Gabriel García Márquez and the Magic of Magical Realism

The Genre: Magical Realism Defined

One of the most interesting trends in modern literature is the combination of literary realism and the postmodern tradition. Literary realism focuses on the everyday cultural experience of ordinary people who may, within their otherwise banal lives, do extraordinary things. The postmodern movement, as a reaction to a number of twentieth-century trends, tends to be anti-establishment and looks for meanings hidden within the text — meanings that must be exposed and reflected through the deconstruction of that text (Perkins & Perkins, 2008). But what of authors who combine both genres: those who are slightly anti-establishment, allow for deep contextual symbolism, yet also find wonder in the everyday?

Fortunately, that combination of realism and postmodernism has blossomed globally into a genre called magical realism. The term was actually first used in 1925 by a German art critic commenting on a certain post-World War I style called "New Objectivity," and was later rendered as lo real maravilloso (marvelous reality) in the prologue to a 1949 Carpentier novel called The Kingdom of this World (Abrams, 2004, p. 195).

For the contemporary reader, magical realism is a genre in which magical — or some would say illogical — scenarios and events appear within an otherwise normal setting. The power of this genre lies in the juxtaposition of its two elements: magic and realism. In an everyday, somewhat banal setting, one does not expect magic, the unexpected, or the delightful to occur without a logical explanation. Contrary to many critical interpretations, the basic purpose of this juxtaposition is not simply to entertain; rather, it is a genre designed to provide greater insight into the possibilities of both the human and the divine — the belief that not everything that happens can, or should, be explained rationally, and that as advanced as we are as a species, there are still things to learn about the universe. This is encapsulated neatly in Arthur C. Clarke's famous Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Biography: Early Life and Literary Formation

One remarkable example of this genre in the contemporary world is the author and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. Márquez belongs in today's most important literary canon for works that not only bring Latin American literature into global prominence, but also reflect a marvelous and magical blending of history, legends, and folktales into contemporary consciousness.

Márquez was born in 1928 in a tiny Colombian village in the coastal region. He was the eldest of twelve children and was raised predominantly by his maternal grandparents and an extended family of aunts and great-aunts. These formidable women were constant storytellers who wove legend, myth, and superstition into tales of heroism, love, and tragedy. His grandfather, by contrast, was full of stories of past military might and nostalgia. The combination proved seminal for Márquez (Martin, 2009, pp. 3–58).

After his grandfather's death, Gabriel went away to school, eventually studying journalism at the University of Cartagena. In 1950 he became a columnist for El Heraldo in the city of Barranquilla, and though desperately poor, he became acquainted with a number of writers, intellectuals, poets, and journalists. These poor but intellectually hungry individuals would meet at local cafés to read and discuss world politics and great writers. It was here that Gabriel encountered authors who would prove extremely influential to his life and later style: Hemingway, Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, Kafka, Joyce, and even Joseph Conrad (Bell-Villada, ed., 2005).

References

Abrams, M. (2004). A Glossary of Literary Terms (8th ed.). Heinle Press.

Bell-Villada, G., Ed. (2005). Conversations with Gabriel García Márquez. University Press of Mississippi.

Esquivel, L. (1998). Like Water for Chocolate. Anchor Books.

Hamilos, P. (April 2, 2009). "Gabriel García Márquez, literary giant, lays down his pen." The Guardian.

Martin, G. (2009). Gabriel García Márquez: A Life. New York: Knopf.

McCurry, J. (2003). "Review — The General in His Labyrinth." Tryst3.com.

Nichols, J. (2000). The Milagro Beanfield War. McMillan.

Perkins, G. and B. Perkins. (2008). The American Tradition in Literature. McGraw-Hill.

Sidelights. (August 9, 2006). "Love in the Time of Cholera." Caboodles Book Club in a Bag.

Sims, R. (1994). "Dominant, residual, and emergent." Latin American Research Review, 29(2), 223–224.

Zamora, L. and W. Faris. (1995). Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community.