Aureliano Babilonia are mystical and legendary characters, and one precedes the other.
Garcia Marquez interchanges the narrator’s voice with these two characters that at the same time play different roles in the story. This multi-narrative is a feature of Magic Realism. As Simpkins defines it, it is
a magical layer, a supplemental strategy that may enhance, through its own theatricality, the force of an otherwise commonplace development, boosting its significative show in the process through a transcendent power (145).
In the novel, the magical layers are an enhancement of the story, retelling the story with different narrators (multi-narration) who are still part of the story but are able to transcend three-dimensionally and thus perceive several perspectives in the story. And all this is possible with the simple use of language and text.[9] Therefore, the writer can take advantage of this characteristic to enhance the story and boost the “significative show” as Simpkins points out.
Inspired by Garcia Marquez’s novel and after understanding what kind of style he employed in One Hundred Years of Solitude, I started to write a novel in Spanish about my grandmother’s life to somewhat honor and celebrate her life. The events in the story do not reflect or intend to illustrate my grandmother’s life. On the other hand, they are an interpretation of what she used to tell me about her life. Those stories she told me stuck in my head until I decided to retell her story making it magical and legendary which is mainly what Magic Realism offers as a tool in creative writing. The story is called, Doña Cruz se va en noviembre a la Isla de la Paz, and I have roughly translated as “Mrs. Cruz leaves in November to the Island of Peace” to utilize it as an example in this essay.
In this story, thus, I make use of legendary characters such as Don Pascual, an old and wise man who only goes to the town of Jerez every May during the town’s feast. He brings white carnations from the Island of Peace to offer them to Our Lady of Lourdes. Every time he goes to the town, he tells the story of how the image of the virgin was brought to the town and how King Alejandro, founder of Jerez, conquered the native Jeré and built the town. In addition, he foresees the future of Mrs. Cruz and gives her messages that she will only understand as time goes by and she matures. At the end of the story, Don Pascual recounts the destiny of each of the main characters, especially of Mrs. Cruz’s. This strategy reassures the reader the development of the main characters and Mrs. Cruz’s epiphany after she decides it is time to go to the Island of Peace[10].
Another strategy in Magic Realist narratives is to take real elements that are undermined and ignored in real life such as the magnets or carnations and make them magical. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, for example, Melquiades sells magnets to the people of Macondo and makes them believe they have the magical power to attract gold and serve as weapons used in the war[11]. In my story, the white carnations are believed to be sacred because they only bloom in the Island of Peace and are offered exclusively to Our Lady of Lourdes. These flowers never wither except when the touch dead bodies. The carnations in real life are very common and inexpensive flowers. In the story, I wanted to include those common flowers to make them magical by stating they only bloom in a particular place and never wither. So, with Magic Realism, the writer has that flexibility to use elements that are common and simple in real life and turn them into something mystical and even powerful. There is no creation of something never seen like in science ficition; it is simply making something already existing into magical and powerful.
Some may argue that making something simple and real into magically real is not impressive or fantastic enough to use it as a strategy in their narratives. Nonetheless, this type of supplementation in Magic Realism goes beyond the mere fact of re-making items and giving them special powers. This feature brings culture and faith combined to lead into something fantastic. In Latin American cultures, religion is a common ground and plays a crucial role in defining and directing culture and language. As a result, sublime elements are juxtaposed with earthly events. Miracles happen every day and are attributed to deities and saints. People commend themselves to the celestial court at the start of their working day and pray constantly for a raise or a new job. In the Magic Realist text, this cultural peculiarity is de-familiarized. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, one can see how Garcia Marquez de-centers faith. For example, Remedios the Beauty is a young virgin that never gets married. All the men interested in her die literally in strange accidents when they see her (257-59). Still young and virgin, Remedios ascends to heaven miraculously, and only Ursula, the oldest and almost blind character in the novel is the one that understands what is happening (269-72).
This particular event resembles the assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven in body and soul after fulfilling her role of the mother of God. This establishes the closing of a cycle of life successfully as God intended it. Latin American Catholics see that as a privilege and gift from God that no one else on earth can attain. Remedios the Beauty, however, has been granted the honor of going to heaven, and no one in Macondo questions that; instead they take it as a miracle: “the majority believed in this miracle, and even candles were lit and novenas were prayed for a long time” (272).[12] However, some of the relatives did not want to accept the fact that she was taken miraculously to heaven. Fernanda, Remedios’ aunt, who had been very pious and devoted, was jealous of this miracle and prayed to God that he could return the white satin sheets that Remedios the Beauty took with her while ascending to heaven (272). Therefore, Garcia Marquez de-familiarizes faith in the Latin American culture: people accept what comes from God (thy kingdom come, thy will be done), and no one questions his will. However, there are some that do not concur with what God has done and demands another miracle from him.
In Mrs. Cruz Leaves in November to the Island of Peace, Mrs. Cruz, collects nine white carnations that Don Pascual gave to her father, Don Fidelito because she was born on the same day that the image of Our Lady of Lourdes was placed in its niche, and that was a privilege given by God to Mrs. Cruz. For her tenth birthday, Don Fidelito gives Cruz a tenth carnation. However, later that night, Don Fidelito dies. Cruz is crying in her room, and one of her tears drips down her face and touches the carnation turning it into an intense red. At the funeral, Cruz throws the red carnation to the coffin that is already being buried, and as the flower touches the casket, it vanishes releasing its scent into the air (chapter 1). In this passage, the intention is to deconstruct the meaning of the flowers. In some parts of Mexico, white carnations are used in funerals because their brightness represents pureness; their strong scent serves as a guide for the soul to follow the pathway to heaven. In addition, the blooming of the flowers signifies the rebirth of the soul into an everlasting life. With the change of color from white to red and the vanishing of the flower when it touches the coffin, I intend to de-familiarize what is attributed to this flower.
The de-familiarization and re-creation of real events turned into magical, sublime and legendary in Magic Realist narration go beyond incredulity and make the reader believe that those events may actually happen in real life. For instance, towards the end of One Hundred Years of Solitude, two of the Buendias marry each other and have a child that was born with a pigtail. The people in the town believed that was a punishment from God because incest is considered a sin (465). This was taken as some sort of myth and superstition by many people who read the novel. My grandmother, for example, used to tell my cousin and me that we could not marry each other because our children would have pigtails. I never found out whether my grandmother was just lying or actually believed in that. But that myth was originated from the story of the two Buendias who married each other and had a child with a pigtail. Once again, the re-making of real-life events and the de-centering of faith in the Latin American culture in Magic Realist narratives redraws the boundaries between the fantastic and the real.
In Mrs. Cruz Leaves in November to the Island of Peace, Manuel, Mrs. Cruz’s best friend from childhood gives her in her fifteenth birthday a pair of pearl earrings which he made by using the stems of little Beatrice[13] flowers:
Manuel took two stems which were slender and flexible but very strong and difficult to break. He carefully picked up a pearl and drilled it with one of the stems. It was like a needle penetrating through the fabric while sewing. Similarly, Manuel drilled the other pearl and thus made the earrings for Cruz which he placed back in the white shell. However, Manuel would keep this as his secret because he thought nobody would believe him. After all, how could a stem of a Beatricita, as thin as a needle, drill a pearl? However, it did, and the proof was that Cruz was wearing two earrings supported by these stems (chapter 2)[14].
In this passage, one may notice how the narrator explains very simply how Manuel drilled the pearls which by fact are very hard to drill especially without the right tools. In the real life, it is impossible to drill a pearl with a thin stem of a made-up flower. Nonetheless, in the Magic Realist narrative, the writer can make that happen with the use of language. That is, as simple as drilling a pearl with a stem, one can make earrings; that sentence just explained something unthinkable and unbelievable in real life. There are no further explanations about the making of the pearl earrings, and the narrator even assures that the fact the Cruz was wearing the earrings was a proof that Manuel was able to drill the pearls with the stems. This attribute in the magical narrative gives the writer an immense world of possibilities that he or she can use to expose his/her perception of reality and making it subject to the imagination.
With Magic Realism as a tool in creative writing, one can let the imagination go further than what is already established as an empirical truth re-defining reality the way one perceives it. Magic Realist narrative does not create imaginary worlds in parallel dimensions; instead, it permits the creative writer play with reality and make it fantastic and mythical with the simple use of language and multi-narration to retell the story from a different perspective within the same story. And beyond that, Magic Realism as a tool redraws the boundaries of telling stories. The traditional form of starting from the beginning and finishing at the end with a turning point in the middle is challenged by the ambiguity and flexibility of starting from the end of the story and going backwards. In Magic Realist narrative there is no physical end of the story; the story does not have to end at the end of the last page, but it could imply a cyclical ending; something like “a dog chasing its tail,” as Simpkins explains (152).
After all, “Reality is too subtle for realism to catch it,” as Robert Scholes asserts (qtd. in Simpkins: 149). However, Magic Realism as a tool in creative writing is able to catch reality and subjects it in order to capture and redefine it based on our personal perception of reality: it is ours to make us of, and there are ceaseless ways of redefining reality giving it a magical power.
Notes
[1]Scotts Simpkins takes these characteristics from Franz Roh’s, German Art in the 20th Century (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1968), p.70
[2] Cited in Scott Simpkins’s “Magical Strategies: The Supplement of Realism. The original text comes from Angel Flores’s “Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction,” Hispania, 38 (1955), 109.
[3] Franz Roh’s, German Art in the 20th Century (Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1968), p.70
[4] Rodriguez Monegal, “Realismo Magico Versus Literatura Fantastica,” Revista Iberoamericana, 26 (1971).
[5] This paraphrase was taken from the original quote in Spanish in the essay, “Realismo Magico Versus Literatura Fantastica:” “desfigura la realidad o crea mundos imaginados.”
[6] For more historical context, see Marco Palacios’s. “Between Legitimacy and Violence a History of Colombia, 1875-2002.” Duke University Press: 2006v
[7] This summary is my interpretation and intake after reading the novel in Spanish.
[8] See note 7
[9] The use of the scrolls written in Sanskrit and the different voices telling the story
[10] This is basically the physical end of the story.
[11] See One Hundred Years of Solitude, chapter 3-7.
[12] I translated this passage from the original text in Spanish which reads “La mayoría creyó en el milagro, y hasta se encendieron velas y se rezaron novenarios” (272).
[13]In the story, the Beatrice flowers are in actually chamomile flowers. Beatrice is one of my aunts, and she’s turned into a chamomile flower. In magic realist narratives, one can use people and turn them into objects such as flowers or mountains, for example.
[14] I roughly translated this passage from the original text to use it as an example of how Magic Realism can turn something real and simple into magical and almost incredible.
Annotated Bibliography
Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings, ed. Donald Yates and James E. Irby. New York: New Directions, 1964. Print
Overall, the book conveys the structure and stance of Borges’s writing style. The elusive and allusive tones that Borges has conveyed in his style are imprinted in this book. Borges utilizes supplemental strategies which attempt to increase and maintain the text in a surrealist mode. The Garden of Forking Paths is a story that involves characters in different roles; this is called a magical supplementation that characterizes Borges and Garcia Marquez’s narrative style. This strategy bypasses the commonplace unity that is found in most realistic texts. To develop this into the essay has required me to go further into reading more about the story that is included in this book. Although there are many strategies reflected in more stories, this strategy seems to connect more to one of the points I want to elaborate in the essay; the de-centering of conventional roles in characters. The narrator is also an English professor, a prisoner, a friend that constructs a multi-perspective and thus portrays all fictional possibilities used in a realist novel. The use of text and language in this narrative is what some theorists called an intentional semiotic dysfunction that conveys the contemporary concern with language in the modernism. Although this point needs more elaboration, I am not sure if I could elaborate more on this point when talking about Borges’s narrative style.
Borges, Jorge Luis. Ficciones. Ed. Anthony Kerrigan. New York: Grove Press. 1962. Print
This book is absolutely magical and conveys the narrative strategy seen is magic realist novels. Some of the stories are very intense in the sense that they create discomfort in the readers. Curiosity and tension are some of the feelings that this collection of short stories. The very title, Fictions, is simple and yet conveys the main theory of magic realism. That is a point to illustrate in the essay that adds to the characteristics of magic realism. This book also conveys the semiotic dysfunction as a narrative strategy in which characters purposefully construct layers of perspectives that portray realism in a magical world. The story I focused on to integrate the analysis in the essay was The Thousand and One Nights, in which the main character utilizes magical text to convey his reality fictionally. This is a statement that will add more to my main argument.
Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004. Print
This book investigates magical realism as the most important trend in contemporary international fiction, defines its characteristics and narrative techniques, and proposes a new theory to explain its significance. In the most comprehensive critical treatment of this literary mode to date, the author discusses a rich array of examples from magical realist novels around the world, including the work not only of Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who is one of the major exponents of magic realism but works that come from earlier writers in Spain such as Cervantes. I like this book because it explains how realism surged as a narrative form. Since I am not too familiarized with the history and background of magic realism, I was very excited to have found that Faris has come up with a very thoroughly developed argument about magic realism and how it has been developed. Some of the paragraphs are overwhelming with the definitions and background of magic realism. I have to stay focused on how the information from this book will contribute to my main focus. Just keep in mind to stay in what I want to say; avoid vagueness.
Flores, Angel. “Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction,” Hispania, 38. 1955: 109. Print.
Another article that Simpkins includes in his essay. Helpful and definitely indispensible to use for future reference in later essays and works. It talks about the major differences between magic realism and realism. The characteristics of realism include an empirical truth, a rationalization where cause and effect play the major role of directing the story and the plot. This will help differentiate and explain realism versus magic realism.
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Cien Años de Soledad. First Edition. Barcelona: Vintage Español, 2003. Print
This novel is one of the literary pieces that expose magic realist fiction. This narrative highlights the struggles and experiences of a typical Colombian family that through generations intends to define itself as a committed and devoted one based on the traditions and creed of the Colombian society. The novel brings up historical and political issues that happened during the independence movement, and somehow are still relevant in the present Colombia. The narrative of Garcia Marquez conveys the magic realism style: mystic, magical, and yet very close to reality. The original piece is in Spanish because I want to capture the essence of the narration in the way the author says it with the authentic Colombian accent. This is one of the reasons I am interested in the narrative style of Garcia Marquez: as I read the piece, I can actually feel as though a Colombian would actually be telling the story and not me reading it. I may include some of the narration/dialogue in the story and use it as an example to connect it with the introduction and definition in the essay.
Hegerfeldt, Anne C. Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism Seen through Contemporary Fiction from Britain. New York: Editions Bodopit B.V., 2005. Print
This book intends to explain how magic realism originated and how it has been adapted in the postmodern British literature. This is similar to what I found in Faris’s book, but it seems to be more extended. I was intrigued to see that the book tends to focus contemporary fiction in the UK. In the first chapter, the author defines what magic realism is, which it seems to me that not many writers and critics have actually seen it as another way to tell fiction. Based on what I have read so far from this book, magic realists tend to expose issues and situations that society is going through in a way that it seems very magical and mystical. The title of this book caught my attention because it somewhat defines what magic realism is: lies that tell the truth. I like this statement to be part of my topic sentence and main idea. I want to define magic realism as a narrative that could tell say lies that convey the truth. Do I want to stick with this idea or should I go beyond this concept that Hegefeltd exposes? Keeping in mind that magic realism hasn’t been wholly accepted as a narrative style, I have to convey the concept of redrawing boundaries.
Jameson, Fredric. “Magical Narratives: Romance as Genre.” New Literary History, Vol. 7, No. 1. 1975: 135-163. JSTOR. Web 5 October 2010.
This is glance at some of the classic theorists, the semantic and the structural or syntactic approaches. It describes the world of worlds concept that bring realism and its narrative to a more fictional and magical text composed with the elements that magic surrealism contains. Alteration of the stylistic theory in linguistics makes this element of narrative strategies a more interesting concept that used in many fictions of Borges’s and Garcia Marquez’s. This long essay contains too much information and description of modernist rhetorical strategies used in surrealism. There are so many references that are definitely useful to collaborate with my essay, but some of them make me go off the topic into more broad definitions of magic surrealism. The title is catchy; something to think about for my final draft title. The start of this essay helps me with my introduction and abstract. This goes from general to specific, but I am not sure if that is something I want to resemble in my essay. Definitely this is an ideal starting point.
Palacios, Marco. Between Legitimacy and Violence a History of Colombia, 1875-2002. Durham: Duke University Press: 2006. Print.
This helps with the interpretation and explanations of the historical context of Colombian during the time the novel develops. Use it as a reference that will allow to explain in what Garcia Marquez takes and redefines the history of Colombian and how he presents it in the novel.
Parkinson Zamora, Lois. Magic Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham: Durke University Press, 1995. Print
A collection of essays that describes a mode of writing that is catalyst and growing constantly especially with the postmodernist movement. Jeanne Delbaere-Garant (249-263) mentions how magic realism has been misinterpreted and seen as a grotesque way to tell fiction. This essay is important to analyze even further so that it is understood that magic realism is similar to postmodernism was to modernists: an epiphanic movement, just as Delbaere-Garant points out. I found this essay to be particularly specific and more explanatory than the other two I read from the book, and it fits very smoothly to the main focus in my essay. I want to stick with the idea of the misinterpretation of magi surrealism. I wish there would be more examples of how magic surrealism is more interesting and fun in a narrative than just a ‘conventional’ way of telling a story. Maybe, this should be one of the opening sentences/persuasive points to cover in the essay. I like how Delbaere-Garant uses epiphanic movement. I need to elaborate more on that epiphany in the narrative styles.
Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude. Trans. Lysander Kemp, Yara Milos, and Rachel Phillips Belash. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1985. Print.
Paz exposes the difference in concepts about Realism in Mexico and in the United States: A realist in Mexico is considered a pessimist because he/she only sees the “bad reality.” Another difference in concepts is the perception of death. Meanwhile, in the US, death is seen as the end of life that people try to avoid, in the Mexican culture, death is seen as a way of going to a “better life.” Will use this as point to illustrate why Magic Realism has been well adopted in the literature of Latin America and how that helps writers to boom and start the so-called twentieth-century renaissance in LA literature. Pages 21-27 will serve as starting argument on the essay.
Rodriguez Monegal, Emir. “Realismo Magico Versus Literatura Fantastica,” Revista Iberoamericana. 1971: 26. Print.
Simpkins quotes Monegal’s article to illustrate how Magic Realism became part of the traits of narration in Latin American literature. The article gives me the starting point to illustrate that Borges originated this movement and influenced other Latin American authors including Garcia Marquez and their narrative style. This magazine is definitely a rich source of information to determine how Magic Realism influences in the renaissance of the Latin American literature in the twentieth century. I looked for the original quotes in the article and will paraphrase it in English on the essay.
Simpkins, Scott. “Magical Strategies: The Supplement of Realism.” Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 34, No. 2 (1998): 140-154. JSTOR. Web. 5 October 2010.
Very simple and entertaining article that I enjoyed reading. It gets me back on track because of the style and the simple definition about magic realism. In page 140 it is mentioned about fantasy which is a reflection on the characters in a narration. The article in general includes criticism about Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. That helps me stay on track about getting quotes from One Hundred Years of Solitude: characters define are used to describe a fantasy that somehow portrays reality disguised as fiction. That idea ties in with Hegerfeldt’s argument about lies telling the truth. Page 141 talks about the comparison between realism and magic realism which is a list of differences between the two styles. The author indicates that this main difference is called “marvelous realism”. This comparison should help the essay lean towards an argumentation about why magic realism should not be confused with magic realism. Rhetorical strategies are mentioned in this article. The concept of a purifying concern of textual generation: an absolute signified and an absolute meaning –that comes towards the end of the article. By the way, this article has given me reference to other articles and books that the author used which definitely add up to my elaboration of the essay.
Overall, the book conveys the structure and stance of Borges’s writing style. The elusive and allusive tones that Borges has conveyed in his style are imprinted in this book. Borges utilizes supplemental strategies which attempt to increase and maintain the text in a surrealist mode. The Garden of Forking Paths is a story that involves characters in different roles; this is called a magical supplementation that characterizes Borges and Garcia Marquez’s narrative style. This strategy bypasses the commonplace unity that is found in most realistic texts. To develop this into the essay has required me to go further into reading more about the story that is included in this book. Although there are many strategies reflected in more stories, this strategy seems to connect more to one of the points I want to elaborate in the essay; the de-centering of conventional roles in characters. The narrator is also an English professor, a prisoner, a friend that constructs a multi-perspective and thus portrays all fictional possibilities used in a realist novel. The use of text and language in this narrative is what some theorists called an intentional semiotic dysfunction that conveys the contemporary concern with language in the modernism. Although this point needs more elaboration, I am not sure if I could elaborate more on this point when talking about Borges’s narrative style.
Borges, Jorge Luis. Ficciones. Ed. Anthony Kerrigan. New York: Grove Press. 1962. Print
This book is absolutely magical and conveys the narrative strategy seen is magic realist novels. Some of the stories are very intense in the sense that they create discomfort in the readers. Curiosity and tension are some of the feelings that this collection of short stories. The very title, Fictions, is simple and yet conveys the main theory of magic realism. That is a point to illustrate in the essay that adds to the characteristics of magic realism. This book also conveys the semiotic dysfunction as a narrative strategy in which characters purposefully construct layers of perspectives that portray realism in a magical world. The story I focused on to integrate the analysis in the essay was The Thousand and One Nights, in which the main character utilizes magical text to convey his reality fictionally. This is a statement that will add more to my main argument.
Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004. Print
This book investigates magical realism as the most important trend in contemporary international fiction, defines its characteristics and narrative techniques, and proposes a new theory to explain its significance. In the most comprehensive critical treatment of this literary mode to date, the author discusses a rich array of examples from magical realist novels around the world, including the work not only of Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who is one of the major exponents of magic realism but works that come from earlier writers in Spain such as Cervantes. I like this book because it explains how realism surged as a narrative form. Since I am not too familiarized with the history and background of magic realism, I was very excited to have found that Faris has come up with a very thoroughly developed argument about magic realism and how it has been developed. Some of the paragraphs are overwhelming with the definitions and background of magic realism. I have to stay focused on how the information from this book will contribute to my main focus. Just keep in mind to stay in what I want to say; avoid vagueness.
Flores, Angel. “Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction,” Hispania, 38. 1955: 109. Print.
Another article that Simpkins includes in his essay. Helpful and definitely indispensible to use for future reference in later essays and works. It talks about the major differences between magic realism and realism. The characteristics of realism include an empirical truth, a rationalization where cause and effect play the major role of directing the story and the plot. This will help differentiate and explain realism versus magic realism.
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Cien Años de Soledad. First Edition. Barcelona: Vintage Español, 2003. Print
This novel is one of the literary pieces that expose magic realist fiction. This narrative highlights the struggles and experiences of a typical Colombian family that through generations intends to define itself as a committed and devoted one based on the traditions and creed of the Colombian society. The novel brings up historical and political issues that happened during the independence movement, and somehow are still relevant in the present Colombia. The narrative of Garcia Marquez conveys the magic realism style: mystic, magical, and yet very close to reality. The original piece is in Spanish because I want to capture the essence of the narration in the way the author says it with the authentic Colombian accent. This is one of the reasons I am interested in the narrative style of Garcia Marquez: as I read the piece, I can actually feel as though a Colombian would actually be telling the story and not me reading it. I may include some of the narration/dialogue in the story and use it as an example to connect it with the introduction and definition in the essay.
Hegerfeldt, Anne C. Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism Seen through Contemporary Fiction from Britain. New York: Editions Bodopit B.V., 2005. Print
This book intends to explain how magic realism originated and how it has been adapted in the postmodern British literature. This is similar to what I found in Faris’s book, but it seems to be more extended. I was intrigued to see that the book tends to focus contemporary fiction in the UK. In the first chapter, the author defines what magic realism is, which it seems to me that not many writers and critics have actually seen it as another way to tell fiction. Based on what I have read so far from this book, magic realists tend to expose issues and situations that society is going through in a way that it seems very magical and mystical. The title of this book caught my attention because it somewhat defines what magic realism is: lies that tell the truth. I like this statement to be part of my topic sentence and main idea. I want to define magic realism as a narrative that could tell say lies that convey the truth. Do I want to stick with this idea or should I go beyond this concept that Hegefeltd exposes? Keeping in mind that magic realism hasn’t been wholly accepted as a narrative style, I have to convey the concept of redrawing boundaries.
Jameson, Fredric. “Magical Narratives: Romance as Genre.” New Literary History, Vol. 7, No. 1. 1975: 135-163. JSTOR. Web 5 October 2010.
This is glance at some of the classic theorists, the semantic and the structural or syntactic approaches. It describes the world of worlds concept that bring realism and its narrative to a more fictional and magical text composed with the elements that magic surrealism contains. Alteration of the stylistic theory in linguistics makes this element of narrative strategies a more interesting concept that used in many fictions of Borges’s and Garcia Marquez’s. This long essay contains too much information and description of modernist rhetorical strategies used in surrealism. There are so many references that are definitely useful to collaborate with my essay, but some of them make me go off the topic into more broad definitions of magic surrealism. The title is catchy; something to think about for my final draft title. The start of this essay helps me with my introduction and abstract. This goes from general to specific, but I am not sure if that is something I want to resemble in my essay. Definitely this is an ideal starting point.
Palacios, Marco. Between Legitimacy and Violence a History of Colombia, 1875-2002. Durham: Duke University Press: 2006. Print.
This helps with the interpretation and explanations of the historical context of Colombian during the time the novel develops. Use it as a reference that will allow to explain in what Garcia Marquez takes and redefines the history of Colombian and how he presents it in the novel.
Parkinson Zamora, Lois. Magic Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham: Durke University Press, 1995. Print
A collection of essays that describes a mode of writing that is catalyst and growing constantly especially with the postmodernist movement. Jeanne Delbaere-Garant (249-263) mentions how magic realism has been misinterpreted and seen as a grotesque way to tell fiction. This essay is important to analyze even further so that it is understood that magic realism is similar to postmodernism was to modernists: an epiphanic movement, just as Delbaere-Garant points out. I found this essay to be particularly specific and more explanatory than the other two I read from the book, and it fits very smoothly to the main focus in my essay. I want to stick with the idea of the misinterpretation of magi surrealism. I wish there would be more examples of how magic surrealism is more interesting and fun in a narrative than just a ‘conventional’ way of telling a story. Maybe, this should be one of the opening sentences/persuasive points to cover in the essay. I like how Delbaere-Garant uses epiphanic movement. I need to elaborate more on that epiphany in the narrative styles.
Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude. Trans. Lysander Kemp, Yara Milos, and Rachel Phillips Belash. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1985. Print.
Paz exposes the difference in concepts about Realism in Mexico and in the United States: A realist in Mexico is considered a pessimist because he/she only sees the “bad reality.” Another difference in concepts is the perception of death. Meanwhile, in the US, death is seen as the end of life that people try to avoid, in the Mexican culture, death is seen as a way of going to a “better life.” Will use this as point to illustrate why Magic Realism has been well adopted in the literature of Latin America and how that helps writers to boom and start the so-called twentieth-century renaissance in LA literature. Pages 21-27 will serve as starting argument on the essay.
Rodriguez Monegal, Emir. “Realismo Magico Versus Literatura Fantastica,” Revista Iberoamericana. 1971: 26. Print.
Simpkins quotes Monegal’s article to illustrate how Magic Realism became part of the traits of narration in Latin American literature. The article gives me the starting point to illustrate that Borges originated this movement and influenced other Latin American authors including Garcia Marquez and their narrative style. This magazine is definitely a rich source of information to determine how Magic Realism influences in the renaissance of the Latin American literature in the twentieth century. I looked for the original quotes in the article and will paraphrase it in English on the essay.
Simpkins, Scott. “Magical Strategies: The Supplement of Realism.” Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 34, No. 2 (1998): 140-154. JSTOR. Web. 5 October 2010.
Very simple and entertaining article that I enjoyed reading. It gets me back on track because of the style and the simple definition about magic realism. In page 140 it is mentioned about fantasy which is a reflection on the characters in a narration. The article in general includes criticism about Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. That helps me stay on track about getting quotes from One Hundred Years of Solitude: characters define are used to describe a fantasy that somehow portrays reality disguised as fiction. That idea ties in with Hegerfeldt’s argument about lies telling the truth. Page 141 talks about the comparison between realism and magic realism which is a list of differences between the two styles. The author indicates that this main difference is called “marvelous realism”. This comparison should help the essay lean towards an argumentation about why magic realism should not be confused with magic realism. Rhetorical strategies are mentioned in this article. The concept of a purifying concern of textual generation: an absolute signified and an absolute meaning –that comes towards the end of the article. By the way, this article has given me reference to other articles and books that the author used which definitely add up to my elaboration of the essay.
