Momentary Magic: Magical Realism as Literary Activism in the Post-Cold War US Ethnic Novel

In the aftermath of the Cold War, the social climate was largely hostile toward minority activist rhetoric. In this era, some US writers of color turned to magical realism – a genre typically associated with Latin American authors of the 1960s – to criticize social injustice through the use of magic. Magical realism interrogates historical and social conditions through supernatural, mythical, or other non-realist characters and events. In many otherwise realist novels by US writers of color, moments of magic disrupt concepts of “reality” and complicate social and political inequalities. My comparative study investigates the intersections of magic, politics, and activism in magical realist novels by African American, Asian American, Chicano/Latino, and Native American authors by organizing the chapters around four recurrent themes: history, haunting, folklore, and shifting borders. This project explores how alternative visions of empowerment and engagement open up space within which writers of color can work against oppressive forces of racism and imperialism. I begin by tracing the genealogy of the term “magical realism,” acknowledging the problems inherent in this term before turning to the genre’s foundation in postcolonial nations and its historical use as a vehicle for anti-imperialist critiques. I then shift my focus to works produced by US ethnic authors who are building on the anti-colonial politics of canonical magical realism in the antagonistic political environment of the post-Cold War United States. During this time, such authors engaged with the magical realist genre as a mode of literary activism through which they could continue pushing for social change in an era when social protest was viewed with hostility.The first chapter discusses how US writers of color use magic as a tool to rewrite or retell cultural histories. Building on the connections between past, present, and future explored in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 turns to the presence of ghosts as not only links to the past but also figures with active interests in their surviving relatives and broader communities. Chapter 3 is also interested in community, but on a national level, analyzing how magical realism enlivens folklore and alters it in order to assert its relevance in the contemporary United States. Chapter 4 builds on the previous chapters’ underlying discussion of magic, politics, and literary form, focusing on the intersection of avant-garde poetics and magic and exploring how authors of magical realism experiment with form as a means of commenting on contemporary politics.Ultimately, my project contributes to an ongoing discussion of magical realism by reconciling the genre’s postcolonial roots with its contemporary deployment by US ethnic authors. While all writers of magical realism reinforce the genre’s fundamental bonds between form and content, writers of color publishing in the United States during the post-Cold War era have been more likely to overtly politicize these connections, engaging activist aesthetics to pursue clearly anti-imperialist politics. These writers use moments of magic to push the boundaries of political discourse and to imagine worlds in which people of color revision their futures.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Jansen, Anne Mai Yee

Contributors dc:contributor

• Allen, Chadwick

• American Literature
• Ethnic Studies
• Literature
• Magical Realism
• US Ethnic Literature
• Post-Cold War Literature

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365952312

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1365952312