Sunday 1 April 2012

MAGICAL REALISM


     MAGICAL REALISM



What is magical realism
Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought.
Magic realism is a literary form in which odd, eerie, and dreamlike tales are related as if the events were commonplace. Its literary and artistic applications are aimed to re-imagine the world and its reality. There are multiple stylistic traits of magic realism. The key, however, is rejection of subjectivity and emotionalism, simultaneity of past, present and future and defamiliarisation. Magic realism however, is not subject to natural or physical laws.
Primary Characteristics of magical realism:
       An "irreducible" magic which cannot be explained by typical notions of natural law.
       A realist description that stresses normal, common, every-day phenomena, which is then revised or "refelt" by the marvelous. Extreme or amplified states of mind or setting are often used to accomplish this. (This distinguishes the genre from pure myth or fantasy.)
       It causes the reader to be drawn between the two views of reality.
       These two visions or realms nearly merge or intersect.
       The text may employ a "verbal magic" where metaphors are treated as reality.
       Repetitions, as well as mirror reversals, are employed.
       Metamorphoses take place.
       Magic often is used against the established order.
       Collective symbols and myths rather than individual ones haunt the work.
Magical realism calls on certain reading strategies:
       Magical realism has a tendency to defamiliarize the scene for readers. Readers learn that they have not come entirely ready to understand the situation, that what we thought we knew is found to be strange, for it has something entirely unexpected to teach us.
       Magical realism’s readers learn "border skipping" because they must move between fabulism and realism.
       Magical realism in some forms can be understood as a post-colonial move that seeks to resist European notions of naturalism or realism.
Magical realism in art   
  Magic Realism developed as an art movement in the years after World War I . For many decades thereafter numerous artists throughout Europe and subsequently in the Americas crafted a representational art, mixed with elements of fantasy. This art was often typified by remarkable detail and sharp focus. Yet more importantly Magic Realism taps into emotional reservoirs within all of us. It tricks us by hiding unexpected or suggestive content in what at first might seem to be a common or ordinary scene.
Description: C:\Users\sachi chauhan\Downloads\losing-eden_skull-mouse.jpg             Description: D:\AcaDs\4th sem\hul238\New folder\presentation\Saper Galleries and Custom Framing is the source for Rob Gonsalves limited editions and books_files\Gonsalves_Ladies_Lake.jpg
Description: D:\AcaDs\4th sem\hul238\New folder\presentation\Saper Galleries and Custom Framing is the source for Rob Gonsalves limited editions and books_files\Gonsalves_SunSetsSail.jpg








Magical realism by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel García Márquez uses the technique of magical realism in his novels as well as his short stories. Marquez uses magical realism to blend reality and fantasy so that the distinction between the two erases. An example of this technique comes from the story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" where an angel falls to the Earth because of a violent rainstorm. When the angel is found by Pelayo and Elisenda, they are shocked to see an angel, and yet they never question its existence. The reality of the situation is never mistrusted; however, the angel itself is an astounding manifestation.  This story demonstrates Marquez's ability to tell a fairy tale or folk tale in a realistic manner while incorporating the magic of the angel. The angel is the catalyst for the family's recovery from destitution. Before the arrival of the angel, they are a simple, poor family with a dying son. Once the angel is captured, the son recovers and the family uses the angel for financial gain.
Marquez shows us true human nature. An incredible being falls to the Earth and the humans use it to make a fast buck. Eventually, the family grows to resent the angel and they wish it would vanish. Instead of the simplistic, happy ending of the ordinary fairy tale, the characters are allowed to exploit Nature until it flies off without a word. Consequently, the angel is never allowed to fulfil his destiny which was to take the soul of the dying child.
Magical realism in one hundred years of solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude is an exemplary piece of magical realism, in which the supernatural is presented as mundane, and the mundane as supernatural or extraordinary. The novel presents a fictional story in a fictional setting. He carefully balances realistic elements of life, like poverty and housecleaning, with outrageous instances, like a levitating priest.
There are many purposes of this. One is to introduce the reader to Marquez's Colombia, where myths, portents, and legends exist side by side with technology and modernity. Another reason for this leads the reader to question what is real and what is fantastic, especially in the realm of politics. The use of real events and Colombian history by Garcia Marquez makes One Hundred Years of Solitude an excellent example of magical realism.In this novel myth and history inadvertently overlap. The myth acts as a vehicle to transmit history to the reader. It can furthermore be referred to as anthropology, where truth is found in language and myth.
 There are three main mythical elements of the novel: classical stories alluding to foundations and origins, characters resembling mythical heroes, and supernatural elements.
There is something clearly magical about the world of Macondo. It is a state of mind as much as, or more than, a geographical place. For example, one learns very little about its actual physical layout. Furthermore, once in it, the reader must be prepared to meet whatever the imagination of the author presents to him or her. Garcia Marquez blends real with the magical through the masterful use of tone and narration. He reinforces this effect through the unastonishing tone in which the book is written. This tone restricts the ability of the reader to question the events of the novel; however, it also causes the reader to call into question the limits of reality. Garcia Marquez also illustrates magic realism with the description of his characters. In describing Melquedes, he says, "He is a fugitive from all plagues and catastrophes that had ever lashed mankind". This a very difficult statement to believe. But he is able to make unbelievable ideas seem possible.
Sources
       Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude by B.J Geetha Periyar University, India
       www.themodernword.com       
       Paintings from www.sapergalleries.com  by ROB GONJALVES
       www.artandcritique.com
       www.wikipedia.org






No comments:

Post a Comment