The Power of Magic: Representations of Women in Selected Contemporary Magic Realist Fiction of Latin America, English Canada, and Quebec, Ph.D Dissertation
"This study explores the representation of women in contemporary magic realist texts from Latin America, English Canada, and Quebec. From a feminist standpoint, it examines how men and women writers represent women characters in texts that allegorically use supernatural power to denaturalize social power. Intracultural and intercultural considerations of these New World texts reveal shared approaches, both positive and negative, to women's identities and roles. In the more progressive works - Isabel Allende's La casa de los espíritus, Jack Hodgin's The Invention of the World, Anne Hérbert's Les fous de Bassan, and Michel Tremblay's La grosse femme d" à côté est enceinte- women characters use naturalized supernaturalism (defined as the casual presence of the supernatural in the natural world) to affirm feminine subjectivity and freedom. The assumption of mythic forms or an engagement with the occult can give a female character mobility, spiritual freedom, and pleasure. But the power figuratively expressed through the supernatural is denied women in Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad, Sheila Watson's The Double Hook, Anne Hérbert's "L"ange de Dominique," and Jack Ferron's L"amélanchier.