Ever since its emergence in Germany in 1925, the term
"magical realism" has undergone a dynamic history, experiencing
significant shifts in fortune and geographical influence. While it may have
lost some of its luster among Latin American authors and scholars who once
brought it to prominence in the 1960s, magical realism continues to maintain
broad and enduring appeal. This volume, "Magical Realism: Theory, History,
Community," skillfully navigates the complex currents that define magical realism's
history. The editors, in their Introduction, openly advocate for the
transformation of magical realism into an "international commodity,"
recognizing its continued resonance in the post-colonial world and metropolitan
centers.
Compiled and executed by two accomplished comparatist
scholars with strong Latin Americanist backgrounds, the volume provides a
meticulous review of the term's history. The decision to thoroughly revisit the
term's evolution adds authority to the editors' efforts. However, there are two
notable errors in Latin American literary facts within the volume, specifically
regarding Carpentier's novel and the authorship of "El mundo es ancho y
ajeno."
Out of the 23 essays, ten present new and unpublished
material, while the remaining thirteen are reprinted, either in revised or
unrevised form, from diverse sources. The opening section features these
reprinted essays, including Franz Roh's original 1925 essay and Alejo
Carpentier's manifesto from the 1940s. The editors' intention to widen the scope
of magical realism is evident in the essays' diverse approaches and the
inclusion of primary texts from Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. Essays by
John Erickson on French-African novels and Susan Napier's exploration of modern
Japanese fiction showcase the volume's effort to extend magical realism beyond
its traditional Latin American context. While Latin American boom texts receive
less attention, there is a deliberate shift toward examining
"post-colonial" literatures, particularly from former British
colonies.
The volume organizes its essays into four main sections:
Foundations, Theory, History, and Community. While these categories aim to
comprehensively explore the subject, the editors acknowledge the challenges of
neatly compartmentalizing the diverse facets of magical realism. The
"Foundations" section serves as a functional and objective
introduction, while the "Community" section reflects the editors'
strategic interests. Paradoxically, the "Theory" section often delves
into the literary history of magical realism, while the essays in the
"History" section incorporate strong theoretical perspectives into
their discussions of historical contexts.
"Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community"
does not claim to offer definitive solutions to the theoretical and historical
challenges posed by the term. Some essays suggest that magical realism might
simply refer to works following the style of Gabriel Garcia Márquez's "One
Hundred Years of Solitude." However, certain essays are criticized for
reducing magical realism to a purely textual phenomenon. The most compelling
essays, in contrast, are those that strive to specify and diversify the
concept. They identify various kinds and strands of magical realism,
recognizing the local and concrete uses and functions of magical realist
elements. Noteworthy contributions in this regard come from essays by D'haen,
Delbaere-Garant, and Parkinson Zamora.
In "Ordinary
Enchantments," Faris emphasizes the global reach of magical realism by
bringing together renowned authors like Günter Grass, Wilson Harris, Salman
Rushdie, Carlos Fuentes, Toni Morrison, Patrick Süskind, Gabriel García
Márquez, Ben Okri, and Isabel Allende, among others. Rather than delving into
individual works, Faris employs a comparative approach across five chapters to
support her arguments about magical realism. This method allows her to
incorporate a diverse range of critical sources from various disciplines,
enriching her literary and cultural analysis. While this fragmented examination
underscores the transnational and transcontinental aspects of magical realism
that Faris advocates for, it occasionally leaves the reader with a somewhat
disjointed understanding of the significance of these works within their
cultural and socio-historical contexts.
Chapter 1, titled
"Definitions and Locations: Magical Realism between Modern and Postmodern
Fiction," establishes the criteria for identifying a text as magical
realist. Faris highlights elements such as the presence of magic that defies
empirical explanation, the coexistence of the phenomenal and the magical, and
the reader's uncertainty about the nature of events. Among these characteristics,
the irreducible element of magic holds particular prominence in Faris's
considerations of whether a text falls within the realm of magical realism. The
chapter also traces the evolution of this narrative mode since Franz Roh coined
the term in 1925. Faris extends its usage beyond its more prevalent association
with a specific Latin American reality, as articulated by Alejo Carpentier in
his concept of "lo real maravilloso." She positions magical realism
as a force of decolonization and a postcolonial style. While acknowledging the
limitations of the term in addressing the realities of the First and Third
Worlds, Faris believes that recognizing "significant similarities that
indicate a worldwide trend" outweighs the risk of reducing magical realism
to a "monumentalizing category," as cautioned by Stephen Slemon, that
erases the very distinctions it seeks to establish. For Faris, viewing magical
realism as a global trend is closely linked to its role as a critical tool for
addressing the neglect of the spiritual in contemporary theory.
Indeed, the connection between
magical realism and the sacred is the overarching theme of the book, enabling
Faris to draw comparisons across disparate texts in terms of geography and
chronology. Chapter 2, "‘From a Source Within’: Magical Realism as
Defocalized Narrative," delves into how magical realism reintroduces the
sacred into Western discourse. Faris introduces the concept of
"defocalization" to explain a narrative that emanates from two
fundamentally different perspectives simultaneously. This defocalization both
arises from and gives rise to what Faris calls "the ineffable
in-between," a space where the realistic and the magical coexist. She
emphasizes that this ineffable quality is not confined to the text; rather, it
is generated by it. These ideas, far from existing solely within the textual
realm and divorced from "real" needs, give rise to a cultural hybrid
with shamanistic powers. This mystification of narrative, alluded to in the
book's title, is a common trait in magical realist texts, which often emerge in
the midst of cultural crises, as if their magic is summoned when rational
approaches have proven inadequate.
Chapter 4 of Faris's book
delves into the complex questions surrounding the potential reconciliation of
tangible and imaginative worlds, or those based on science and those rooted in
spirituality. Preceding this, in Chapter 3 ("Encoding the Ineffable: A
Textual Poetics for Magical Realism"), Faris continues her exploration of
the ineffable, elucidating how the text constructs a particular discourse
through techniques like the accumulation of realistic details surrounding an
implausible event, the ambiguity of space and time, a hallucinatory or
dreamlike perspective, and the shifting references in reflective structures.
These methods give rise to a form of verbal enchantment that, akin to
postmodernism, highlights the role of language in shaping or reshaping our
understanding of reality.
Chapter 4 ("'Along the
Knife-Edge of Change': Magical Realism and the Postcolonial Dynamics of
Alterity") grapples with contemporary debates surrounding magical realism,
especially its effectiveness in expressing marginalized identities and
alternative worldviews. Faris ultimately affirms its potency in this regard, aligning
with critics who emphasize its involvement in transcultural processes. This
capability arises from its hybrid nature, its subversion of narrative
authority, and what Faris terms the "speculation about the way in which
the spirit-based aura of magical realism as it combines the miraculous and the
quotidian may contribute to its decolonizing function". The decolonizing
function, a confrontation of overarching master narratives as termed by
Foucault, stands as a pervasive aspect that unifies the production of magical
realism across diverse geographic contexts.
However, divisions within
magical realist literature become apparent as Faris acknowledges the challenges
stemming from its use as a transcultural practice, which often involves
appropriating someone else's voice. This manipulation, rooted in a fascination
with a primitivist aesthetic, presents a significant concern. Yet, Faris
regards most of these issues as a form of "collateral damage" in a
literary practice whose merits outweigh its risks. While Alberto Moreiras sees
the impossibility of finding transculturation in magical realism as a signal of
its decline as a representation of an indigenous world, Faris celebrates what
she views as "radically hybrid literary primitivism". This stance challenges
the notion, articulated not only by Moreiras but also by anthropologist Michael
Taussig (whom Faris extensively discusses), that the power of magical realist
narrative is exclusive to shamans themselves.
The book's final chapter,
"‘Women and Women and Women’: A Feminine Element in Magical Realism,"
centers on an exploration of the attributes in magical realism that enable the
identification of a female spirit characterized by diffusion, polyvocality, and
a focus on embodiment, an earth-centered spiritual realm, and collectivity,
irrespective of authorship. Faris draws on the work of French feminists like
Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray, as well as border feminists like Gloria
Anzaldúa, to consider the tropes in magical realism aligning it with feminist,
postmodern, and postcolonial thought, alliances that account for its
boundary-breaking nature. This transgression is made possible by the magical
capacities traditionally associated with the female body, though it also
carries the risk of appropriation as a subaltern Other that "enables male
writers to access the world of the second reality". Ultimately, Irigaray's
concept of "la mystétique" allows Faris to situate her examination of
representations of the sacred in magical realism within the realm of a female
sensitivity. In Faris's view, Irigaray's notion positions a mystical discourse
expressed through the female body as "a bridge to the beyond".
Faris provides a comprehensive
exploration of the subject matter, meticulously dissecting both its textual and
cultural dimensions. Her captivating comparisons in the analysis of the textual
elements of the works, along with in-depth examinations of certain narratives,
demonstrate her profound familiarity with the texts, some of which are less
widely known than others. However, the poetics of magical realism don't always
align with practical applications. This divide is not, for the most part, a
flaw in Faris's analysis but rather underscores an inherent and irreconcilable
separation at the core of this narrative style.
