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Magical Realism in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices R. Palani, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Adhiyamaan College of Engineering, Hosur-635 109. Page | 1 Abstract Magical Realism is a genre of fiction in which elements blend with the real world. Magical Realism supposedly began in 1935 with its golden age occurring between 1940 and 1950. The term magical realism described contemporary fiction, usually associated with Latin America, whose narrative blends magical or fantastical elements with reality. Magical Realism is the writing of Spanish and Latin American authors. Two people have been credited for coining the term magical realism, Dudly Fitts and Franz Roh. *********
Author: Mr. K. Muthu Murugan
Magical Realism is known for changing the way in which one thinks. Instead of seeing the ordinary and mundane, the magical realism brings a spark of life to the imagination, which turn excites the mind of the readers. Magical Realism is an amalgamation of realism and fantasy.
It is also known for showing a different view point on life and the way in which people think or Page | 2 act. It does not use dream motifs, nor does it create false words. Magical Realism is unlike other writing style that try to change or dominate the existing seemed to be forced on people and in turn demand attention and gratification. The extraordinary in magical realism is rarely presented in the form of a dream or a psychological experience because doing so takes the magic out of recognizable material reality and placed it into the little understood world of the imagination. Magical Realism manages to present a view of life that excludes a sense of energy and vitality transformation of the object of representation rather than the means of representation. In magical realism, the writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it, to discover what is mysterious in things in life, in human acts. One example of magical realism first appeared in the early 1970’s in Canada, West Africa and the United States and now spans in many locations across the Globe. Probably the best known writers of magical realism in the English language are Noble Prize winners Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the German Novelists and Playwrights Gunter Grass, the British Indian writer Salman Rushdie, African American novelist Tony Morrison the first Latin America woman writer Isabel Allende. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born in 1957 in Calcutta, India. One of her first memories is that of her grandfather telling her the stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, ancient Indian epics. She quickly noticed that "interestingly, unlike the male heroes, the main relationships [the] women had been with the opposite sex-with their husbands, sons, lovers, or opponents. They never had any important women friends. “This topic would eventually become very important to Divakaruni's writing. Divakaruni was raised as and still is a devout Hindu. She attended a convent school in India run by Irish nuns during her childhood. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of Calcutta. Divakaruni's books, which are set in both India and America, "feature Indian-born women torn between Old and New World values. She gives laser-like insight and skilled use
Author: Mr. K. Muthu Murugan
of story, plot, and lyrical description to give readers a many-layered look at her characters and their respective worlds, which are filled with fear, hope, and discovery" (Doubleday). Most of her work is partially autobiographical and based on the lives of Indian immigrants she has dealt with. She says that she writes to help unite people by breaking down old stereotypes. Page | 3 Her first works were books of poetry, Dark like the River (1987), The Reason for Nasturtiums (1990), and Black Candle (1991). She still was not very well-known after these works. Divakaruni then decided she would like to write prose so she enrolled in a fiction writing class. The professor was so impressed by Divakaruni's work that he showed it to an agent, who, in turn, secured a contract for Divakaruni with Doubleday. In 1995 Divakaruni published Arranged Marriage, a collection of short stories. In Arranged Marriage, Divakaruni beautifully tells stories about immigrant brides who are 'both liberated and trapped by cultural changes' and who are struggling to carve out an identity of their own.” (Patel) The book addresses issues such as racism, interracial relationships, economic disparity, abortion, and divorce. The book was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
In 1997, Divakaruni wrote her first novel, The Mistress of Spices. "The book has a very mystical quality to it, and, as Divakaruni puts it, 'I wrote in a spirit of play, collapsing the divisions between the realistic world of the twentieth century America and the timeless one of myth and magic in my attempt to create a modern fable" (Patel). The main character of the book, Tito, owns a spice shop in an Indian community in Oakland, California. She becomes involved in the lives of the customers and helps them through abusive husbands, racism, generational conflicts, and drug abuse. The book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize from England and was named one of the best books of 1997 by the Los Angeles Times.
Sister of My Heart, published in 1998, is Divakaruni's most recent novel. The book explores the tension between the desires of mothers who embrace traditional Indian culture, and the cousins, who embrace the new Western philosophies. Divakaruni has published another collection of poetry, Leaving Yuba City, in 1997. These poems also deal with
Author: Mr. K. Muthu Murugan
immigrant women and their struggles to find themselves in a New World. Selections from this collection have won the Pushcart Prize and an Allen Ginsberg prize.
Indian English Literature has undergone many significant changes in its creation, which so ever divided in pre- and post-Independence, modern and postmodern, colonial Page | 4 aspect, Diaspora view and magical realism so to express their view of life. Many South Asian novelists, including male and female, gave vent to human impulses minutely and appropriately. Literatures like Salman Rushdie, v.s. Naipaul, Shashi Tharoor, Vikram Seth, Kamala Markandeya, Jhumpa Lahari, Anita Desai, and Chitra Banerjee very well nursed the genre of fiction and issues of Indian diaspora.
Chitra Banerjee is one of the most celebrated diaspora writers in twentieth century. She highlights diaspora women protagonists, living in culture, their alienation, isolation, exile, mental trauma, dispersion, dislocation at the level of diasporic consciousness particularly. Her writing also stresses upon Indian culture, society with a grave feeling of isolation and fractured human perception under two cultures: one which is native and past and the other adopted and present, without compromising themselves. However she proved the balance between East and West. Her writing also comprises themes like patriotism, nationality, male domination, friendship, multiculturalism, racism existentialism and alienation consequently. Chitra Banerjee uses different techniques in writing such as first person narrative, third person narrative, alternate narrative, epistle and diary writing, stream of consciousness, myth and magic realism, especially while establishing them to the new culture. As myth and magic have been a perennial source of themes for literary writers all over the world since times immemorial, hence magic realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. As per as the quotation is concerned this present paper is an attempt to study Chitra Banerjee’s magical realism to bridge the gap between past and present scenario and its fruitful application for Indian immigrants who suffer from different kinds of tensions gone Chitra Banerjee successfully employs magic realism in her first novel, The Mistress of Spices (1997). She reflects characteristics like self-presentation, mythology, visions, meta fiction, eclecticism,
Author: Mr. K. Muthu Murugan
discontinuity, multiplicity, folk-tales, fables, sayings, Bengali tradition and culture to assert appropriately her identity all over the world. In the novel The Mistress of Spices, it is the duty of the characters Tilo to provide spices to the customers and this she does not just for the cause of cooking but also for creating an aroma Page | 5 to the nostalgic and estranged Indian immigrants. Tilo is trained in the ancient art of spices and predestined as a mistress charged with unusual powers. It is her duty to remain sensitively detached from her customers but she fails to follow it. She breaks every rule of the spices and is pulled into the lives of her clienteles visiting her shop. She even tries to help them come out of their twisted troubles like racism, general disagreements, and obnoxious husbands, etc. When suddenly the unexpected romance blooms in the heart of an attractive stranger, Tilo is compelled to choose between the mythical life of the perpetual and the vicissitudes of contemporary life. Tilo is faced with dilemma of her own when she finds herself in love with a non-Indian. She was unable to choose between whether to serve her own people or to pursue the path of her own pleasure. She falls into trap a conflicting situation. It is she who has to decide which fraction of her heritage she will maintain and which fraction she will abandon. A mesmerizing story of happiness and pity the novel carries the readers away with special magical powers of women. The protagonist in the present novel, Tilo has magical power and she becomes the master of all spices and owner of a spice shop. She speaks to them as characters to solve the problems of people in the real world with the help of tiagic. She artistically applies magic on Indian immigrants especially to overcome their suffering and to impact them their heart’s desires. Spices, myth and legends are beautifully juxtaposed by her for the relaxation of people and their mental, physical and psychological problems. In order to depict magic realism Chitra Banerjee created such a character, Tilo, who is born in India and shipwrecked on a remote island inhabited women. There is a grown up lady First Mother, who imparts to her about the power of spices and sends her to California, Urban America, and warns her not to violate rules while applying magic on people. The first rule is to live the life spinster and never to succumb to carnal desires. Secondly, not to leave her place. Thirdly, if she doesn’t follow these rules, there will be no effect of spices on people. That is why
Author: Mr. K. Muthu Murugan
she is warned by her mother to be a chaste, pure and sincere woman while applying magic of spices on people. The Mistress of Spices says: But let me ask you last time. Are you certain you wish to become mistress? It is
not to let to choose an easier life. Are you ready to give up your young body, to Page | 6 take and age ugliness and unending service? Ready never to step out of the places where you are set down, store or school or healing house? Chitra Banerjee introduces her protagonist: I am a mistress of spices I can work the others too Mineral, metal, earth, sand, And stone. The gems with Their cold clear light. The liquids that burn their hues in to your eyes till you see nothing else. I learned them all on the island. But the spices are my love. At a whisper they yield up to me their hidden properties, their magic powers(3). As far as the above quotation is concerned we can understand that spices in the novel play a very important role. However they are not only significant characters but relate to important myths, fables, and magically speaks to her also. Hence the role of spices develops our personality inner and outwardly and quotes, Spices make our life spicy It enriches rest in our life Cures our body and heart as well, It gives us pleasurable life (4). India is a land of different spices, such as turmeric, chillies, cinnamon, sesame, sandal, fenugreek, asafetida, brahmi, basil, etc. they are characters like other human beings and speak to Tilo having magical properties for solving problems. Her use of mythical stories juxtaposing with spices relates different cultural stories such as the story of Tilottma who symbolizes restorer of heath, the myth of the beautiful Apsara of Indra, the god of rain. A very important spice,
Author: Mr. K. Muthu Murugan
turmeric is auspicious and used at various occasions. Chillies remind us the legend ten-headed Ravana and anger. Basically Chitra Banerjee highlights magic realism, brings together folks tales of India and takes the readers to a fantastic mythical world and again brings into the twentieth century Page | 7 post modern realistic world. In a nutshell Chitra Banerjee highlights magic realism bringing together folk-tales of India and recollects supernatural magic realism administered in the present mundane world for the welfare of humanity.
Reference
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Mistress of Spices. New York: Anchor Books, 1998.Print. Agarval, Beena. Women Writers and Indian Diaspora. New Delhi: Authors Press,2011.print. Nawale, Arvind.M. Indo- English Fiction: New Perspectives. Jaipur: Aadi Publications, 2011. Print. Mishra, Binod amd Kalpana Purohit.eds. Cabbages on the Bloom: Women’s Body and Space in The Sub- Continental Fiction. New Delhi: Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors, 2012. Print
Author: Mr. K. Muthu Murugan