Exploring the Nexus: South American History and Magical Realism in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Jorge Louis Borges’s The Aleph and Other Stories

Abstract

The concept of magic realism has been so deeply inculcated into Latin American literature that the latter functions as a tool to be used by its authors in their attempt to approach the political, cultural, and historical aspect of the region. It is through the works of three of the most read Latin American writers, Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, and Jorge Luis Borges, that the intersection of South American history with magical realism is sought in the following paper. This paper discusses how magical realism has been used as a narrative device by examining The House of the Spirits, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Aleph and Other Stories to bring fantastical elements into everyday life and show deep-seated pain from struggles such as colonialism, dictatorship, and cultural hybridity throughout South America. Magical realism, inspired by the mid-20th century, was an innovative way of challenging traditional realism by incorporating supernatural elements into the very everyday fabric of life. These works approach historical, social, and political tensions through the surrealist eye. It is among these works that the supernatural becomes the dissection of personal identity, collective memory, and the cyclical nature that history tends to take. Allende's portrayal of the political repression in Chile, García Márquez's cyclical view regarding Colombia's history, and Borges's philosophical explorations of perception, reality, and identity—all of these cast a light upon how magical realism is not only a reflection of the turbulent past of Latin America but also a mode to hold up resistance and survival against authoritarian regimes. This article places magical realism as something more than a stylistic device, but rather a deep method of investigating the profound contradictions and complexities native to the South American experience.