Pynchon and Magical Realism

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Chris writes:
"fred Jameson is a classic mis-interpreter of third world
literature.  That article (among other things) participates fully
in the stereotype of the 3rd world as nothing more than an
ecconomic backwater, and takes the stupid old Marxist stance that
ideas are only a function of economic conditions, in (t)his case:
we are rich, and therefore have the luxury of writing
psychological novels, while the latin americans and africans
can't really do much more than fight the socialist struggle."


Good points, Chris, because it seems to me (based on fearfully little knowledge
I admit) that many "third-world" artists are concerned on the one hand with
criticizing colonial and neo-colonial exploitation and/or the failures of 
their own societies after independence and on the other with forging a sense
of ethnic or national consciousness--often reclaiming a lost tradition that
has roots in folklore and oral traditions.  "Magical realism" in Latin
American literature is one such approach.  You can also note the way Chinua
Achebe uses folklore and folk sayings throughout THINGS FALL APART, which
in its portrait of the main character Okonkwo is both a social and psycho-
logical statement.

Garcia Marquez and other Latin American writers have professed admiration for
several American authors, especially William Faulkner, who among High Modern-
ists (in America at least), as least as deeply rooted in folk traditions as
anyone.  TP follows in such footsteps.  I'm not sure I'd classify him as
 Magical Realist (as I understand the term), but he certainly has affinities.
Think of COL49 and Jesus Arrabal's "anarchist miracle," as well as the
citation of the Remedios Varo painting, which is to my eyes a visual example
of Magical Realism.


Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)