Manifestations of the Utilization of the Magical Realism Technique in John Updike’s Novel Brazil (Published)
Although an obsessive meditation on a multiracial society, John Updike’s Brazil is a magic-saturated reworking of the most romantic love story of them all, the Celtic legend of Tristan and Iseult. Apparently, Updike uses the medievalist legend as a vehicle to explore some typical Updikean themes: the social politics of love, class conflict, the question of gender and patriarchy, immorality and violence, etc. This paper is an attempt to point out how Updike digs into myth and uses the techniques of ‘magical realism’ to weave a narrative of his two young Brazilian lovers, Isabel and Tristão, who try to stay together despite various forces that conspire to keep them apart, notably opposition from their families. Updike’s utilization of ‘magical realism’ will be analyzed in light of the five primary characteristics of this mood as suggested by Wendy B. Faris in her seminal work Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of the Narrative. This paper is also meant to highlight how Updike’s use of this device gives him an opportunity to hypothesize about the social and emotional consequences of a reversal of races. It is here that the link Updike creates between the indigenous peoples and the characters becomes key, for it allows the central characters, Isabel and Tristão, to experience the magic, and thus finally delve into what race means in their lives and for their identities. This paper argues how the characters manage, through magic too, to explore ethnic identity; an identity they previously ignored or abandoned. For all, this abandonment has negative consequences, leading to their devaluation of self. Isabel thinks that her being black and Tristão being white will solve much of their problems, but in reality it only makes them worse and Tristão ends up killed in the end.
Keywords: Amazonia, Brazil, Mythology, Updike, magical realism, race
From the Present to the Past: Redemptive Authority of History in Octavia Butler’s Kindred (Published)
The present paper aims to validate the idea that history is a foundational site of redemption. Through anachronistic traumatic journeys that take place in the present, Octavia Butler’s Kindred establishes symbolic and critical connections between past and present. Using magical realism, a counter hegemonic style, the novel blurs binary oppositions, such as past and present, dominant and dominated, questioning notions of hierarchy and dominance, and above all subverting the official reality of slavery. In re-enacting slavery, this historical narrative constructs a linkage across time and race, and conceives the relevance of the racial past. Drawing on the postmodern slave narrative framework, we trace the process whereby the main character submits to the position of slave and at the same time incorporates in the historical narrative representation her sense of self – her subjectification. This experiential position facilitates the construction of a counter hegemonic knowledge that undermines the master narrative of slavery.
Citation: Koffi Eugene N’guessan (2022) From the Present to the Past: Redemptive Authority of History in Octavia Butler’s Kindred, European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, Vol.10, No.1, pp.16-30
Keywords: Masochism, Slavery, history, magical realism, past, present, redemption