Gabriel Garcia Marquez Background on Colombia Biography Magical
Gabriel Garcia Marquez Background on Colombia Biography Magical Realism
A Violent History Ü Spanish colony until 1810 Ü 1815 – Spanish Military reconquers country Ü 1820 - Reliberated by • 1800 s: Country nearly always in a state of civil war. Ü 1849 – Conflict arises • Unrest between regional groups Coast = Liberals Mountains = Conservatives Simon Bolivar (1 st president) between two political factions: Liberals and Conservatives
US Intervention Ü Imperialism Ü American-run United Fruit Company comes to Colombia (Aracataca) in 1910 Ü 1928 - Banana Strike Massacre Ü American United Fruit Company took economic control and exploited Colombian people Ü Conservative government killed unarmed workers holding a demonstration Ü Denied by government and removed from history books
GGM Photos
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Early Life Ü Born in 1928 in a small town near the Caribbean coast of Colombia Ü Poor parents; 11 siblings; Marquez was eldest. Ü Influenced by & lived w/grandparents as a child Ü Grandparents against parents’ marriage for political and military reasons Ü Began writing stories as a child
Grandparents’ Influence Ü Grandfather Ü Military career - Told GGM there’s no greater burden than to kill a man Ü Grandmother Ü Storyteller - Superstitious - blurred lines between living and dead
More Violence Ü La Violencia - 150, 000 Colombians killed by 1953 Ü Liberal Jorge Gaitan investigated Banana Massacre Ü 1946 - Conservatives terrorized Liberal voters, murdering them Ü 1947 - Gaitan became party leader Ü 1948 - Gaitan assassinated Ü 3 days of deadly riots Ü Guerilla soldiers killed 2500 Ü Peasants fled to Venezuela
World Events Ü 1949 - tyrant ruler Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba and Fidel Castro took power Ü 1957 - Colombian dictatorship in full force- curfews, news blackouts - dictator fled Ü 1959 -1961 - Cuban Revolution
GGM: Writing Ü Has said his stories came from an image and not an idea Ü Won Nobel Prize for literature in 1982 Ü Known for Magical Realism
Magic(al) Realism - Definition • The introduction of magical devices or magic in general within a believable (realist) story, without any disruption of the logic of the story. • Magic has to be presented as a normal aspect of this somewhat « normal » universe, not a phenomenon but an integral part of it.
Magic(al) Realism - Definition • Mixes realism with fantasy, supernatural, and dreamlike elements or references to myths and fairy tales
Magic(al) Realism - Definition • Characters of the story consider magic as some usual possibility of their world. Its occurrences might be rare or even almost forgotten, but magic is nonetheless as serious a topic in these fictions as chemistry or quantum physics in our world.
Magical Realism vs Fantasy • In fantastic literature, a new universe is introduced to the reader, with its laws (natural as well as artificial), its regularities, its objects, its people, its forces, etc. This world is completely different from ours, or has enough differences so that we (readers) need explanations to understand it correctly.
Magic Realism vs Fantasy • In magic realist literature, the world depicted is ours, with one major new component: magic is a possibility (and an actuality) within it. There shouldn’t be any need to explain what is going on in this world, its laws, its people, etc. We already know that since it is a fictional reproduction of our world.
Examples of fantastic worlds • Star Trek: Far future, new worlds, new races, new laws that have to be explained. – Spock (Vulcans) – Data – Numerous amazones wearing miniature latex skirts capable of mind control, . . .
Examples of fantastic worlds • Harry Potter • Myst • Lord of the Rings – Different world – Different species (elves, etc. ) – Different technologies. – Etc.
Examples of magical realism • Short stories: – « The Nose » , Gogol – « The Metamorphosis » , Kafka • Films: – Amelie – The one movie about cooking
Gogol’s “The Nose” HOC= NOS COH= SON (dream)
Magical Realism Imagery In Everyday Objects…. 100 Years of Solitude -the ice, the magnets--are described as magical, and are endowed with inner lives. The ice mentioned in the justly famous first sentence of the novel is later described as ". . . an enormous, transparent block with infinite internal needles in which the light of the sunset was broken up into colored stars" (18). And when José Aracadio becomes overly enthusiastic about the magical capacity of Melquíades' magnets, with which he hopes ". . . to extract gold from the bowels of the earth, " Melquíades calms him down by assuring him that "Things have a life of their own. . It's simply a matter of waking up their souls" (11).
Examples of magical realism • Films: – Like Water for Chocolate, Alfonso Arau (1992) www. youtube. com/watch? v=vb 2 QJvm. ETL 4 – Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson (1999) – Being John Malkovich, Jonze (1999) – Pleasantville (1998) www. youtube. com/watch? v=p_Rf. D-x. Tn. V 8
Origin of magical realism • 1925: Franz Roh, German Art critic. New form of painting. New way to look at the paintings, new techniques as well, not the content of the painting per se. • 1949: Alejo Carpentier, South American author: term « marvelous reality » to describe the type of fiction produced by new authors (Borges (Ficciones, 1935 -1944), especially).
Franz Radziwill "Strike, " 1931
American Magical Realism Michael Parkes
Origin of magical realism • Proliferation of magic realist texts from the 40 s onward – Cortazar, Marquez, Fuentes, Llosa, Allende.
Function of magical realism • Response to colonialism (post-colonialism) In reaction to the dominant, European culture, which imposed on South America its laws, its rules, its ways and customs, its logic and its discourses, South American writers began subverting « scientific » and « logical » literature by letting minor voices compete with the major ones.
Function of magical realism • Response to colonialism (post-colonialism) These minor voices could be: – folklore – myths – Indian tales – urban legends – etc.
Function of magical realism • South America has always been fractured by wars, conflicts, changing frontiers, political uncertainties, spiritual/religious beliefs, … Magical realism was a way to grasp more adequately the complexity of South American oppositions while using local discourses.
Function of magical realism • Giving a forum where their pagan gods, cleansed by the European conquerors, can « express themselves » . • A way to show South America’s unicity, its major differences with the « Mother Country » , i. e. Spain (or Portugal).
Function of magical realism • Primarily, a way to displace the Power of the voice (or of the discourse) away from the primary authority. • A way to become a voice of its own. • Normally done in conjunction with political and economical nationalism.
Suspension of Disbelief • For magical realism to function, there needs to be some implicit agreement, between the author and the reader, stating that the reader has to accept some incongruities (realitywise). • Reading Agreement: Status of the text, how it is supposed to be read.
Possibility vs Plausibility • Possibility: – Everything that can happen according to the laws of a universe of reference. • Plausibility: – within the bounds of credibility and of probability.
Possibility vs Plausibility • Trust you put in the narrator (reasons for lying, for playing games, etc. ) • Amount of knowledge you acquired about the world of reference. • Reading agreement.
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