'Go(ing) as two': Magical realism as mediating voice

This dissertation is a history of magical realism, a literary style that changes over time approximately relative to the literary period. It attempts to answer charges by critics that the style cannot be adequately defined. The dissertation begins with an examination of dialogic magical realism, which was the first permutation of magical realism, and the first novels written in the style, The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier and Men of Maize by Miguel Angel Asturias. Dialogic magical realism is the juxtaposition of rationalistic (Western) and traditional (first nation) cultures in narrative that foregrounds their differences in perception while it privileges the traditional viewpoint. It is written from the normative position of the rationalistic culture. The next section addresses whether magical realism can be European by examining Bram Stoker's Dracula. The next permutation, representational magical realism, comes out of the historical Zeitgeist of world-wide decolonization and is the juxtaposition of traditional (first nation) and rationalistic (Western) cultures that foregrounds, their differences in cosmology while it privileges the traditional viewpoint. It is written from the normative position of the first nations culture, with rationalistic culture being represented as Other. It is further defined by examining Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony , Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow, and Toni Morrison's Beloved. The third permutation, postmodern magical realism, is magical realism written in a postmodern way: emphasizing plurality and a resistance to metanarratives. It is intended to destabilize the reader's way of seeing the world, and is generally written from the normative view of the magical (often first nation) culture, though all world views present in the narrative are fragmented, undercutting themselves and each other. It is examined by looking at Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Maryse Conde's I, Tituba; Black Witch of Salem, and Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues. The European version of postmodern magical realism is examined through D. M. Thomas' The White Hotel and Andrei Codrescu's The Blood Countess. The dissertation is concluded by summarizing the examination of the permutations of magical realism and explicating them through film: Thunderheart, Like Water for Chocolate , and Bram Stoker's Dracula.