Magic Realism – Fusion of Real and Unreal Realms. a Comparison of F. Weldon's “Puffball” and J. Winterson's “the Passion”
Magic realism – fusion of real and unreal realms. A comparison of F. Weldon's “Puffball” and J. Winterson's “The Passion”
"My most important problem was destroying the lines of demarcation that separates what seems real from what seems fantastic" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
At the beginning, let me introduce the term: “magic realism”. As we can read in N. Lindstrom's book “Twentieth-Century Spanish American Literature (University of Texas Press: Austin.1994): “Magic Realism is a narrative technique that blurs the distinction between fantasy and reality. It is characterized by an equal acceptance of the ordinary and the extraordinary. Magic realism fuses (1) lyrical and, at times, fantastic writing with (2) an examination of the character of human existence and (3) an implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite.” I would like to make a comparison of two excellent novels: F. Weldon's “Puffball” and J. Winterson's “The Passion” based on the definition.
First of all, I would like to present an interesting relation between these two titles, that is to say, an appearance of two opposite groups of characters in each of the novels: a factual and a surreal type of a personage. Fay Weldon in “Puffball” portrays this relationship in a surprising way: a factual type is a man, and surreal type is a woman. Let me introduce you to Richard and Tucker, the first one is a husband to Liffey, a city oriented, down to earth person, working in a big corporation. The second one, who is married to Mabs, in spite of being aware of his wife strange powers, is a simple farmer. In opposite, we have females: Liffey, a girl whose process of changing into a women (what I mean here is her being pregnant) is a beginning of her new, closer to Nature life which enables her to gain new abilities. Next, we have Mabs, a regular country-side witch, daughter of Nature, who tries to stop a birth of something new and unexpected – a new sorcerers and her baby . In the book, these women are a
"My most important problem was destroying the lines of demarcation that separates what seems real from what seems fantastic" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
At the beginning, let me introduce the term: “magic realism”. As we can read in N. Lindstrom's book “Twentieth-Century Spanish American Literature (University of Texas Press: Austin.1994): “Magic Realism is a narrative technique that blurs the distinction between fantasy and reality. It is characterized by an equal acceptance of the ordinary and the extraordinary. Magic realism fuses (1) lyrical and, at times, fantastic writing with (2) an examination of the character of human existence and (3) an implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite.” I would like to make a comparison of two excellent novels: F. Weldon's “Puffball” and J. Winterson's “The Passion” based on the definition.
First of all, I would like to present an interesting relation between these two titles, that is to say, an appearance of two opposite groups of characters in each of the novels: a factual and a surreal type of a personage. Fay Weldon in “Puffball” portrays this relationship in a surprising way: a factual type is a man, and surreal type is a woman. Let me introduce you to Richard and Tucker, the first one is a husband to Liffey, a city oriented, down to earth person, working in a big corporation. The second one, who is married to Mabs, in spite of being aware of his wife strange powers, is a simple farmer. In opposite, we have females: Liffey, a girl whose process of changing into a women (what I mean here is her being pregnant) is a beginning of her new, closer to Nature life which enables her to gain new abilities. Next, we have Mabs, a regular country-side witch, daughter of Nature, who tries to stop a birth of something new and unexpected – a new sorcerers and her baby . In the book, these women are a