Why We Need Another Study of Magic Realism

MARISA BORTOLUSSI Introduction: Why We Need Another Study of Magic Realism Magic Realist Fiction Today Magic realism. The oxymoronic combination of "magic" and "realism" charges the term with seductive potency. One could persuasively argue, in fact, that few terms in the history of literary criticism have exercised the same evocative power, or sparked a comparable arousal of the affective imagination. Merely enunciating the term in a classroom setting produces an immediate alertness, an attentive, inquisitive awe, as years of teaching experience have repeatedly confirmed. In scholarly circles, the proliferation of critical studies on magic realism that have been generated over the past three quarters of a century, and that continue to get published, points to a similar degree of interest and intellectual curiosity. From the production and marketing perspective, the sheer number of novels and stories that are still being written as and classified under this rubric on an international level would suggest that, far from having exhausted its potential, the attraction and popularity of magic realism have increased. Both positive and negative consequences ensue from this fascination and willingness to be seduced by the term. On the positive side, this is undoubtedly among the most important factors to have ensured the success and propagation of magic realist fiction, for presumably reception and production foster and promote each other. (Although no study has yet been undertaken on the effects of marketing strategies in relation to magic realism, one can hypothesize that the very appearance of the term on the book cover attracts readers and promotes sales, or at least is intended to.) On the negative side, the force of this affective response may well be the main cause of the confused state of both the scholarship and readers' understanding of the term. This statement may seem surprising, given that approximately seventy-five years have elapsed since Roh first coined the term, that countless stories and Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée CRCL/RCLCJune / juin 2003 0319-051X/03/30.2/279/110.00/©Canadian Comparative Literature Association 280 / Marisa Bortolussi Introduction / 281 novels have been either written or classified as magical realist, and that This presupposition is clearly implicit in critical studies of magic realist hundreds of critical and theoretical studies, which have evolved through a fiction. Nevertheless, even in the most recent, post-colonial scholarship, there number of intellectual paradigms ranging from the formal to the is still enormous confusion regarding what constitutes this distinctiveness. The post-structuralist, postmodern, and post-colonial, have been published on the seventies and eighties witnessed the emergence of numerous attempts to topic. It would appear reasonable to assume that we have some reliable define the mode and delineate its boundaries, but the most influential of these understanding of what the term means. Disconcertingly, however, when one have yet to be subjected to critical scrutiny. During the nineties, scholarship turns to the scholarly publications in the hopes of discovering a persuasive on magic realism is generally marked by a more passive adoption of these definition of the term, one is quickly left feeling bewildered. Definitions and earlier, uncontested approaches. Typical of much of this scholarship are theories, be they traditional or recent, are confusingly contradictory. Some serious flaws and omissions, such as the random and indiscriminate choice of consensus does exist, but further investigation reveals that it is only limited to research sources to follow, (which betrays an unawareness of the important minor points that do not address, let alone resolve, some of the more extant research), the inaccurate extraction and citation of parts of theories at important, general issues. An unsettling, but in fact, not surprising state of the expense of the total picture, and a disinterest in critically questioning affairs. When one observes and analyzes the enormous variety of works that previous assumptions, statements, and models of magical realism, which are collected in anthologies of magic realism, or promoted and accepted as betrays a surprising lack of interest in the general theoretical issues. A sense magic realist by book publishers and critics, works that easily fit under other of uncomfortable resignation with a confusing state of affairs permeates the generic rubrics, the source of the problem becomes very clear. Simply stated, scholarship on magic realism, as scholars continue to search for bits and fascination has not only preceded, but has too often precluded informed pieces of significant clues among the rubble of theories and definitions. methodological investigation. Intuitively, spontaneously, and indiscriminately, To accept this confusion as an inevitable state of affairs, and to declare the term continues to be applied as an umbrella rubric that covers a curious futile the attempt to put some order to this chaotic theoretical situation is to range of disparate fictional modes that in some way combine "magic" and abdicate the professional responsibility of the literary scholar, for the burden "realism." One critic includes the term "magic realism" in a list of trendy, but of scholarly responsibility demands that if the term is to be used, it must have unproductive!}' vague terms that have become "buzzwords loosely associated some sense, and this implies some degree of consensual agreement. Today, the with an exotic and undifferentiated multiculturalist flavor" (de la Campa 1999). formulation of a new, more rigorous, and up to date theory of magic realism has become a pressing necessity in the world of literary scholarship. Literary Magic Realist Theory and Criticism: State of the Art researchers must once again rise to the challenge of sorting through the chaos and establishing clear and logical parameters. Until we succeed in redefining Some might argue that it is naive and utopic to aspire for terminological the mode, misguided usages of the term will continue to proliferate. The consensus. A few scholars in past years have already drawn this conclusion, purpose of this volume is precisely to meet that challenge. Accepting it implies and some have suggested abandoning the term altogether. On the other hand, the belief that a new definition is indeed an attainable goal. This conviction to relinquish all such hope is to accept the proliferation of confusion as an provided the main impetus for this project. acceptable state of affairs, and to resign oneself to the inevitable consequence Building theoretical models is, even under the best of circumstances, a of that acceptance, namely that magic realism will continue to be used as a most arduous undertaking. If any conceptual headway is to be made, a logical catch-all term. This attitude is clearly counter-intuitive. Common sense first step is to identify the source of the problem, and critically analyze the suggests that if we are to continue using the term, it must be because there is errors and misconceptions inherent in extant theories. Once this has been some discernible fit between the term and textual reality, that is, there must accomplished, an alternate model that corrects previous errors must be first exist a set of texts bearing features that one can designate as "magic realist" as developed, and then applied rigorously to a vast number of works. The first opposed to something else. In other words, that there must be a magic realist step then is to attempt to identify the source of the confusion. In all fields of mode that exists as a distinct and identifiable literary phenomenon. learning, basic but difficult problems sometimes remain unsolved as scholarly 282 / Marisa Bortolussi Introduction / 283 attention is diverted to the pursuit of other promising, new. and trendy demonstrate, the role of the magic realist narrator and the properties of his or paradigms and approaches. A careful scrutiny of the history of magic realist her narration are much more complex and sophisticated than Chanady theory and criticism reveals that this is precisely what happened to research in accounts for. At the precise moment when the necessary groundwork for a this area. It is not the purpose of this Introduction, or of this volume, to formal theory of magic realism had been laid, and a more refined and cogent exhaustively review all the research in this field; a great number of such critical explanation of magic realist poetics was most needed, this line of research was summaries already exist (Chiampi 1983; Llarena 1997). Rather, it is simply cut short. Curiously, sixteen years after its publication, her formal theory still to outline the major trends and the problems inherent in them, so as to has not received the critical attention it deserves, and even the most current contextualize the specific focus of this collection of essays. scholarship continues to quote her arguments uncritically, indeed, often naively. Subsequent scholars stopped asking the question of what constitutes Formalist Approaches to Magic Realism magic realism on the false assumption that it had already been adequately answered. It was not. Generally speaking, scholarship on magic realism falls into two main The main goal of this volume is to resume this abandoned strain of categories. The first, ranging from the 40's to the mid 80's, is formal in nature, literary studies on magic realism

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