Discuss
One Hundred Years of Solitude
as a postcolonial text.
“The concept of magic as used in the West is really a shabby dismissal of broader possibilities, similar in scope to the selsh and possessive Western concept of godhead.”
-Gregory Rabassa1 This discussion of magic realism as a narrative mode by Gregory Rabassa, Rabassa, who also provided provided the celebrated celebrated translation translation of Marquez Marquezs s One Hundred calls s into into ques questi tion on many many notio notions ns asso associ ciat ated ed with with Years ears of olitu olitude de, call Marque Marquezs zs wor!s wor!s in genera generall and with One Hundred Hundred Years ears of olitu olitude de in particular" The central question that emerges is how does one reconcile the use of the term #magic realism and e$istence of Marquez as an author of postc postcolo olonia niall %ction %ction& & The length length to which which the two issues issues are are lin! lin!ed becomes an important question and consequently, the very use of the term #magic realism" 'n this paper, ' would li!e to analyse the elements in Marquezs celebrated novel One Hundred Years of olitude which ma!e it one of the most vivid e$amples of magic realism in order to see how use of magic realism as a narrat narrative ive techni technique que is hinged hinged on Marque Marquezs zs identi identity ty as a postco postcolon lonial ial author" Magic Realism thus will be seen as a way of negotiating with (estern literary hegemony and as a very postcolonial way of narrating stories" )efo )eforre we disc discus uss s wh what at ma! ma!es One Hundred Hundred Year Years s of olitu olitude de such a primary te$t in the study of magic realism, it would be useful to ta!e a loo! loo! at the term term magic magic reali realism sm itself itself"" )oth )oth #magic #magic and #reali #realism sm are are heavily weighted terms and it would be help to see how they function separately and together" together" #Magic, as Rabassa discusses, is a predominantly (estern construct and see!s to create a binary between the #realistic or #rational and the fantastical" This binary, however, as Rabassa points out is a highly (estern*colonizers way of dealing with a reality that might not be theirs" +n the other hand, #realism is a similarly (estern notion that emerged as the dominant mode of narration in the 1th century" The idea of achieving verisimilitude through realistic narration of a chronologically spec speci% i%c c and and them themat atic ical ally ly inte integr grat ated ed plot plotlin line e wh whic ich h de%n de%nes es reali ealism sm emerges only from the 1th century uropean*)ritish novel" Thus the idea of #mag #magic ic realis ealism m,, as it come comes s up set set agai agains nstt the the uro urope pean an for form of realism, becomes reductive and only a binary opposition to what uropean art represents, represents, rather than being a standalone genre or literary mode" .nother aspect that must be !ept in mind while analysing magical realism in Marquez is that he does not stand at the beginning of the tradition
itself" itself" . common misconception, which ' myself faced, while on Marquez is that he pioneers the entire tradition of magical realist writing itself and that becomes problematic" .s /ames 0" /upp discusses in a deceptively simple but informative essay, the tradition of magical realist writing began much earlier with Miguel .ngel .sturias, .leo 0arpentier and .rturo 2slar 3ietri"4 3ietri also wrote a de%ning article, #l Realismo M5gico at around the same time as Marquez" 6imilarly, magic realist tendencies in art had begu begun n emer emergi ging ng long long bac! bac! befo beforre the the 47th centur century, y, which which is usuall usually y considered as the century where it became a central movement" . highly infor informat mative ive websit website e called called #Magic #Magic Realism ealism-- . Time 0apsul 0apsule e begins begins its : timeline for magic realist art from 1897" 'nterestingly enough, many of these paintings are from urope and not ust from ;atin .merica or the Third (orld" Therefore, when Marquez is analysed as a magic realist te$t, we must !eep two things in mind" ow >ow wh whic ich h is meta metaph phor oric ical ally ly repr epresen esente ted d in Macondos growth and downfall through the novel" The use of the word metaphor should be noted" .s Marquez stated clearly, Macondo is not a direct representation of ;atin .merican history- it is a metaphor for ;atin .merica" 6ince Macondo e$ists only as a metaphor and not an allegory of sorts, sorts, the terms terms and mode mode of the metaph metaphor oric ic trans transfor format mation ion become become e$tr $tremel emely y impo import rtan ant, t, as shal shalll be disc discus usse sed d late laterr" The The meta metaph phor oric ic transformation happens through a mythic narrative voice that uses magic realism to spea! of a past before the #actual, documented colonial past" Through this narrative narrative technique, Marquez creatively subverts the colonial legacy which has, so far denied the colonized #other access to a concrete, respectable past predating colonization" The analysis of how the terms #magic and #realism function within One Hundred Years of olitude would now be useful" #Realism in the novel would relate to the chronological growth of the civilization that Marquez relates" relates" ;i!e any other realist realist te$t, One Hundred Years Years of olitude olitude has a forward moving chronology and it covers a vast historical epoch" =owever, Mar Marquez quez narr narrat ates es this this with with two two cent centra rall di?e di?errence ences s and and both both thes these e
di?erences are crucial to our understanding of how he negotiates bothwith the colonial past and with the hierarchy of #magic and #real which is a legacy of that very past" ow through a mythic narrative voic voice, e, as ment mentio ione ned d earl earlie ierr" Mor Moreover eover,, the the hist histor ory y he depi depict cts s is not not stra straig ight htfo forw rwar ard@ d@ it emer emerge ges s from from the the mar margins gins of the the socio socio-p -pol olit itic ical al contemporary world order" order" This history is, according to dna .izenberg, an Aabs Aabsen entt hist histor oryB yBCC it lin!s lin!s post postco colo loni nial al %cti %ction on with with the the desi desirre to thin thin! ! historical historically ly through through AThird AThird (orld conditions conditions and e$igencie e$igenciesB sB e$pressed e$pressed %ctionally %ctionally"" The narrative narrative voice in One Hundred Years Years of olitude olitude is vast and and all all enco encomp mpas assi sing ng-- it has has been been comp comple lete tely ly drai draine ned d out out of any any personality and closely resembles the omniscient third person narrator of the 1th century realist novel" =owever, there is one crucial di?erence" 'nstead of laying claim to understanding and deconstructing everything in rational or logical terms, the narrative voice only renders an account that is invariably detached from any udgement or attempt to e$plain" The narrative voice in the novel would more closely resemble a community loo!ing bac! and narrating its history as a collective e$ercise rather than the dry clinical voice of the realist te$t" 'ndividual stories are rendered brie>y and enigmatically rather than in precise and detailed perception of events and interiority" 0haracters are only as much focused as they feed into the larger vision of the novel" This treatment of the intricate detailing of the narrative is characteristic of Marquez" ven when the plot is focused on a set set of indi individ vidua uall char charac acte ters rs,, li! li!e in !ove in the Time of "holera, smal smalle lerr epis episod odes es only only feed feed into into the the lar larger ger visi vision on of the the nove novel" l" The The following comment of Rabassa supplements this argumentC AThe broadest tale of a people and therefore of an individual, is more often than not elegiac and apocalyptic"B DRabassa, EF The word broadest broadest is important to what was being argued argued earlier" earlier"
where the races condemned to one hundred years of solitude will have, at last and forever, a second opportunity on earth"B1 6econdly, the conception of time in Marquez is mar!edly mar!edly di?erent from the realist narrative" 0onsider the following remar!s of Gregory RabassaC A(e are already beyond the super%cial and into reality, which is not >at and unitemporal, but, li!e Time, is curved and coincidental in a whole moment that is outside of cloc! time" This is borne out by the fact that when we loo! s!yward no two stars that we see are shining in what we would call the same time, each being the passage of light from points that vary in time of origin but coincide in time of arrival here" )y >atheaded nineteenth-century norms, this would then be magical, in evident de%ance of restrictive super%ciality" 'n ust this way does a false notion of the real breed a false notion of magic Dwhat is unrealF, so the whole concept, stillborn as it was, is best laid to rest"B DRabassa, DRabassa, 1F Time in Marquez is circular and not linear" linear" The fate of the community is decided from the beginning" There are continuous moments of overlaps, coincidences and recalling of past events" The %nite nature of time is inverted, allowing for the intermingling of past, present and future" There is a compression of centuries of cause and e?ect of events in the three generations of the )uendia family history" Multiple events are recalled at several points across the novel and resonate throughout" throughout" . small e$ample is when 0olonel .ureliano )uendia is facing the %ring squad, he recalls the mom moment ent wh when en his his fathe atherr too too! him him to loo loo! at the the nice nice bro brought ght by Meliquades" Meliquades is in fact the prime embodiment of the circularity of time" Hews of death is circulated at multiple times in the novel but he lingers till the very end" To To conclude, Marquez ta!es up the idea of magical realism in its bare, raw form as a mere counterpoint to (estern realism and transforms it into a genre which stands alone and spea!s for itself" " .s )ell-Iillada points out, A(ith the aid of the absurd and the fantastic, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been truthful to his land, his people, and his art"B =e consciously uses his own culture to %nd a niche within a postcolonial framewor!" Magic realism for him therefore does not remain one end of a spectrum but becomes a way to embrace a whole new reality and give voice to it" This, according to me, is his way of negotiating his postcolonial position" Notes
1" Rabassa, Rabassa, Gregory Gregory"" A) A)eyon eyond d Magic Realis RealismC mC Thoughts Thoughts on the .rt of Gabriel GarcJa MarquezB D#oo$s %broad, Iol" 8E, Ho" :F 1 Garcia Marquez, Gabriel@
4" /upp, /ames /ames 0" AThe Hecessity Hecessity of a ;iterary ;iterary Tradit TraditionC ionC Gabriel Gabriel GarcJa GarcJa Marquezs One Hundred Years of olitudeB D The &nglish 'ournal, Iol" K, Ho" :, +ur =istory, +urselvesF :" www"monograL"com*magic"htm 8" )ellll-Iillada, Gene" ="@ (arc (arcia ia )ar* )ar*ue ue+ + and and the the ove ovell@ ;ati ;atin n .merican ;iterary Review, Iol" 1:, Ho" 49, Gabriel Garcia Marquez D/an" D/an" - /un",1 /un",1K9 K9F, F, pp" 19-4:@ 19-4:@ httpC**www"stor"org*stable*4711:K4& origin/6T+R-pdf 9" Garcia Garcia Marque Marquez, z, Gabriel Gabriel@@ from from Hobel Hobel lectur lectureC eC The olitude of !atin %merica@ httpC**www"nobelprize"org*n httpC**www"nobelprize"org*nobelNprizes*literatur obelNprizes*literature*laureates*1 e*laureates*1K4*ma K4*ma rquez-lecture"html
