Title: Toni Morrison's discredited magic – magical realism in Beloved revisited
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2012, vol. 38, iss. 1, pp. [103]-121
Extent
[103]-121
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2012-1-7
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/124307
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The article is an attempt to estimate the extent to which Toni Morrison's Beloved is representative of magical realism. A number of literary critics and theoreticians contend that the novel is magical realist. Morrison believes that this classification is an overgeneralization of her work. Therefore, the posited interconnectedness between Beloved and magical realism deserves a more complex treatment. In the following, it is argued that Beloved, while indeed manifesting certain features and subject matters typical of that literary mode, on the other hand redefines the concept of the magic by using it as a marker for the characters' extraordinary powers of endurance and resistance, thereby insisting on the uniqueness of the African American experience.
References
[1] Bell, Bernard W. (2004) The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Roots and Modern Literary Branches. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
[2] Caminero-Santangelo, Marta (2005) "'The Pleas of the Desperate:' Collective Agency versus Magical Realism in Ana Castillo's 'So Far from God'." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 24(1) Spring, 81-103.
[3] Chanady, Amaryll (1995) "The Territorialization of the Imaginary in Latin America: Self-Affirmation and Resistance to Metropolitan Paradigms." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 125–144.
[4] Cone, James H. (1998) The Spirituals and The Blues. New York: Orbis Books.
[5] Erickson, John (1995) "Metoikoi and Magical Realism in the Maghrebian Narratives of Tahar ben Jelloun and Abdelkebir Khatibi." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 427–450.
[6] Faris, Wendy B. (1995) "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 163–186.
[7] Flores, Angel (1995) "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 109–117.
[8] Foster, John Burt Jr. (1995) "Magical Realism, Compensatory Vision, and Felt History: Classical Realism Transformed in The White Hotel." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 267–283.
[9] Grant, Jacquelyn (1989) White Women's Christ And Black Women's Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
[10] Hoberek, Andrew (2007) "Introduction: After Postmodernism." Twentieth Century Literature 53(3), 233-247. | DOI 10.1215/0041462X-2007-4007
[11] Hooks, Bell (2003) Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem. New York: Atria Books.
[12] Hegerfeldt, Anne C. (2005) Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism Seen through Contemporary Fiction From Britain. New York: Rodopi.
[13] Lipinsky, April (1994) "Prophesying Bodies: Calling for a Politics of Collectivity in Toni Morrison's Beloved." In: Plasa, Carl and Betty J. Ring (eds.) The Discourse of Slavery. New York: Routledge, 191–216.
[14] Morrison, Toni (1997) Beloved (1987) Berlin: Vintage.
[15] Morrison, Toni (2008) "The Site of Memory." In: Denard, Carolyn C. (ed.) What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 65–82.
[16] Simpkins, Scott (1995) "Sources of Magic Realism/Supplements to Realism in Contemporary Latin American Literature." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 145–159.
[17] Taylor-Guthrie, Danille (ed.) (1994) Conversations with Toni Morrison. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
[18] Todorov, Tzvetan (1975) The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
[19] Vickroy, Laurie (2005) "The Traumas of Unbelonging: Reinaldo Arenas's Recuperations of Cuba." MELUS 30(4) Winter, 109–128. | DOI 10.1093/melus/30.4.109
[20] West, Cornel (1982) Prophesy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
[21] Wilmore, Gayraud S and Cone, James H. (eds.) (1988) Black Theology: A Documentary History, 1966-1979. New York: Orbis Books.
[22] Wilson, Rawdon (1995) "The Metamorphoses of Fictional Space: Magical Realism." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 209–233.
[23] Zamora, Lois Parkinson (1995) "Magical Romance/Magical Realism: Ghosts in U. S. and Latin American Fiction." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 497–550.
[24] Zamora, Lois Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (1995) "Introduction: Daiquiri Birds and Flaubertian Parrot(ie)s." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1–11.
[2] Caminero-Santangelo, Marta (2005) "'The Pleas of the Desperate:' Collective Agency versus Magical Realism in Ana Castillo's 'So Far from God'." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 24(1) Spring, 81-103.
[3] Chanady, Amaryll (1995) "The Territorialization of the Imaginary in Latin America: Self-Affirmation and Resistance to Metropolitan Paradigms." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 125–144.
[4] Cone, James H. (1998) The Spirituals and The Blues. New York: Orbis Books.
[5] Erickson, John (1995) "Metoikoi and Magical Realism in the Maghrebian Narratives of Tahar ben Jelloun and Abdelkebir Khatibi." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 427–450.
[6] Faris, Wendy B. (1995) "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 163–186.
[7] Flores, Angel (1995) "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 109–117.
[8] Foster, John Burt Jr. (1995) "Magical Realism, Compensatory Vision, and Felt History: Classical Realism Transformed in The White Hotel." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 267–283.
[9] Grant, Jacquelyn (1989) White Women's Christ And Black Women's Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
[10] Hoberek, Andrew (2007) "Introduction: After Postmodernism." Twentieth Century Literature 53(3), 233-247. | DOI 10.1215/0041462X-2007-4007
[11] Hooks, Bell (2003) Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem. New York: Atria Books.
[12] Hegerfeldt, Anne C. (2005) Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism Seen through Contemporary Fiction From Britain. New York: Rodopi.
[13] Lipinsky, April (1994) "Prophesying Bodies: Calling for a Politics of Collectivity in Toni Morrison's Beloved." In: Plasa, Carl and Betty J. Ring (eds.) The Discourse of Slavery. New York: Routledge, 191–216.
[14] Morrison, Toni (1997) Beloved (1987) Berlin: Vintage.
[15] Morrison, Toni (2008) "The Site of Memory." In: Denard, Carolyn C. (ed.) What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 65–82.
[16] Simpkins, Scott (1995) "Sources of Magic Realism/Supplements to Realism in Contemporary Latin American Literature." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 145–159.
[17] Taylor-Guthrie, Danille (ed.) (1994) Conversations with Toni Morrison. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
[18] Todorov, Tzvetan (1975) The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
[19] Vickroy, Laurie (2005) "The Traumas of Unbelonging: Reinaldo Arenas's Recuperations of Cuba." MELUS 30(4) Winter, 109–128. | DOI 10.1093/melus/30.4.109
[20] West, Cornel (1982) Prophesy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
[21] Wilmore, Gayraud S and Cone, James H. (eds.) (1988) Black Theology: A Documentary History, 1966-1979. New York: Orbis Books.
[22] Wilson, Rawdon (1995) "The Metamorphoses of Fictional Space: Magical Realism." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 209–233.
[23] Zamora, Lois Parkinson (1995) "Magical Romance/Magical Realism: Ghosts in U. S. and Latin American Fiction." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 497–550.
[24] Zamora, Lois Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (1995) "Introduction: Daiquiri Birds and Flaubertian Parrot(ie)s." In: Zamora, Louis Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris (eds.) Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1–11.