Reader's Recognition of Reality and Overlapping Worlds in the Literary Realms of Magical Realism
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The term 'anagnorisis' coined by Aristotle applies to a certain moment in art when a character undergoes sudden essential realisation. This element, when applied to literary fiction, occurs on the level of character's consciousness within the plot and it shapes and directs the narrative. In specific literary works such as those of magical realism, another form of recognition maintains an important role in absorbing the art, and that is the reader's recognition of reality and illusion in a book. After having introduced the audience to the art of magical realism, this paper will demonstrate how writers of this genre “play” with the reader by fusing two seemingly oppositional worlds – historical reality and the world of magic – and how the power of the reader's recognition affects his/her understanding of this genre which, subsequently, affects perception of reality and the world as it is. Focus will be directed at three prominent British magical realist writers Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie, and Jeanette Winterson, whose writings excel in fusing the magical with the real, offering unity and disruption at the same time. As will further be shown, this fusion creates perfect continuity of the narrative, offering fully realistic worlds with a series of crucial magical events. The essence of such continuity lies within the writers' abilities to present any extraordinary occurrence in the most unsurprising manner, leaving the decision about the book´s truthfulness entirely to the reader. As will be suggested, it is only the reader's recognition of the real and the magical which may disrupt this continuity and question the story´s authenticity. |
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