Diasporic Marvellous Realism

Abstract

This doctoral thesis urges a deeper dialogue between Postcolonial and Latin American literary theory in order to analyse the influence the latter has had on the former and to highlight the constant feedback between these two traditions. By re-evaluating the differences that existed in the 1950s between the terms realismo magico and lo real maravilloso americano, I draw attention to the diverse interests and influences that literary transculturation is promoting in Caribbean diasporic literature today. For this purpose, works by Nalo Hopkinson, Cyril Dabydeen and David Chariandy, amongst others, are analysed to question the spurious generalisation and homogenisation found in several studies on magical and marvellous realism by emphasising the interesting switch in perspective found in contemporary literary production where supernatural phenomena are considered marvellous, rather than magical. My intention is to offer a conceptual solution to the problems that the dichotomy between the terms magical realism and marvellous realism pose to contemporary literary criticism by offering a new term, Diasporic Marvellous Realism. The employment of Diasporic Marvellous Realism as a literary philosophy and narrative technique in contemporary Caribbean diasporic literature would ensure a positive change from the rhetorical gaze regarding the importance of cultural heritage as a form of resistance and as a way to vindicate the enfranchisement of dispossessed communities within certain host countries.