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East Tennessee State University

Breaking the Bonds of Silence: The Immigrant Experience in Magical Realist Novels of Katherine Vaz and Chitra Divakaruni.

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>The genre of Magical Realism is normally explored on the sole basis of its identification with and fantastic expression of Latin-American cultural identity. However, the genre, when employed by non-American immigrant women, takes on new characteristics. It not only highlights the mystical underpinnings of everyday life but instructs in a subliminally didactic manner by opening the reader to new possibilities through delightful imagery and a plot woven around transposed myth and folklore.</p> <p>In examining how two female Magical Realists translate their narratives of immigrant life in twentieth-century United States, the instructive nature of the genre is laid bare. Both use a coupling between the genre of Magical Realism and Culinary Fiction to entice the reader into following the lives of each novel’s protagonist, lives communicative of how cultural oppression can persecute immigrant women in a foreign land unless a certain level of assimilation is attained.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
MA (Master of Arts)
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis - unrestricted
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
English
Year dc:date.issued
2003

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Hester, Hillary Dawn

Subjects

dc:subject × 7

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright by the authors.

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/833
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-1990

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
East Tennessee State University
Base URL
dc.etsu.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Hester, Hillary Dawn. Breaking the Bonds of Silence: The Immigrant Experience in Magical Realist Novels of Katherine Vaz and Chitra Divakaruni.. Thesis - unrestricted thesis, 2003. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/833