Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude as a Grotesque Magical Realist Text

Hatice Elif Diler

doi:10.24289/ijsser.106442

Abstract

Since the 1960s magical realism has been a significant narrative mode used by postmodernist and postcolonial authors all over the world. Disregarding the conventional classical realism and its techniques, magical realist authors have used postmodernist techniques to achieve their postcolonial aims. Their attempts to find innovative techniques have resulted in embracing the Rabelaisian aesthetics and Bakthinian concerns in their works. Grotesque realism is considered a type of magical realism. Thanks to the embrace of the magical, the improbable and the profane, grotesque magical realist texts reflect a strong regenerative carnivalesque spirit and a general worldview in popular carnival forms. The most renowned exponent of magical realism from Latin America is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in literature. One Hundred Years of Solitude , the Colombian author Garcia Marquez’s magnum opus, is generally regarded as the masterpiece of magical realism. One Hundred Years of Solitude employs carnivalesque-grotesque features and stands out for its carnivalesque spirit. To convey his message, Garcia Marquez mostly relies on Bakhtinian concerns such as folklore, folk laughter and carnivalesque. The aim of this study is to analyze the carnivalesque-grotesque features used in the novel and their contribution to Garcia Marquez’s meaning. Thus, this paper attempts to scrutinize One Hundred Years of Solitude as a grotesque magical realist text. Keywords: Gabriel Garcia Marquez; One Hundred Years of Solitude ; Grotesque Magical Realism; Carnivalesque-grotesque; Postcolonialism.

Highlights

After World War II, the field of literature witnessed the advent and development of postmodernism and postcolonialism as two important literary movements
As “a historical product of the discourses of modernism and colonialism” (Irvine, 1998), magical realism has been a widelyused narrative mode persisting in the center of postmodernism and postcolonialism
The aim of this study is to investigate the way in which García Márquez uses the carnivalesque-grotesque features in One Hundred Years of Solitude and the way in which these features contribute to the author’s sociopolitical discussion

Summary

Introduction

After World War II, the field of literature witnessed the advent and development of postmodernism and postcolonialism as two important literary movements. The Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, which was originally published as Cien años de soledad in Argentina in 1967, has been regarded as one of the greatest magical realist texts reflecting a strong regenerative carnivalesque spirit in world literature. Xix), García Márquez efficiently blends realistic and fantastic elements, deriving his material from oral and written traditions and making much use of carnivalesque-grotesque features. Through these features, the novel approaches to Medieval and Renaissance grotesque realist fiction and gets stronger in its social, political and cultural struggle. Considering the general characteristics of grotesque magical realist fiction, this paper attempts to analyze One Hundred Years of Solitude as a grotesque magical realist text

Grotesque Magical Realism

One Hundred Years of Solitude as a Grotesque Magical Realist Text