Magical Realism and Identity in Borges and Rushdie

The Universality of Literary Themes

It is somewhat remarkable that, given the breadth of human experience and knowledge, much of the art and literature produced by humanity revolves around only a handful of similar themes. Sex and love are probably at the top of the list of most common artistic and literary themes — as the most universal of experiences, it makes sense that they should be the leading common feature in human expression. Only slightly less common, both in life and in literature, is the notion of defining one's place in the world, or often of redefining the world in order to make it reflect one's place within it. Many people go through such a struggle, often during adolescence but also during later stages of life, perhaps many times over. Such struggles often make for some of the most interesting and easily identifiable characters and stories. Reading is itself a way to escape into an alternate definition of the world and of living, so in a very real sense this is the goal of every piece of literature ever written. Yet somehow every human culture in each generation finds a need to explore this same theme on its own terms, often in surprising and even controversial ways.

To say that the themes of literature are common and often repeated in no way means that the stories emerging from these themes are the same — far from it. This is the even more remarkable thing about humanity: our similarities also serve to highlight our differences. Two stories written decades apart in two different countries — in two different languages, even — will necessarily differ in many ways even when written on the same general theme. Two such stories, both dealing with the theme of finding the self and redefining the world, are "The Aleph" by Jorge Luis Borges and Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie.

Magical Realism as a Genre

Both of these stories are also related to the genre of magical realism, though such a genre did not really exist when either text was written. Certain elements of science fiction and fantasy have been seen to appear in works that do not neatly fit those genres, and the genre of magical realism is still in its defining stages as older and newer works are incorporated into it. In both Haroun and "The Aleph," ideas about the universe and the way it works are explored through fanciful and fantastical elements of magical realism. The main characters in both works must — or are forced to — redefine themselves and their world using these elements. In this way, both works treat the so-called subjective reality of the world as traditionally viewed as misleading or even downright fraudulent, and suggest new ways of re-imagining and re-viewing the world — transformations that produce massive changes in character.

Identity and Disconnection in 'The Aleph'

In "The Aleph," the protagonist is a fictional representation of the author himself, and the story details this character's intellectual relationship with the cousin of a woman whom he had loved but who passed away before his feelings could be returned. This cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, is writing a poem about the entire world, and it is revealed later in the story that his inspiration for doing so is an Aleph he has discovered in his basement. This Aleph — a patch of space no bigger than an inch wide — allows one to see the entire world simultaneously, an experience that is impossible to put into words: "All language is a set of symbols whose use among its speakers assumes a shared past. How, then, can I translate into words the limitless Aleph, which my floundering mind can scarcely encompass?" (Borges, par. 40). Borges fills this section with supreme irony; at the very climax of the story, words fail utterly to capture the moment.

In many ways, this story is about the character of Borges' inability to form real relationships — and therefore any true sense of identity — within his world. He loved a woman who did not return his affections and was even "annoyed" by him, and ends up "befriending" her cousin after her death even though he secretly detests him, suspecting Carlos of the same feelings toward him (Borges, par. 1; par. 32). His experience with the Aleph, and his inability to convey that experience to the reader, is evidence of his profound disconnect with the world. His world had previously maintained a very narrow focus — that is, Beatriz, the woman he loved — and the Aleph serves to instantly and infinitely expand his world while at the same time deepening his disconnection from it, rather than helping to reconcile him with more identifiable features of reality. The character of Borges is a man wrapped up entirely in his own head, and no experience is able to shake him out of this condition.

Conclusion

Both of these works use magical realism to redefine the way the world is viewed and interacted with by their characters, yet both also present markedly different visions of how this process operates. Borges' take is far more bleak: his character — or alter ego, really — finds it impossible to leave the world of his own mind. Haroun faces almost the opposite problem; he cannot allow the rest of the world — or at least his father's explanations of it — into his head. His problem of access runs directly opposite to that of Borges. The contrast between these two approaches illustrates how the same genre and the same broad theme can yield radically different narrative trajectories and emotional tones.