MAGICAL REALISM AND SOCIAL PROTEST IN THE WORKS OF GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

Abstract

The technique of magical realism is relevant to the postcolonial reality and the subsequent voice of protest raised against the ways in which (post)colonialism has told upon the politico-social and cultural economy of the (previously-)colonized nations. Labelled as subversive, hybrid and mestizo, magical realism has been noted to be a significant tool of social protest. However, the effectiveness of the relationship between magical realism and social protest, with reference to the works of García Márquez, have not been focus of a detailed scholarship. The present thesis explores how and in what ways magical realism has been helpful to García Márquez in registering protest against exploitation, which is a major form of social injustice. His recourse in magical realism has a definite and visible political edge and his work not only does make the reader question the so-called absolute nature of the real, but also reviews the borders of an unconsciously politicised ideology that (de-)shapes the very structure of his worldview. This thematic research is an effort to demonstrate that García Márquez’s fiction has overt political implications along with an undertone of protest against social injustice. He achieves the desired intensity of protest by the means of magical realism, in which he incorporates and juxtaposes various elements derived from disparate sources, e.g. oral/folklore culture, myth, and stereotypes. To ultimately bring forth and enhance the themes, the disparity of sources is manifested in the very structure of his fiction and is further strengthened by an essentially carnivalesque language founded on hyperbole, humour, and irony. It has been generalised that it is on the basis of these textual features that a magical realist text is able to challenge Western epistemology, proving the socalled rational as inconsistent and arbitrary in all respects.