Magic Realism in the postcolonial: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Aditi Behl
Nov 20, 2020
7 min read
Magic Realism (el realismo magical) was a term first coined in 1949 by the Cuban novelist
Alejo Carpentier to describe the matter-of-fact combination of the fantastic and every day in
Latin American fiction. The term magic realism, originally applied in the 1920s to a school of
painters, is used to describe the prose fiction of Jorge Luis Borges in Argentina, as well as the
work of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez in Colombia, Isabel Allende in Chile, Günter
Grass in Germany, Italo Calvino in Italy (all these countries have had brutal dictatorship
suggesting ow the genre serves to offer subversion of dominant narratives). These writers
interweave, in an ever-shifting pattern, “a sharply etched realism in representing ordinary
events and descriptive details together with fantastic and dreamlike elements, as well as with
materials derived from myth and fairy tales” (Abrams).
The term magical realism was coined around 1924 by a German art critic named Franz Roh.
What he called magical realism was simply painting where real forms are combined in a way
that does not conform to reality. He called it an Expressionist painting. (Carpentier). The
visual focus of this genre, for this reason, is very significant. Magic realism is closely related to
the dreamlike depictions of the expressionist paintings.
The Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez was published in 1981. Marquez
is known for incorporating this style in his writing. Marquez told the Atlantic in 1973, he
wrote magic realism because according to him, that’s just how life was in Latin America. “In
Mexico, surrealism runs through the streets.” He was also influenced by the way his
grandmother told stories: “She told things that sounded supernatural and fantastic, but she
told them with complete naturalness.”
This is precisely what magic realism is about. In this genre, one finds the transformation of
the common and every day into the awesome and the unreal (Flores). The addition of
magical elements to reality is not a forceful intrusion but a seamless blending. The magical
elements are normalised and made every day. And sometimes this intrusion is so smooth
that it is difficult to recognise. The magical elements are presented as ordinary or matter of
fact. There is no sudden surprise. Also, the narrator does not deny or confirm if the magical
elements exist or not.
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, there are various instances where the supernatural
elements effortlessly blend with the reality to the point that it results in multiple meanings.
For instance, Santiago Nasar’s mother is introduced to have a reputation as an interpreter of
dreams. The narrator presents this fact as a matter of fact and in a much-normalised way of
how the dreams were a reasonable way of interpretation. Later the narrator suggests how
the mother has “some medicinal leaves on her temples and the eternal headache”. This
reference to the eternal headache is representative of the magical realist elements. This
detail is slipped very naturally in the narrative. The narrator even sees Santiago Nasar “in her
memory” which could have both supernatural connotations or could symbolically just mean
that the narrator saw Nasar through the mother’s perspective.
Even Angela Vicario’s confession about her violator uses supernatural elements. “She looked
into the shadows…from this world and the other…” The reference to the other world could
be of dreams and desires. The shadows could mean supernatural references or simply a
reference to her mind. This kind of ambiguity in meaning results from being unable to
differentiate between reality and the supernatural which results from the smooth
overlapping of the two elements.
In magic realism the writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it, to discover what is
mysterious in things, in life, in human acts. The principal thing is not the creation of
imaginary beings or worlds but the discovery of the mysterious relationship between man
and his circumstances (Leal). In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, with the use of magic realism,
Marquez tries to question the dominant narrative and bring to view the hidden narrative.
This genre is thus suited for political and social critique because it offers a secondary voice.
For instance, Angela Vicario’s looking into the “the shadows…from this world and the
other…” can be seen as a challenge to the dominant narrative of Santiago Nasar being the
culprit. The reference to the other world can be read like the dream world which could
represent Angela’s subconscious state of mind which randomly pointed Nasar to be the
culprit.
Even the bloodlessness of the knives of the Vicario brothers is an unrealistic detail. But this
detail seems to suggest how the crime was not just the onus of the brothers but of the whole
community. This also mirrors the lack of virginal blood and thus challenges the dominant
patriarchal discourse. This bloodlessness could also be indicative of Santiago Nasar’s
innocence since personal revenge is seen as justice. There was no physical flowing of blood
to prove Angela’s modesty which led to the shedding of the blood of a scapegoat where
Santiago is a random victim and the brothers are random criminal. This use of the
supernatural element only subtly hints at the possibility of other narratives which could be
the actual truth but did not surface because it does not comply with the hegemonic idea.
In that sense, magical realist texts ask us to look beyond the limits of the knowable. It is thus
truly postmodern in its rejection of the binarisms, rationalisms, and the reductive
materialism of Western modernity (Parkinson). Marquez tries to draw this binary with the
character of Bayardo San Roman who is mythicized by using supernatural elements. “He
looked like a fairy”… “He reminded me of the devil”. He is constantly referred to as strange
and mysterious. Legends are created around him which are borrowed from fantastical
narratives which are incorporated effortlessly which construct him larger than life. Oral
narratives are floated around in the community which idealises him. “It came to be said that
he had wiped out villages and sown terror in Casanare as troop commander that he had
escaped from Devil’s Island…” This form of mythicization represents Bayardo as the powerful
patriarchal outsider whose accusation about the daughter of the community is considered to
be the truth. The strangeness and mysterious contributes to this image of the outsider.
In that sense, Bayardo San Roman could be the powerful Self which represents the dominant
narrative and Santiago Nasar as the weak Other who is sacrificed as a scapegoat to
strengthen the narrative of the Self.
Furthering the argument, Bayardo San Roman could also be representative of the powerful
coloniser who is looked up to and whose discourse becomes the truth. Rushdie sees magic
realism as practised by Marquez as a development out of Surrealism that expresses a
genuinely Third world consciousness. Magical Realism is different from fantasy writing
because the latter deals with the creation of an alternative world whereas magical realism
allows a different reality. This is why it is associated with Post-Colonial genres because it
allows different cultural reality and questioning of the dominant reality (the voice of the
coloniser). Michel Foucault’s theory of the possibility of multiple ‘discourses’ explains how
every regime has an official version of the truth and this genre of magic realism questions the
official version. It is subversive and destabilizes normative oppositions.
The character of Santiago Nasar is of mixed race (half Arabic) and this explains why he must
have been framed as the culprit since he is marginalised. The description of Santiago Nasar as
a “fleeting passage” (like a ghost) brings in the supernatural element almost creating a
mysterious aura around him. His mother is associated with a supernatural ability to interpret
dreams. The dreams are spoken to have predictive value, not read using the dominant
European Freudian discourse but with respect to cultural beliefs. The presence of the
supernatural is often attributed to the primitive or ‘magical’ Indian mentality, which co-exists
with European rationality suggesting the conflict between the two worlds: myths and
superstition of the American Indians and the European rationalism (Chanady).
The wedding as a backdrop is significant for the magic realism genre. It offers a particular
sense of subversion which is required for the genre. Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque
allows flouting of authority and inversion of social hierarchies which is only possible in the
season of a carnival. In the novel, the wedding affects everyone’s rational state of mind and
creates a sense of chaos.
The theme of magic realism thus offers a sense of subversion and helps in the questioning of
dominant discourses which otherwise remain dominant. The smooth narrative of magic
realism combines the opposing ideas of magic and realism. This combination suggests how
the extraordinary can exist within the ordinary. Marquez creates a world of absolute marvel
where he uses the genre to not only create a gripping narrative but also subverts the classical
idea of the dominant narrative voice. The whole community becomes guilty and Marquez
uses multiple tropes to hint at this idea throughout the text. Thus the genre serves as a
critique of the society especially in the context of the Post-Colonial discourse.
Works Cited
Abrams, M. H. “A Glossary of Literary Terms.” Massachusetts: Earl McPeek, 1999.
Carpentier, Alejo. “The Baroque and the Marvellous Real.” Magical Realism. n.d. 102–104.
Chanady, Amaryll Beatrice. Magical Realism and the Fantastic Resolved versus Unresolved
Antinomy. New York: Garland Publishing, 1985.
Flores, Angel. “Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction.” Magical Realism. n.d. 113–116.
Foreman, Gabrielle. “Past on Stories: History and the Magically Real.” Magical Realism. n.d.
Leal, Luis. “Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction.” Magical Realism. n.d. 119–123.
Parkinson, Lois. “Magical Romance/Magical Realism: Ghosts in US and Latin American
Fiction.” Magical Realism. n.d. 498.
https://adibehl01.medium.com/magic-realism-in-the-postcolonial-chronicle-of-a-death-foretold1b0f42942405