DOCSLIB.ORG

UC Merced UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UC Merced UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC Merced UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Reading (for) Magical Gaps: The Novice Reader's Aesthetic Response to Magical Realism Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/49j4d21b Author Ponzio, Carl Joseph Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED Reading (for) Magical Gaps: The Novice Reader’s Aesthetic Response to Magical Realism A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in World Cultures by Carl Joseph Ponzio Committee in charge: Professor Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, Chair Professor Virginia Adan-Lifante Professor Ignacio López-Calvo Professor Teenie Matlock 2013 Copyright Carl Joseph Ponzio, 2013 All rights reserved The Thesis of Carl Joseph Ponzio is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ________________________________________________________________________ Virginia Adan-Lifante ________________________________________________________________________ Ignacio López-Calvo ________________________________________________________________________ Teenie Matlock ________________________________________________________________________ Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, Chair University of California, Merced 2013 iii Dedication This work would not be possible without the students that I have had the pleasure of training while at UC Merced. Each group taught me something about myself as an instructor, and I must continue to enhance my pedagogical skills in order to prepare my students for their next step – whatever that step may be. To the two people I could not prosper without – Robyn McCreight and Anthony Paramo. My travels and study have kept me away for far too long, but, as we continue to become improved, talented individuals, we will each undergo periods when we must sacrifice our most valued possession, time. Hours of strenuous training lie ahead; nevertheless, I know I can always depend on each of you to alleviate the stress I feel when I cannot fulfill my responsibilities as a partner to you, Robyn, or a brother to you, Anthony. Forgiving is not forgetting: it is remembering with the promise for a better tomorrow. Better days await us as we remain dedicated to improving ourselves and others. Now, let us step outside of our respective caves and get some sunlight! To the rest of my family and friends, my analyses fail without you. You each lend me your eyes while I traverse literary and tangible worlds. Joseph Conrad once asserted that it was his duty to help the world see: I cannot help but wonder how his closest friends and family first provided him with the very talent he wanted to gift to his readers. While I would like to thank each of my formal and informal teachers individually, it is simply not feasible. However, to withhold certain names would be absolutely criminal. Richard Ferrie, your dedication to helping every student succeed in a way that best suits him or her still inspires me to send budding learners to college. Katherine D. Harris, without the OCE, the ICE, and your fervor for making me a better writer through the bumps and bruises, I would not have been ready for graduate school. Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, your figurative couch served me best through the many moments of exasperation. More importantly, your dedication to a life in search of readers has transformed this former literary enthusiast into a scholar capable of appreciating what, how, and why people read as they do. I would also like to thank committee members Virginia Adan-Lifante, Ignacio López-Calvo, Teenie Matlock for their insight and praise through what has been the most rewarding project of my academic career. Finally, to my mother and my father. Without the both of you, my life of books would not be possible. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………….vi Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..vii Introduction: Introduction: The Novice Reader, Magical Realism, and the Potential of Ambiguity…………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: “Who Wants to Share?”: Relations Between the Novice Reader and the Intent of the Perceived Author(ity)………………………………………………………17 Chapter Two: The Mechanics of Magic in Like Water for Chocolate…………………..43 Chapter Three: Occidental Fit: Merging Zones as Paradoxical Centers in The House of the Spirits………………………………………………………………………………...69 Chapter Four: “Everything is Known”: Synthesizing Macondo’s Vacant Memories…...93 Conclusion: Maturing as a Community……………………………………………...…119 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………….…125 v Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge and thank the University of California, Merced for the opportunity to work as a teacher’s assistant while researching and writing this work. vi ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Reading (for) Magical Gaps: The Novice Reader’s Aesthetic Response to Magical Realism by Carl Joseph Ponzio Master of Arts, Emphasis in World Cultures University of California, Merced, 2013 Professor Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, Chair The purpose of the following work is to propose a theoretically supported understanding of a methodology used by actual readers who exhibit apprehension when asked to respond to a text with an imaginative interpretation. I argue that once an author’s vision is considered to be absolute, those people I deem novice readers will primarily search a text for fundamental textual clues – or important moments in the plot – that appear indicative of the author’s intentions. Basing the detective-like method used by novice readers in reader response theory, the same reading models of Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish are later considered in order to explore how the ambiguity of works written in the magical realist mode can benefit readers who formerly sought to uncover a single reading. In particular, selected works from Laura Esquivel, Isabel Allende, and Gabriel García Márquez are each analyzed for their potential to enhance aesthetic reading strategies. vii Introduction: The Novice Reader, Magical Realism, and the Potential of Ambiguity The purpose of the following work is to propose a theoretically supported understanding of a methodology used by actual readers who, based on my observations, exhibit apprehension when asked to respond to a text with an imaginative interpretation. I propose that these individuals – who I deem novice readers – primarily search for authorial intent rather than formulate their own textual analysis, such behavior spawning from standardized interpretive strategies implemented predominantly in high school. Feeling a need to obtain a “correct” reading, students making the transition from secondary institutions to college with little confidence in their analytical skills most often exemplify the characteristics of the novice reader. To scour a text for the plotline or “close reading” moments – major textual events that the novice may deem indicative of the author’s intent – signifies the novice reader’s methodology. Thus, anyone can be a novice reader if they withhold their own imaginative response in favor of extracting an objective meaning.1 After further highlighting the novice reader, I will argue that magical realism can provide novice readers with a frame that can enhance their interpretative skills through the mode’s ability to subtly and explicitly blend the real and the fantastic.2 The frame acts as a catalyst for the novice reader’s initiation into an imagined space where subtle nuances do not need the absolute or rational explanations expected of them from other genres rooted predominantly in realism. Specifically, the ambivalence found in magical realist works exemplifies multiple possibilities for explanations regarding fantastic occurrences. With magic originating from multiple sources and from various perceptions, the novice can arrive at the realization that his partisanship or view enables new takes on magic’s surreptitious manifestations and functionality. Though data collected from focus groups is pending, I would nevertheless like to suggest that a consistent use of aesthetic reading practices will best suit the novice reader’s maturity— their will to engage with the text.3 Uttered with a sense of taboo, magical realist texts, almost inexplicably, became one of the most highly recognized modes in literature after Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude was translated into English in 1970. Prior to international success, the mode endured a lengthy tenure of amalgamation and transformation before featuring recognizable figures such as Father Nicanor, the floating priest who enjoys an enchanting cup of chocolate or Clara, the clairvoyant mute who 1 It should be noted that the term is not intended to signify gender. Though I predominantly use a masculine pronoun, I do not link the novice reader’s skills to a particular gender. Most magical realist and Latin American literature scholars are familiar with the resistance to Julio Cortázar’s gendered reading strategies. See Simpkins, 61. 2 The term “mode” is used to suggest that magical realism is not its own genre, but a technique that traverses the boundaries of proper genres. See Schroeder, 13. 3 Though an outline of how the suggested focus groups will function does not exist anywhere in this work, I would like to stress that factor’s shaping novice readers’ identity will undoubtedly influence their readings. I do not intend to skirt the issue. However, as my focus in this
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction
    Introduction Frederick Luis Aldama Scholar, playwright, spoken-word performer, award-winning poet, and avant-garde fiction author, since the 1980s Giannina Braschi has been creating up a storm in and around a panoply of Latinx hemispheric spaces. Her creative corpus reaches across different genres, regions, and historical epochs. Her critical works cover a wide range of subjects and authors, including Miguel de Cervantes, Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Antonio Machado, César Vallejo, and García Lorca. Her dramatic poetry titles in Spanish include Asalto al tiempo (1981) and La comedia profana (1985). Her radically ex- perimental genre-bending titles include El imperio de los sueños (1988), the bilingual Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), and the English-penned United States of Banana (2011). With national and international awards and works ap- pearing in Swedish, Slovenian, Russian, and Italian, she is recognized as one of today’s foremost experimental Latinx authors. Her vibrant bilingually shaped creative expressions and innovation spring from her Latinidad, her Puerto Rican-ness that weaves in and through a planetary aesthetic sensibility. We discover as much in her work about US/Puerto Rico sociopolitical histories as we encounter the metaphysical and existential explorations of a Cervantes, Rabelais, Did- erot, Artaud, Joyce, Beckett, Stein, Borges, Cortázar, and Rosario Castel- lanos, for instance. With every flourish of her pen Braschi reminds us that in the distillation and reconstruction of the building blocks of the uni- verse there are no limits to what fiction can do. And, here too, the black scratches that form words and carefully composed blank spaces shape an absent world; her strict selection out of words and syntax is as important as the precise insertion of words and syntax to put us into the shoes of the “complicit reader” (Julio Cortázar’s term) to most productively interface, invest, and fill in the gaps of her storyworlds.
    [Show full text]
  • Desplazamientos Lingüísticos Y Literarios En La Obra De Giannina Braschi YO-YO BOING!
    Facultad de Humanidades Sección de Filología Desplazamientos lingüísticos y literarios en la obra de Giannina Braschi YO-YO BOING! Trabajo de Fin de Grado Grado en español: lengua y literatura Estudiante: Anastasia Gameza Tutores: Dr. Juan Manuel García Ramos, Dra. Juana L. Herrera Santana La Laguna 2015 Índice SUMMARY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 RESUMEN --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1. INTRODUCCIÓN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 2. MARCO TEÓRICO------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 2.1. Puerto Rico y los Estados Unidos --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 2.2. Code-switching ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10 2.3. Spanglish ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 3. DESPLAZAMIENTOS ENTRE LOS “YOS” ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 3.1. El título y la composición de la obra --------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 3.2. Construcción del sujeto ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 4. MONOLINGÜISMO FRENTE AL BILINGÜISMO DENTRO
    [Show full text]
  • Cyborgs in Latin America
    CYBORGS IN LATIN AMERICA 9780230103900_01_prexii.indd i 5/7/2010 12:14:52 PM This page intentionally left blank Cyborgs in Latin America J. Andrew Brown 9780230103900_01_prexii.indd iii 5/7/2010 12:14:52 PM CYBORGS IN LATIN AMERICA Copyright © J. Andrew Brown, 2010. All rights reserved. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–0–230–10390–0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, J. Andrew, 1970– Cyborgs in Latin America / J. Andrew Brown. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978–0–230–10390–0 (alk. paper) 1. Spanish American fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Science fiction, Spanish American—History and criticism. 3. Cyborgs in literature. 4. Cyborgs in mass media. 5. Cyborgs in motion pictures. 6. Literature and technology—Latin America— History—20th century. 7. Mass media and technology—Latin America—History—20th century. 8. Human beings—Philosophy. I. Title. PQ7082.S34B76 2010 863Ј.087620998—dc22 2009047964 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Guide One Hundred Years of Solitude
    Reading Guide One Hundred Years of Solitude By Gabriel Garcia Marquez ISBN: 9780060531041 Introduction The mythic village of Macondo lies in northern Colombia, somewhere in the great swamps between the mountains and the coast. Founded by Jose Arcadio Buendia, his wife Ursula, and nineteen other families, "It was a truly happy village where no one was over thirty years of age and where no one had died." At least initially. One Hundred Years of Solitude chronicles, through the course of a century, life in Macondo and the lives of six Buendia generations == from Jose Arcadio and Ursula, through their son, Colonel Aureliano Buendia (who commands numerous revolutions and fathers eighteen additional Aurelianos), through three additional Jose Arcadios, through Remedios the Beauty and Renata Remedios, to the final Aureliano, child of an incestuous union. As babies are born and the world's "great inventions" are introduced into Macondo, the village grows and becomes more and more subject to the workings of the outside world, to its politics and progress, and to history itself. And the Buendias and their fellow Macondons advance in years, experience, and wealth ... until madness, corruption, and death enter their homes. From the gypsies who visit Macondo during its earliest years to the gringos who build the banana plantation, from the "enormous Spanish galleon" discovered far from the sea to the arrival of the railroad, electricity, and the telephone, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic novel weaves a magical tapestry of the everyday and the fantastic, the humdrum and the miraculous, life and death, tragedy and comedy == a tapestry in which the noble, the ridiculous, the beautiful, and the tawdry all contribute to an astounding vision of human life and death, a full measure of humankind's inescapable potential and reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Lettered City"
    CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 14 (2013) Issue 5 Article 23 Metropolitan (Im)migrants in the "Lettered City" Stacey Balkan Bergen Community College Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the American Studies Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Education Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Reading and Language Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons, Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Television Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI),
    [Show full text]
  • Place, Mobility, and Memory in the Post-Dicatorial Southern Cone
    University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies Hispanic Studies 2011 MEMORYSCAPES: PLACE, MOBILITY, AND MEMORY IN THE POST-DICATORIAL SOUTHERN CONE Rebbecca M. Pittenger University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Pittenger, Rebbecca M., "MEMORYSCAPES: PLACE, MOBILITY, AND MEMORY IN THE POST-DICATORIAL SOUTHERN CONE" (2011). Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies. 1. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/hisp_etds/1 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Hispanic Studies at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained and attached hereto needed written permission statements(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine). I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless a preapproved embargo applies.
    [Show full text]
  • Dictators: Ethnic American Narrative and the Strongman Genre by David
    Dictators: Ethnic American Narrative and the Strongman Genre By David C. Liao B.A., State University of New York, Binghamton 2006 M.A., Brown University Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program of English at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May 2015 © 2015 by David C. Liao This dissertation is accepted in its present form by the Department of English as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date _________ __________________________________________ Deak Nabers, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date _________ __________________________________________ Tamar Katz, Reader Date _________ __________________________________________ Olakunle George, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date _________ __________________________________________ Peter M. Weber, Dean of the Graduate School iii VITA David Chang Yi Liao was born on July 20, 1984 in Taipei, Taiwan. The child of a diplomat, he has also lived in Houston, Texas and Long Island, New York, as well as spending numerous holidays with his brothers in California. He graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2006, earning a B.A. in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing. He began pursuing a Master’s Degree in English at Brown University in September of 2006, and began his doctoral studies with the English Department at Brown in the fall of 2008. In the course of completing his Ph.D., he has taught courses in literature and composition at both Brown and Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank the English Department at Brown University, who accepted me into their ranks on two separate occasions.
    [Show full text]
  • Lima New (Corrected)
    Vol. 10, No. 1, Fall 2012, 198-225 www.ncsu.edu/acontracorriente The King’s Toilet: Cruising Literary History in Reinaldo Arenas’ Before Night Falls Lázaro Lima University of Richmond “[W]hen I entered a public rest room I became painfully aware that my presence failed to arouse the old expectant feeling of complicity. Nobody paid any attention to me, and the erotic games going on proceeded undisturbed. I no longer existed. I was not young anymore. Right then and there I thought that the best thing for me was to die.” —Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls I. Before Night Falls Twenty Years After Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990) opens his last major work in search of sex in a cruisy toilet.1 In his posthumously published autobiography Antes que anochezca (1992; Before Night Falls, 1993),2 Arenas—known as “Rey” 1 I thank Rita Geada and the late Roberto Valero for introducing me to Arenas and his work. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University, Firestone Library, provided timely access to Arenas’ papers, photographic archive, and correspondence for this article which forms part of a longer project on Arenas’ “afterlives.” 2 In what follows, all quotations from Reinaldo Arenas’ Antes que anochezca (1992) refer to Dolores Koch’s translation of his autobiography Before The King’s Toilet: Cruising Literary History 199 or “El Rey” to his friends (“the King” in Spanish)—writes that months before taking his life he had entered a public restroom in search of sex only to find that no one was interested in cruising him much less engaging in any sort of sex.3 Arenas simply finds himself unwanted by the cruisy queens in the loo who carry on as if he did not even exist.
    [Show full text]
  • Tin Cetic, Period 3 Gabriel García Marquez: a Name Synonymous With
    Tin Cetic, Period 3 Gabriel García Marquez: a name synonymous with comedy. A renowned humorist, this Latin American novelist is best known for his Nobel-prize-winning epic, One Hundred Years of Solitude, but is undervalued for his shorter, less confusing works. Novellas like “Leaf Storm”, “No One Writes to the Colonel”, and “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” are a few examples reminiscent of that crazy muchacho we all love. Marquez utilizes his Columbian heritage in all of his stories to provide an unfamiliar setting, rich with culture and potentially humorous situations, like endless parades of death. Not only are his settings captivating, but his witty style as well. There are some however, that don’t see the humor in Marquez, for reasons difficult to decipher. It is the combination of these elements that makes Gabriel García Marquez the funniest Colombian Nobel-prize- winning writer ever. Appealing settings are very important to Marquez. The fictitious Colombian town of Macondo is introduced in “Leaf Storm” on a Wednesday, which is made apparent after Marquez clarifies the day of the week five times in the first three pages. Marquez notes that the month is October five times in the first two pages of “No One Writes to the Colonel” and leaves all of his characters unnamed, indicating his sole interest of establishing a setting. One Hundred Years of Solitude features several characters that share the same name, but doesn’t confuse the reader since they tend to look and think alike – an interesting fact, considering that One Hundred Years of Solitude also takes place in Macondo, which progresses since the period of “No One Writes to the Colonel”; Marquez’s settings grow, not his characters.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Definition of Magic Realism: an Analysis of Three Novels As
    Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Honors Program Projects Honors Program 2016 A New Definition of Magic Realism: An Analysis of Three Novels as Examples of Magic Realism in a Postcolonial Diaspora Sarah Anderson Olivet Nazarene University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/honr_proj Part of the American Literature Commons, Latin American Literature Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, and the Reading and Language Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Sarah, "A New Definition of Magic Realism: An Analysis of Three Novels as Examples of Magic Realism in a Postcolonial Diaspora" (2016). Honors Program Projects. 82. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/honr_proj/82 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Program Projects by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i © Sarah Anderson 2016 ii To my twin sister, who chose math as her major so she wouldn’t have to deal with papers like this. Sorry. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly, thank you to the honors program, which allowed me to devote so much of my time to researching something I was passionate about. Thank you to Olivet Nazarene University, whose generous grants and donations allowed me to attend a school I would not have been able to otherwise, and thank you to the ASC council, who approved the funding to allow me to present a portion of this project at the Sigma Tau Delta Annual Conference.
    [Show full text]
  • Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of
    Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude B.J Geetha Periyar University, India Abstract In his One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez through the arsenal of magic realism, deals with war, suffering, and death in the mid-1960 of Colombia which had witnessed two hundred thousand politically motivated deaths. The purpose behind portraying the politics of the region is to comment on how the nature of Latin American politics is towards absurdity, denial, and never-ending repetitions of tragedy. His magical flair is to merge fantastic with reality by introducing to the reader his Colombia, where myths, portents, and legends exist side by side with technology and modernity. These myths, along with other elements and events in the novel recount a large portion of Colombian history. [Keywords: Colombia , Magic Realism; Marquez.] Gabriel Garcia Marquez is rendered with a forte for blending the everyday with the miraculous, the historical with the fabulous, and psychological realism with surreal flights of fancy. He has proved himself as one among the pioneers of magic realism. His One Hundred Years of Solitude is a revolutionary novel that provides a looking glass into the thoughts and beliefs of its author, who chose to give a literary voice to Latin America. Magic realism is a literary form in which odd, eerie, and dreamlike tales are related as if the events were commonplace. Magic realism is the opposite of the "once-upon-a-time" style of story-telling in which the author emphasizes the fantastic quality of imaginary events. In the world of magic realism, the narrator speaks of the surreal so naturally it becomes real.
    [Show full text]
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez Receives the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature
    Gabriel Garcih Mfirquez Receives the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature Number 16 Awil 16, 1984 It surprises most readers of Current But in these exercises, we perceive Contents@ (C@ ) to learn that ISP our role as that of an investigative jour- covers the arts and humanities litera- nalist. With considerable help from ture. Obviously, readers of CC/Arts & many 1S1 colleagues, we have discussed Humanities (CC/A&H) know that we the significant work of each of the Nobel do. Nevertheless, as far as these essays prizewinners in science, economics, and are concerned, CC/A&H readers must literature since 1979. l-s We are covering often feel that we neglect their interests. the 1982 awards in five separate The fact is, however, that our readers in essays.4-6 Recently, we discussed the the sciences outnumber those in the hu- work of economist George J. Stigler.T manities by at least 100 to one, This ratio This concluding essay for the 1982 may not be characteristic of the typical awards discusses the prize in literature. academic institution, but it is a fact of Garcia Mfirquez was honored for his life we cannot ignore. stories about the imaginary village of I say thk by way of introducing thk Macondo. These stories reflect, with be- atypical essay about an important liter- wildering, surrealistic, yet convincing ary figure. From long experience, I have authenticity, the human riches and pov- learned that even the most single-mind- erty of Latin America. g ed organic chemist or engineer may ap- The Nobel prize in literature is award- preciate an occasional reminder that ed annually by the Swedish Academy in there is something in the world besides Stockholm.
    [Show full text]