Latin-American Literature
• Tasting the sweet liberty at last, Latin-
American writers needed to express the
thoughts and feelings that they kept for a very
long time
• During this moment Romanticism developed
in their regions
• However, the harsh reality in returned shortly
after and that is why magic realism emerged.
• Since the 1960s, Latin-
American writing has been
searching for the perfect novel
that can be introduced to the
world as the epitome of what
the region has to offer
• And then it came, One
Hundred Years of Solitude by
the Colombian writer Gabriel
Garcia Marquez set the
example and is now read and
studied all over the world.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• His works have achieved significant critical acclaim
and widespread commercial success, most
notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as
magical realism, which uses magical elements and
events in order to explain real experiences
• Some of his works are set in a fictional village
called Macondo, and most of them express the
theme of solitude.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude takes readers to
Macondo, a fictional town, which Marquez said to
have been inspired by his very own hometown,
founded by the Buendia family.
• The novel was a perfect harmony between magic
and reality as the founding of Macondo is the
founding of America: origins, colonization,
struggles, and history
• This novel is so successful that it has become one
of the most translated works and also one of the
most read in Spanish.
Magical Realism in a Nutshell
By Dr. Lois Parkinson Zamora
• An old man with enormous wings appears in a
Colombian village; a girl of unearthly beauty
ascends to heaven while hanging out her sister-
in-law's sheets; it rains for four years, seven
months and eleven days until boredom turns to
apocalypse and a biblical hurricane sweeps the
town away. In fiction described by the term
"magical realism," miracles, myths, and monsters
mix with the mundane, and fantastical events are
narrated as if they were everyday occurrences.
What is Real?
• These are all events from Gabriel García
Márquez's fiction—which is considered to be
the defining example of magical realism,
despite the author's refusal of the label.
• He protests that he is not a magical realist but
a realist, and that there isn't a single thing in
his fiction that hasn't really happened to him
or someone he knows.
• The Colombian author's point is well taken: the
question of what is real is at the heart of magical
realism
• García Márquez implies that our notions of reality
are too limited—that reality includes magic,
miracles and monsters, and that we don't need to
go around inventing special terms to describe it
• By making things happen in his fictional world of
Macondo that do not happen in most novels (or in
most readers' experiences either), the author asks
us to question our assumptions about our world,
and to examine our certainties about ourselves
and our community.
• Because the magical events in Macondo are
presented matter-of-factly, our own sense of
what is possible is amplified and enriched
• Ordinary objects and events are enchanted
• As the gypsy Melquíades says in the first
paragraph of the novel,
"Things have a life of their own. It's simply a
question of waking up their souls."
Turning Proof on its Ear:
• Magical realism engages belief systems that
defy rational, empirical (scientific) proof
• So, too, do science fiction and fantasy and
gothic romance.
• But the crucial difference is that magical
realism sets magical events in realistic
contexts, thus requiring us to question what is
"real," and how we can tell.
• Magical realism undermines our certainties,
and we eventually accept (often without
authorial explanation) the fusion, or co-
existence, of contradictory worlds—worlds
that would be irreconcilable in other modes of
fiction
• Magical realist fiction is not "either/or" but
"both at once."
Activity
Draw or search on the internet your biggest
insecurity (Any body parts, achievements,
issues). Then, in two or three sentences, write
the reason why it is your biggest insecurity. Be
ready to share your output to the class.
Do you think beauty is a blessing or a burden?
Explain your answer.
Assignment
Read Eva Is Inside Her Cat by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and
answer the following questions.
Processing Questions:
1. Who is the main character in the story?
2. What is the most important part of the story?
3. What are the symbolic words in the story and what do
they stand for?
4. What is the main idea that the story would like to share
with readers?
• ‘Eva Is Inside Her Cat’ is one of the early works of
renowned Latin American writer Gabriel Garcia
Marquez. The story examines the search of a
woman for a viable cat to which she can reincarnate
herself with. As readers move forward, they are
able to recognize the changes happening within the
persona, the thought process and memories that
continued to influence brought forward the
author’s use of elements that would later be
significant in creating coherence and highlighting
the realization that her objective cannot be
possible.
• Equally, the story by Marquez also brings
forward his use of magical realism as a
storytelling technique to readers. By
incorporating realistic elements at the
beginning of the story and blurring it in the
middle as the character dwells with a non-
physical world, the author is able to convey
this technique effectively and put forward
valuable themes and symbolisms
• One significant theme highlighted by Garcia
Marquez in this story is the personas perception of
beauty. Arguably, readers are able to see the
woman’s transformation and how it shifted from
physical attributes to an appreciation of the
metaphysical. Looking closely, the initial part of
the story showcases the protagonist feeling a bit
uneasy about her physical state and the
probability that death is near
• As the narrator leaves her physical body, it can
be seen that she remains to be conscious
offering readers insights about her perception
of the things around and how she describes
these in her bodiless state.
• It shows what the woman is thinking during
the last few moments in the natural world and
the realizations in the life after.
