DOCSLIB.ORG

Powered by TCPDF (

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Powered by TCPDF ( Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) 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.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Approaches Toward Recent Gay Chicano Authors and Their Audience
    Selling a Feeling: New Approaches Toward Recent Gay Chicano Authors and Their Audience Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Douglas Paul William Bush, M.A. Graduate Program in Spanish and Portuguese The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Ignacio Corona, Advisor Frederick Luis Aldama Fernando Unzueta Copyright by Douglas Paul William Bush 2013 Abstract Gay Chicano authors have been criticized for not forming the same type of strong literary identity and community as their Chicana feminist counterparts, a counterpublic that has given voice not only to themselves as authors, but also to countless readers who see themselves reflected in their texts. One of the strengths of the Chicana feminist movement is that they have not only produced their own works, but have made sense of them as well, creating a female-to-female tradition that was previously lacking. Instead of merely reiterating that gay Chicano authors have not formed this community and common identity, this dissertation instead turns the conversation toward the reader. Specifically, I move from how authors make sense of their texts and form community, to how readers may make sense of texts, and finally, to how readers form community. I limit this conversation to three authors in particular—Alex Espinoza, Rigoberto González, and Manuel Muñoz— whom I label the second generation of gay Chicano writers. In González, I combine the cognitive study of empathy and sympathy to examine how he constructs affective planes that pull the reader into feeling for and with the characters that he draws.
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching the Short Story: a Guide to Using Stories from Around the World. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 397 453 CS 215 435 AUTHOR Neumann, Bonnie H., Ed.; McDonnell, Helen M., Ed. TITLE Teaching the Short Story: A Guide to Using Stories from around the World. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-1947-6 PUB DATE 96 NOTE 311p. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 19476: $15.95 members, $21.95 nonmembers). PUB 'TYPE Guides Classroom Use Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) Collected Works General (020) Books (010) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Authors; Higher Education; High Schools; *Literary Criticism; Literary Devices; *Literature Appreciation; Multicultural Education; *Short Stories; *World Literature IDENTIFIERS *Comparative Literature; *Literature in Translation; Response to Literature ABSTRACT An innovative and practical resource for teachers looking to move beyond English and American works, this book explores 175 highly teachable short stories from nearly 50 countries, highlighting the work of recognized authors from practically every continent, authors such as Chinua Achebe, Anita Desai, Nadine Gordimer, Milan Kundera, Isak Dinesen, Octavio Paz, Jorge Amado, and Yukio Mishima. The stories in the book were selected and annotated by experienced teachers, and include information about the author, a synopsis of the story, and comparisons to frequently anthologized stories and readily available literary and artistic works. Also provided are six practical indexes, including those'that help teachers select short stories by title, country of origin, English-languag- source, comparison by themes, or comparison by literary devices. The final index, the cross-reference index, summarizes all the comparative material cited within the book,with the titles of annotated books appearing in capital letters.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Isabel Allende: Carnalismo and Female Identity
    UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS RESEARCH JOURNAL – Volume 21 – 2015 University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius Isabel Allende: Carnalismo and Female Identity S Kotiah Department of English Studies Faculty of Social Studies and Humanities University of Mauritius Reduit E-mail: [email protected] Paper accepted on 27 April 2015 Abstract This article proposes a comparative study of two novels, The House of the Spirits (1982) and Portrait in Sepia (2000) by Chilean author, Isabel Allende. In an attempt to represent various facets of Latin American female identity, this article uses carnalismo as recurring trope while reinstating the particular marginalized positions of these women as a subversive discourse altogether. These women do not rewrite, refashion or expropriate stories merely to satisfy some game-playing or some totalizing impulse. Instead, they juxtapose what we think we know of the past with alternative representations. The running argument in the article is therefore based on a celebration of subversive forms of matriarchy that rule untraditional domestic spaces. Furthermore, different storytelling formulations by the same author reflect certain trends in contemporary narrative, namely the ways in which narratives can turn one`s attention away from an aesthetic past towards a more broadly conceived sense of history as textually mediated and constructed. To this end, theoretical frameworks of carnalismo suggest a desire to attract attention to unequal power relations and a consequent desire to celebrate these women. Keywords: Allende, feminism, Latin American literature, magical realism, narrative, postmodernism. *For correspondences and reprints 1 Isabel Allende: Carnalismo and Female Identity 1. INTRODUCTION This article analyses two of Isabel Allende`s Allende`s family chronicles, The House of the Spirits (1982) and Portrait in Sepia (2000), where a form of female carnalismo works in parallel with magical realism.
    [Show full text]
  • Eduardo Galeano – ¡Presente!
    Eduardo Galeano – ¡Presente! Eduardo Galeano, the world-renowned leftist Uruguayan journalist and writer made famous with the publication in 1971 of his book The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, died today at the age of 74 in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he lived. Long admired as a journalist, with his three-volume Memory of Fire in 1982, Galeano also became known as a writer of non-fiction prose who might be compared to writers of fiction such as Gabriel García Márquez, author of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude or Isabel Allende who wrote House of the Spirits. Like their novels, his trilogy captures the real spirit of Latin America’s magical history. Born Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano in Montevideo on September 3, 1940, Galeano began his career as a journalist in the early 1960s working as a correspondent for Sol and then as an editor for Marcha, which published such writers as Mario Vargas Llosa and Mario Benedetti. When a rightwing military coup took power in Uruguay in 1973, Galeano was jailed and subsequently went into exile, first in Argentina, where he edited Crisis, and then in Spain where he wrote his trilogy Memory of Fire (Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind). Memory of Fire mixed history and journalism in vignettes and biographical sketches written in a creative prose style that reminded American readers of John Dos Passos’ 1930s classic U.SA. triology (The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money). Open Veins of Latin America was a detailed, systematic, and sustained attack on European and U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • The Power of Storytelling in Ecofeminist Change by Barbara Bennett
    Journal of International Women's Studies Volume 15 | Issue 2 Article 23 Jul-2014 Book Review: Sheherazade’s Daughters: The oP wer of Storytelling in Ecofeminist Change Neelam Jabeen Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws Part of the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Jabeen, Neelam (2014). Book Review: Sheherazade’s Daughters: The oP wer of Storytelling in Ecofeminist Change. Journal of International Women's Studies, 15(2), 324-326. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol15/iss2/23 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2014 Journal of International Women’s Studies. Sheherazade’s Daughters: The Power of Storytelling in Ecofeminist Change by Barbara Bennett. 2012. Peter Lang: New York. Pp viii+193. $75. ISSN 1056-3970 Reviewed by Neelam Jabeen1 The title of the book, Sheherazade’s Daughters, serves as a metaphor for Barbara Bennett as she looks at the power the stories of the female authors have, to bring a change, just Like Sheherazade of Thousand and One Nights. Bennett has a PhD in American literature and is a teacher of contemporary literature in North Carolina University and has authored four books before this. Bennett has also devoted her time to wildlife conservation. In Scheherazade’s Daughters Bennett looks at the works of selected female authors to see how their works are instrumental in creating an ecofeminist consciousness among the readers at large.
    [Show full text]
  • The Female Voices of Magic Realism in Isabel Allende's the House of The
    International Journal of English, Literature and Social Science (IJELS) Vol-4, Issue-5, Sep – Oct 2019 https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.45.22 ISSN: 2456-7620 Magical Feminism: The Female Voices of Magic Realism in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits and Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate R. Ranjini Selvarani1, Dr. M. S. Zakir Hussain2 1Assistant Professor of English, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Coimbatore – 18. [email protected] 2Assistant Professor of English, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Coimbatore – 18. [email protected] Abstract— Magic realism is a distinct subgenre of writing that works on the mechanism of paradoxes of placing two opposites together to make a rich and complex meaning – the fusion of real and fantastic as Angel Flores calls it ‘amalgamation of realism and fantasy’. Magic Realism can also be read as a Postcolonial weapon as it fight backs the traditional tendencies and the staunch realism of western literature. Female voices have also employed magic realism to say aloud the problems of women across the globe. Magic Realism has thrived well in the hands of women writers across cultures and continents. Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel, Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee, Arundhathi Roy, Sarah Addison Allen, Yaa Gyasi, Raja Alem etc. This paper proposes to bring into limelight the Latin American Women Writers who are often left out to be mentioned along the list of men Latin American writers. Keywords— magic realism, women writer, Latin women writers, themes, food, feminism, cooking, postcolonial, subaltern. Just as realism was a response to romanticism, magic realism, which the Latin American claim to be their magical realism was a reaction to realism.
    [Show full text]
  • Tamil & English
    NAME : DR. R. SAKTHESWARI POSITION : ASSISTANT PROFESSOR FACULTY OF : THE RESEARCH CENTER OF ENGLISH EMAIL ID : [email protected] LANGUAGES PROFICIENCY READ : TAMIL & ENGLISH WRITE : TAMIL & ENGLISH SPEAK : TAMIL & ENGLISH 1. QUALIFICATION DEGREE / DIPLOMA / S. NO. DISCIPLINE NAME OF THE INSTITUTION YEAR OF PASSING CERTIFICATE 1. UG ENGLISH MADRAS UNIVERSITY 1997 2. PG ENGLISH NS COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE, THENI 2005 3. M.PHIL. ENGLISH MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY 2006 4. PH.D. ENGLISH GANDIGRAM RURAL INSTITUTE - DEEMED UNIVERSITY 2010 5. NET ENGLISH UGC 2016 2. TEACHING EXPERIENCE S. NO. INSTITUTION FROM – TO 1. NADAR SARASWATHI COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE, THENI 2005 - 2010 2. NADAR SARASWATHI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, THENI 2010 - 2011 3. FATIMA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), MADURAI 2011 ONWARDS 3. POSITION HELD IN FATIMA S. NO. NAME OF THE POSITION DURATION 1. STAFF-IN-CHARGE OF COLLEGE MAGAZINE 2013 – 2014 2. STAFF-IN-CHARGE OF QUIZ CLUB 2013 – 2016 3. MEMBER, QUALITY CIRCLE 2015 – 2016 4. PUBLIC RELATION OFFICER 2016 – 2019 5. MEMBER, FONDE 2018 – TILL DATE 6. STAFF-IN-CHARGE, COLLEGE UNION 2019 – TILL DATE 1 4. POSITION HELD OUTSIDE S. NO. NAME OF THE INSTITUTION NAME OF THE POSITION DURATION 1. NS COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE, THENI DEAN OF TRANSPORT & SPECIAL COURSES 2008 - 2010 2. NS COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE, THENI VICE PRESIDENT OF ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION 2008 - 2010 DEC. 2009 – MAR. 2010 & JUNE, 3. NS COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE, THENI HOD I/C JULY 2010 NS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & 4. TRANSPORT IN CHARGE 2010 - 2011 TECHNOLOGY, THENI 5. AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE ECOCRITICISM 6. ORIENTATION/REFRESHER/TRAINING PROGRAMMES/FDP ATTENDED S.
    [Show full text]
  • P R O S P E C T
    PROSPECTUS CHRIS ABANI EDWARD ABBEY ABIGAIL ADAMS HENRY ADAMS JOHN ADAMS LÉONIE ADAMS JANE ADDAMS RENATA ADLER JAMES AGEE CONRAD AIKEN DANIEL ALARCÓN EDWARD ALBEE LOUISA MAY ALCOTT SHERMAN ALEXIE HORATIO ALGER JR. NELSON ALGREN ISABEL ALLENDE DOROTHY ALLISON JULIA ALVAREZ A.R. AMMONS RUDOLFO ANAYA SHERWOOD ANDERSON MAYA ANGELOU JOHN ASHBERY ISAAC ASIMOV JOHN JAMES AUDUBON JOSEPH AUSLANDER PAUL AUSTER MARY AUSTIN JAMES BALDWIN TONI CADE BAMBARA AMIRI BARAKA ANDREA BARRETT JOHN BARTH DONALD BARTHELME WILLIAM BARTRAM KATHARINE LEE BATES L. FRANK BAUM ANN BEATTIE HARRIET BEECHER STOWE SAUL BELLOW AMBROSE BIERCE ELIZABETH BISHOP HAROLD BLOOM JUDY BLUME LOUISE BOGAN JANE BOWLES PAUL BOWLES T. C. BOYLE RAY BRADBURY WILLIAM BRADFORD ANNE BRADSTREET NORMAN BRIDWELL JOSEPH BRODSKY LOUIS BROMFIELD GERALDINE BROOKS GWENDOLYN BROOKS CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN DEE BROWN MARGARET WISE BROWN STERLING A. BROWN WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT PEARL S. BUCK EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS OCTAVIA BUTLER ROBERT OLEN BUTLER TRUMAN CAPOTE ERIC CARLE RACHEL CARSON RAYMOND CARVER JOHN CASEY ANA CASTILLO WILLA CATHER MICHAEL CHABON RAYMOND CHANDLER JOHN CHEEVER MARY CHESNUT CHARLES W. CHESNUTT KATE CHOPIN SANDRA CISNEROS BEVERLY CLEARY BILLY COLLINS INA COOLBRITH JAMES FENIMORE COOPER HART CRANE STEPHEN CRANE ROBERT CREELEY VÍCTOR HERNÁNDEZ CRUZ COUNTEE CULLEN E.E. CUMMINGS MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM RICHARD HENRY DANA JR. EDWIDGE DANTICAT REBECCA HARDING DAVIS HAROLD L. DAVIS SAMUEL R. DELANY DON DELILLO TOMIE DEPAOLA PETE DEXTER JUNOT DÍAZ PHILIP K. DICK JAMES DICKEY EMILY DICKINSON JOAN DIDION ANNIE DILLARD W.S. DI PIERO E.L. DOCTOROW IVAN DOIG H.D. (HILDA DOOLITTLE) JOHN DOS PASSOS FREDERICK DOUGLASSOur THEODORE Mission DREISER ALLEN DRURY W.E.B.
    [Show full text]
  • Magical Realism and Latin America Maria Eugenia B
    The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library 5-2003 Magical Realism and Latin America Maria Eugenia B. Rave Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the Latin American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Rave, Maria Eugenia B., "Magical Realism and Latin America" (2003). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 481. http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/481 This Open-Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. MAGICAL REALISM AND LATIN AMERICA BY Maria Eugenia B. Rave A.S. University of Maine, 1991 B.A. University of Maine, 1995 B.S. University of Maine, 1995 A MASTER PROJECT Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (in Liberal Studies) The Graduate School The University of Maine May, 2003 Advisory Committee: Kathleen March, Professor of Spanish, Advisor Michael H. Lewis, Professor of Art James Troiano, Professor of Spanish Owen F. Smith, Associate Professor of Art Copyright 2003 Maria Eugenia Rave MAGICAL REALISM AND LATIN AMERICA By Maria Eugenia Rave Master Project Advisor: Professor Kathleen March An Abstract of the Master Project Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (in Liberal Studies) May, 2003 This work is an attempt to present a brief and simple view, both written and illustrated, concerning the controversial concept of Magical Realism for non-specialists. This study analyzes Magical Realism as a form of literary expression and artistic style by some Latin American authors and two artists.
    [Show full text]
  • Chicana/O Latina/O Literature
    Chicana/o Latina/o Literature Contacts 1. District Information Coachella Valley Unified School District 2. Course Contact A. Cover Page 1. Course Title Chicano Latino Literature 2. Transcript Title Chicano Latino Literature 3. Transcript Course Code Chicano/Latino Lit 4. Seeking Honors Distinction? (HS Only) No 5. Subject Area English “B” 6. Grade Levels 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th 7. Unit value 1.0 (one year, 2 semesters, or 3 trimesters equiv) 8. Was this course previously approved by UC? (HS Only) Yes. Berkeley High School (050290) 9. Is this course, or any section of this course, taught in an No online learning environment? 10. Is this course classified as a Career Technical No Education course: (HS Only) 11. Brief Course Description In this literature course, we will take an exciting journey through Chicana/o Latina/o Literature. We will explore how this literature affects, documents, and creates Chicana/o Latina/o identities, politics, and the epistemologies/subjectivities of Chicana/o Latina/o authors in the United States. Through our journey we will use novels, short stories, poetry, performance, screenplays, comedy, spoken word, theatre, essays, music, and film to examine the diversity of themes, issues, and genres within the "Community" and the legacy and development of a growing “Chicana/o Latina/o Cultural Renaissance." We will also use critical performance pedagogy to engage particular problems in the literature and in the community. Through group/team work, community service, and interactive lectures and discussions we will delve into the analysis, accessibility, and application of Chicana/o Latina/o literature. We will ask questions around the issues of--and intersections between--gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, language, religion, tradition, colonization, access, citizenship, migration, culture, ideology, epistemology, politics, and love.
    [Show full text]
  • AP English IV Summer Reading Tips
    Summer Reading for AP Literature Seniors You are expected to read at least two novels (classic or contemporary) this summer. Both are free choice; however; the books should be of some literary merit with a mature reader in mind. The authors and works on the following page are provided as suggestions. As you make your novel choices, you may wish to consider the following advice from the College Board: “Reading in an AP course is both wide and deep. The goal of this year’s reading is that it will complement and extend the reading done in previous AP courses so that by the time you are finished with your Senior year, you will have read from several genres and time periods.” Imitate the thinking patterns of insightful readers: Absorb the work’s complexity and its richness of meaning Reflect upon its artistry Consider the social and historical values it reflects and embodies Experience, interpret, evaluate Make careful observations of the details, make connections among your observations, draw from these connections a series of inferences that will lead you to an interpretive conclusion about meaning of the work Tips: To widen your cultural horizons of literature, consider a novel written by a non-American author representative of a culture other than your own Consider choosing a novel that explores controversial topics that are artistically represented in the piece of literature: ethnicities, nationalities, religions, races, dialects, gender, or class Suggested Authors, as per College Board, are on the back of this sheet. You are not required to select works by these authors, but it is an excellent list to consider.
    [Show full text]
  • From Milton to Morrison: the Gothic In" Beloved."
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 409 583 CS 215 932 AUTHOR Roth, Wendy S. TITLE From Milton to Morrison: The Gothic in "Beloved." PUB DATE 13 Mar 97 NOTE lip.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (48th, Phoenix, AZ, March 12-15, 1997). PUB TYPE Opinion Papers (120) Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Authors; *College English; Cultural Pluralism; Diversity (Student); Higher Education; *Literary Genres; Literary Styles; Literature Appreciation; Minority Groups; Writing (Composition); *Writing Instruction IDENTIFIERS Beloved (Morrison); *Composition Literature Relationship; *Genre Approach; Gothic; Horror Fiction; University of California Berkeley ABSTRACT Presumably the differences in multicultural texts are in part or entirely attributable to the race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and nationality of the writer. As college populations have changed to resemble more closely the writers of "multicultural" literature, instructors have become more interested in teaching literature written by minority or women writers. Although there is no recommended curriculum for the required series of literature and composition courses at the University of California, Berkeley, the English Department's most frequently taught texts are Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior," Richard Rodriguez's "Hunger of Memory," and anything by Toni Morrison. Only by showing the discourses among authors of all identities can students learn how to build their own bridges. This building of bridges with texts between the marginal and the mainstream extends between the Gothic horror genre and the more mainstream literature; it is also important to the positioning of stories within the discourse of Gothic horror itself.
    [Show full text]