Secondary source, Reviews of Books About Gabriel García Márquez
Publication Date:
2003
Published:
Twin Cities, MN : University of Minnesota
Location:
Library, University of Illinois
Notes:
"This dissertation studies eight Spanish-American writers (Isabel Allende, Miguel Angel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, José Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, Joáo Guimaráes Rosa, Gabriel García Márquez, and Juan Rulfo) and two French Caribbean writers (Maryse Condé and Simone Schwarz-Bart) and explores the use in their works of "magic realism" as an allegory of the colonial experience. Beginning in Chapter One with the work of Alejo Carpentier,... I have attempted to illustrate that the novel studies the trauma of colonialism and its enduring effects. Chapter Two examines the history and describes the elements that make up magic realism, illustrating its varied aspects with examples from the works of the authors cited above. Chapter Three deals with the history and description of allegory and shows how its characteristics mirror those of magic realism. Chapter Four studies the work of the two French Caribbean authors and explores the limits of allegory as seen in the work of Simone Schwarz-Bart. The conclusion makes use of a novel by New Zealand author, Janet Frame, to illustrate the fact that magic realism is found, not only in so-called "post-colonial" countries, but in the work of First World authors, where the effects of oppression are evident in the lives of the "colonizers" as well."