Magical realism in printed and digital literature

The topic for this week’s class discussion is Electronic Narrative: Magic Realism and Cybertext. The readings assigned were Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez.  The suggested explorations were Tierra de extracción and Hotel Minotauro by Doménico Chiappe and “22 mariposas rosas” by Belén Gache. The prompt for this week’s blog entry is on the eeriness and temporal violations of magical realism and how these can be explored in digital format.

            Magical realism is a term that has been associated with the arts: film, painting, and also with literature. In Latin American literature, Alejo Carpentier with his concept of real maravilloso is considered as one of the pioneers of magical realism. Other figure associated with this term is Juan Rulfo with his novel Pedro Paramo. Nonetheless, the Colombian writer Grabriel García Márquez is considered as the greatest exponent of magical realism with his masterpiece Cien años de soledad.

            In magical realism the artists combine the real with the magical. They create a world that is realistic but that contains supernatural elements. In his novel, García Márquez uses elements of reality, mystery, and magic to create a distinct world, where the strange things that take place seem completely normal for the characters and, as the readers immerses himself with the reading, he too begins to accept them as normal in this world that is unveiling before his eyes.

            Besides the supernatural elements, the use of time is also important in magical realism. In Cien años de soledad García Márquez plays with time in a way that challenges the conventional notions of time. In his novel the time is not linear. The author intertwines the present, past and future. This helps the author to move freely from past and future events that are connected to the present, which in turn allow him to present a reality where the unreal seems real and the reality is turn into an illusory or fantastic event.

            The eeriness and temporal violations of magical realism can be easily applied to a digital format. Electronic literature seems to be an ideal place to explore with magical realism. Digital platforms provide more freedom to the author/artists to explore with magical concepts that can be further enhanced by the use of sound and graphics. Once clear example of this can be Hotel Minotauro by Doménico Chiappe. In this piece, the reality is mixed with the unreal. The mythological figure of the Minotauro is trapped in a hotel along the image of a real woman. In the hotel the figure of the Minotauro is a fictitious character and the woman is a real person. However, their roles seem to be inverted and the Minotauro seems to be more real than the actual representation of the woman. Her figure seems more mythical than the actual Minotauro.

            In Hotel Minotauro the notion of time is also altered. The narrator indicates, “…vive en el tiempo dilatado de un laberinto de pasillos, porticos y estancias”. The Minotauro is captured in time. More specifically, he is captured in a time that is not his time. He lives in a hotel. He is taken out of his time and placed in a modern world. Furthermore, the “tiempo dilatado” moves more slowly than the Minotauro might wish for because his pain and suffering is prolonged. In real time “tiempo ditalatdo,” some might argue, that it does not exist. Time is linear and moves at its own pace.

            As it can be observed magical realism in printed literature has had major successes. García Márquez’s novel is an example of what can be achieved with the implementation of this concept in printed literature. Nonetheless, in digital platforms, the elements of magical realism can also be used to explore new possibilities of alternate worlds. One example is Hotel Minotauro where a mythical figure is taken out of its ordinary world and placed in a hotel along with the image of real woman. The narration of the story is enhanced with the sound and graphic to provide a mysterious look to the story. Hotel Minotauro is just one example of what can be achieved with concept of magical realism, but there are many other examples that can attests to the possibilities that can be achieved with this form of interpretation.