Magical Realism

Paper Summary:

This paper examines different definitions of magical realism in literature and, in particular, compares and contrasts the magic realism aspects of Isabelle Allende's "The House of the Spirits" and Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude." The books are analyzed within the context of plot, setting, characters, style, and narrative structure. It shows how Garcia Marquez takes his themes and his use of devices to explore these themes to such exquisite heights that the comparison between the two books is really an unfair one and how there really is no comparison between the masterpiece of Garcia Marquez, and Allende's rather one-dimensional, poor attempt at magic realism.

From the Paper:

"Bell-Villada (2002) acknowledges that magic realism is not an original construct of Garcia Marquez, that, rather, it came from Kafka (Garcia Marquez continually acknowledges the great impact The Metamorphosis had on his writing), and from Faulkner, and that Garcia Marquez took the ideas from these authors, and built on them to give the world his complex, enchanting magic realist masterpiece. This view, of Bell-Villada (2002), differs from the euro-centric view of Zamora and Faris? (1995) book Magic Realism: Theory, History and Community, by putting Garcia-Marquez's achievement in its rightful place as the masterpiece of magic realist fiction, rather than downplaying this achievement, through analysis, interpretation and presentation of worldwide, magic realist texts (such as those by Toni Morrison, and Rushdie, most of which were written post-One Hundred Years of Solitude)."

More papers on Magical Realism:

• Analytical Essay # 119942 : "Is Hawthorne's Fiction Magical Realism?"
• Analytical Essay # 144923 : "Magical Realism in Ana Castillo's "So Far From God"
• Comparison Essay # 96657 : "Latin American Magical Realism"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: