Varieties of Magic Realism,
Dr. Clark Zlotchew
Professor
Modern Languages and Literatures
SUNY at Fredonia
ISBN: 1-930879-47-4
- English- 180 pp
A
textbook to be used in several courses:
-Spanish
American Fiction (prose fiction in Spanish America: 20th
century).
-Special Topics: Jorge Luis Borges
-Sex and Magic in Latin American Literature
The term
“Magic Realism” has been employed frequently from mid Twentieth-Century on, yet
no agreement exists as to a definition of the term.
There are
critics who claim that writers like Borges and Alejo Carpentier cannot be
considered Magic Realists, while others consider them the foremost practitioners
of Magic Realism. Some critics maintain that any fiction written by a
Latin American author from the mid twentieth century on, which is not crassly
naturalistic, constitutes Magic Realism. These same critics deny that
writers from any other part of the world can represent this literary mode.
Yet others, obeying strictly literary parameters, recognize European authors,
such as Proust and Kafka, as among the first Magic Realists.
Further
complicating the issue, Magic Realism is often confused or used interchangeably
with terms such as "the fantastic," "the uncanny," "the marvelous," and
"surrealism." Yet, literary critics like Tzvetan Todorov have attempted to
separate these terms and define the kinds of literature they represent. As
might be expected, total consensus has remained elusive, while polemics abound.
The
Introduction to Varieties of Magic Realism provides a summary of the
history of the term "Magic Realism," defines the literary modes often confused
with it, and finally provides some current opinions on what a definition of
Magic Realism should or might be. However, the rest of the book (10 chapters)
consists of essays that attempt to illustrate by analysis of the works of
specific writers the manner in which some Latin American authors create their
own personal brand of Magic Realism.
INDEX:
|
INTRODUCTION:
TOWARD A DEFINITION OF MAGIC REALISM |
|
CHAPTER 1
BORGES: MAN AS INSTRUMENT |
|
CHAPTER 2
BORGES: MAGIC REALISM IN REAL LIFE |
|
CHAPTER 3
BORGES AND THE FRENCH "NEW NOVEL":
FICTION WRAPPED IN FICTION |
|
CHAPTER 4
BORGES AND THE FRENCH "NEW NOVEL":
THE UNMEDIATED EXPERIENCE |
|
CHAPTER 5
BORGES AND THE FRENCH "NEW NOVEL":
THE READER AS ACCOMPLICE |
|
CHAPTER 6
CARLOS FUENTES' AURA:
MAGIC, SEX AND DESTINY |
|
CHAPTER 7
JULIO RICCl: TIME TRANSMUTED INTO SPACE |
|
CHAPTER 8
JULIO RICCI: RETURN TO EDEN |
|
CHAPTER 9
ANTONIO BRAILOVSKY:
BENEATH THE SURFACE OF REALITY |
|
CHAPTER 1O
ENRIQUE JARAMILLO LEVI:
MAGICAL METAPHORS OF LITERARY CREATIVITY |
|
Notes |
|
About the Author |
About the Author:
Clark M.
Zlotchew, Ph.D.,
has been a professor of Spanish language and linguistics and of the
literatures of Spain and of Spanish America at SUNY College at Fredonia
since 1975. He received his Master of Arts degree in Spanish from
Middlebury College (Vermont) and his Ph.D. in Romance Languages and
Literatures from SUNY Binghamton. Professor Zlotchew has had more than a
dozen books published, ranging from literary criticism to translations
of Spanish and Spanish-American short fiction and poetry, to interviews
with writers of Argentina and Uruguay. He is also the author, under a
pen name, of a military/action novel. Dr. Zlotchew has had numerous
articles published in prestigious journals on Spanish and
Spanish-American literature, as well as on Hispanic dialectology, and
has presented papers on these subjects on four continents
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