MAGIC REALISM AS A CONVERGE OF POSTCOLONIALISM AND POSTMODERNISM: A STUDY OF SOME SELECTED WORKS

Abstract

Magic realism is a term in literature that combines realism and the fantastic in such a way that magical elements grow organically out of the reality portrayed. Unfortunately magic realism has become a debased term. Some critics see magic realism as shallow, dangerous, primitive and a term that ought to be done away with. Some critics see it with a little positivity; a term arising from unevenly developed society and a brand name for exoticism. Therefore these critics and many writers have failed to extend magic realism beyond postcolonialism. They tend to associate magic realism to just postcolonial countries. This paper therefore examines magic realism as a term that constitutes a point of convergence between postcolonialism and postmodernism. This paper argues that magic realism is not shallow but it is a productive, and an innovational fictional mode. Most importantly, magic realism has also contributed to the growth of postmodern literary sensibilities. Magic realism is a mode of expression worldwide and an aesthetics of necessity which has literary and postmodern currents running through it. In The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, Syl Cheney Coker was able to oscillate between the past and present. He exposes the vanity and uselessness of power, the ultimate failure of colonizers, the futility of war and the power of love; using magic realism. Also in The Icarus Girl Oyeyemi Helen was able re-invent magic realism. She merges West African cultural beliefs, folklore with European Folklore and fairytale. This narrative strategy reveals Oyeyemi’s ambition to position herself as a globally recognized magic realist writer. This paper while employing the postcolonial and postmodernist theory examines magical realism as a term that helps in the development of our multicultural and postmodern literary sensibilities.