scholarly journals Magic Realism in African Literature: A Study on Selected Works of Ben Okri and Nadine Gordimer

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 148-156
Author(s):  
Mahesh Chandra Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
Magical Realism ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Magic Realism ◽  
Black And White ◽  
African Writers ◽  
Ben Okri ◽  
Narrative Mode ◽  
A Site

This article examines the evolution of magical realism as a narrative style used by African writers throughout the transition period, and how it became increasingly suited to African literary sensibilities at the time. At the same time, magical realism relies heavily on African oral traditions, serving as a site of convergence for black and white writing under apartheid, as well as exemplifying the synthesis of Eurocentric Western logic and African tradition. This article discusses the possible origins of the proliferation of African texts embracing this narrative mode in the immediate aftermath of apartheid's demise, as well as the possible reasons for the gradual abandonment of magical realist narrative strategy in the post-millennial era, while discussing magic realism in relation to Ben Okri's and Nadine Gordimer's post-apartheid novels. As a consequence of the short cohabitation of the two literary forms in African literary history, African magical realism works will be located at the intersection of celebration and disillusionment literature.

Magic Realism as Rewriting Postcolonial Identity: A Study of Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
Khum Prasad Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Magic Realism ◽  
Postcolonial Identity ◽  
Oppressed Group ◽  
Midnight's Children ◽  
Simultaneous Existence ◽  
Sense Of Reality ◽  
Narrative Mode ◽  
Literary Narrative

Magic realism as a literary narrative mode has been used by different critics and writers in their fictional works. The majority of the magic realist narrative is set in a postcolonial context and written from the perspective of the politically oppressed group. Magic realism, by giving the marginalized and the oppressed a voice, allows them to tell their own story, to reinterpret the established version of history written from the dominant perspective and to create their own version of history. This innovative narrative mode in its opposition of the notion of absolute history emphasizes the possibility of simultaneous existence of many truths at the same time. In this paper, the researcher, in efforts to unfold conditions culturally marginalized, explores the relevance of alternative sense of reality to reinterpret the official version of colonial history in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children from the perspective of magic realism.  As a methodological approach to respond to the fiction text, magic realism endows reinterpretation and reconsideration of the official colonial history in reaffirmation of identity of the culturally marginalized people with diverse voices.

Borderlands of Identity and the Aesthetics of Disjuncture: An Introduction to Scottish Gothic

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Carol Margaret Davison ◽  
Monica Germanà
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
British History ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
Cultural Image ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
A Site ◽  
Enlightenment Philosophy

The idea of a ‘Gothic Scotland’, however, did not prove difficult to conceptualise in the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth when a Romanticised portrait of Scotland furnished the nation’s most prevalent cultural image. As Ian Duncan astutely observes in regard to the politics of literary history, it was ‘Scotland’s fate to have become a Romantic object or commodity’ rather than a site of Romantic production (Duncan et al. 2004: 2). Such an objectification was ironic given the existence of Scottish Enlightenment philosophy and its rationally fuelled preoccupations. That objectification was also, notably, expressed in two forms – in both the lighter and darker, more Gothic, shades of Romanticism. Despite the differences in these two manifestations, the Highlands served in both as a synecdoche for a Scotland that exemplified two primary attitudes towards ‘British’ history and rapid modernisation.

Writing American Literary History Sacvan Bercovitch (ed.), The Cambridge History of American Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994–2005, £495.00). Volume One: 1590–1820 (1994, £70.00). Pp. xiii+829. ISBN 0 521 30105 [squf ]. Volume Two: Prose Writing, 1820–1865 (1995, £75.00). Pp. xviii+887. ISBN 0 521 30106 8. Volume Three: Prose Writing, 1860–1920 (2005, £80.00). Pp. xi+813. ISBN 0 521 30107 6. Volume Four: Nineteenth-Century Poetry, 1800–1910 (2004, £75.00). Pp. x+562. ISBN 0 521 30108 4. Volume Five: Poetry and Criticism, 1900–1950 (2003, £75.00). Pp. xi+624. ISBN 0 521 30109 2. Volume Six: Prose Writing, 1910–1950 (2002, £70.00). Pp. xx+620. ISBN 0 521 49731 0. Volume Seven: Prose Writing, 1940–1990 (1999, £75.00). Pp. xxiii+795. ISBN 0 521 49732 9. Volume Eight: Poetry and Criticism, 1940–1995 (1996, £75.00). Pp. viii+545. ISBN 0 521 49733 7.

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-411
Author(s):  
RICHARD GRAY
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Literary History ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
American Literary History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Century Poetry ◽  
And Gender ◽  
A Site

Each generation needs to rewrite literary history. And it may be that this generation needs to do it more than most, if only because the proliferation of schools and theories has turned what was once common critical ground into a battlefield. American books, among others, have become a site of struggle, and American writers have been among those caught in the criss-crossing searchlights of ethnic and gender studies, interdisciplinary investigations and studies of popular culture, language and communication. Just how far things have gone can be measured by the fact that every term in the phrase “history of American literature,” is now open to debate. The textuality of history and the historicity of the text have become the most contentious issues in contemporary criticism, while the question of nationhood, in particular, is under scrutiny. In a famous phrase, Walt Whitman described his work as a language experiment, an attempt to summon a nation into being through words. The slippery, plural nature of American identity and the bewildering contingencies of American history that drove Whitman to say this feed into the more challenging of the recent accounts of American writing.

scholarly journals Illuminating Botteghe Oscure’s British network

Modern Italy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Sullam
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Periodical Studies ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Literary Journal ◽  
Literary Systems ◽  
A Site

Working at the intersection between literary history and periodical studies, this article investigates the role played by the literary journal Botteghe Oscure (Rome, 1948–1960) in processes of Anglo-Italian literary transfer. The article charts the journal’s British network, analysing quantitatively the presence of both established and new writers. Further, it focuses on Botteghe Oscure’s publishing and distribution policy in the United Kingdom, drawing on its founder Marguerite Caetani’s correspondence in order to interrogate the location of the journal within the Italian and the English literary systems, and thus illuminate the journal’s role as a site of literary production as it was shaped in both Italy and Britain.

Palestinian Oral Tradtions and the ‘Sanctity’ of Damascus: A Critical Analysis of a Palestinian Seventeenth-Century Manuscript

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-221
Author(s):  
Ghaleb Anabseh ◽  
Nader Masarwah
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
A Site ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
String Of Pearls

This article explores the concept of the ‘Holy Land’ as reflected in a Palestinian seventeenth-century manuscript: A String of Pearls in Praise of al-Sham, by Muhammad Habib, and in light of the considerable output of works on the ‘virtues of the Holy Land’ by Muslim writers in Palestine and Syria. Although these writers composed their works using materials from traditional sources (religious, historical, geographical), the key issue explored here is the use of Palestinian oral and local traditions which were not always consistent with official or orthodox Islamic thought and thus local traditions which remained outside the bounds of official hadith compilations. This study explore the role played by local or oral traditions in highlighting the sanctity of a city or a site in Palestine and Syria.

scholarly journals NARRATIVE OF MAGIC REALISM IN THE JOHN BELLAIRS’ NOVEL: THE HOUSE WITH THE CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
Vany Rizkita Laily
Keyword(s):  
Magical Realism ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Magic Realism ◽  
Phenomenal World ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

This research aims to analyze the relationship between the novel written by John Bellairs entitled The House With A Clock In Its Walls and the magical elements of realism. By using Wendy B. Faris magic realism theory which focuses on the five characters of magic realism, namely, irreducible, phenomenal world, unsettling doubt, merging of nature, and the disturbance of time, space and identity. This research also uses a descriptive qualitative approach. Through this approach, this research can find the results that the five elements or characters of magical realism can be found in the novel.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Magic Realism in Works of Neil Gaiman and Angela Carter

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-91
Author(s):  
Mahesh Chandra Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Magical Realism ◽  
Recent Trend ◽  
The Other ◽  
Angela Carter ◽  
Magic Realism ◽  
Juvenile Literature ◽  
Narrative Style ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Neil Gaiman

Since the release of Gabriel Garciá Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Magical Realism has been in favour as a narrative style or genre in adult fiction. The representation of the genre in children’s and juvenile literature, on the other hand, is a recent trend; the components of the genre have been tracked and proven to be genuinely important in the interpretation of current children’s fiction, such as David Almond’s Skelling (1998). The aim of this paper is to look at the elements of magical realism in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus works in this respect.

scholarly journals Orality, Memory and the New African Diaspora Poetry: Examining Tanure Ojaide’s Poetics

Afrika Focus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-158
Author(s):  
Edoama Frances Odueme
Keyword(s):  
African Diaspora ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Verbal Art ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
The Rich ◽  
African Writers ◽  
Art Techniques

The influence of traditional oral poetic forms on modern African poetry has been significant. Fascinated by oral forms which their respective communities relied on (to inform, teach, and correct erring members) before the advent of literacy, modern African writers borrow from these oral traditions and blend them with the features of the written Western literary forms. This appropriation of the oral poetic techniques by modern African poets continues today, as is clearly evident in the writings of many contemporary African poets, whose scripted works are seen to have drawn much in terms of content and form from the African oral poetic tradition. Following in this trend, the new African diaspora poets have also maintained the practice of skillfully blending the rich African verbal art and the modern (written) poetic forms to articulate the experiences of their African homeland as well as those of the diaspora, in order to construct and project their identities and visions of a new life in their lived world. In order to explore how through recourse to memory, “new African diasporas” (African-descended people who migrated out of Africa, during the postcolonial era and who live and practice their art outside the African homeland) utilize African oral art techniques in their writings, this essay analyses the poetry of Tanure Ojaide.

scholarly journals  Impact of glucogenic additive in transition dairy cow diets of varying ruminal starch degradability on yield and composition of milk and reproductive parameters

2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (No. 7) ◽  
pp. 301-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Matras ◽  
R. Klebaniuk ◽  
E. Kowalczuk-Vasilev
Keyword(s):  
Transition Period ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Nutrient Digestibility ◽  
Starch Degradation ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Ruminal Degradability ◽  
Cow Performance ◽  
Milk Level

&nbsp;A two-factorial experiment was carried out on 6 groups (10 animals each) of Polish Black and White Holstein-Friesian cows in the transition period to determine the effect of glucogenic additive (GA) to the diets containing grains of varied ruminal starch degradation on cow performance. The animals from 3 control groups (C-groups) were fed the diets without any additive, whereas 3 other, experimental ones (A-groups) received the diets with additive of glucogenic preparation (450 g per head/day) comprising calcium propionate and loose propylene glycol (1 : 1). In the control groups as well as in the experimental ones, three analogical treatments, differing in concentrate composed of grain species of varying ruminal degradability of starch, i.e. maize (M) &ndash; low ruminal degradability, barley and wheat (BW) &ndash; high ruminal degradability and marriage of them (MBW) were conducted. Finally, the treatments were: C-M, C-BW, C-MBW, A-M, A-BW, and A-MBW. The rations of all groups based on maize silage, haylage, and meadow hay were mixed at 69 : 19 : 12 ratio (dry matter (DM) basis) and given ad libitum. Besides, all the animals received adequate concentrate rations to satisfy their nutritional requirements. The experiment started two weeks before the expected parturition and lasted till the 6<sup>th</sup> lactation week. Neither GA nor a type of grain in the diets showed significant negative influence on DM intake. A glucogenic additive has positively affected some basal nutrient digestibility, elevating significantly DM and crude protein (CP) coefficients of the apparent total tract digestibility (CATTD), by about 3 percentage points. The GA &times; grain interactions (P &le; 0.05) in CATTD of CP and nitrogen-free extract (NFE) were stated, with the peak values reported in the A-BW treatment. GA increased (P &le; 0.05) daily milk yield by nearly 5% in comparison with the control treatments. GA &times; grain interaction was noted with the best effect in the treatment where GA was given along with maize-barley-wheat-based concentrate. Besides, the glucogenic additive decreased (P &le; 0.05) protein (PDI) expenditure per 1 kg of fat-corrected milk (FCM) by ca. 6% and raised (by 0.15 percentage point in week 6) protein content, while lowered the urea milk level in weeks 3 and 6 of lactation by approximately 15%. It showed beneficial effect on cow reproductive indicators reducing the time interval from calving to successful insemination and improving insemination index. &nbsp; &nbsp;

Reconstructing Secularisms

2020 ◽  
pp. 26-67
Author(s):  
Lindsay V. Reckson
Keyword(s):  
Black Church ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Early Experiment ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Literary Realism ◽  
Black Folk ◽  
Political Function ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
A Site

“Reconstructing Secularisms” describes how turn-of-the-century arguments over the boundaries of literary realism were inextricably linked to the politics of secularism. This chapter follows tropes of religious excess as they circulate throughout realist fiction, from William Dean Howells’s interlocking diagnoses of racial and religious hysteria in An Imperative Duty (1891) to W. E. B. Du Bois’s more ambivalent description of the “frenzy” of the black church in “Of the Coming of John,” his early experiment with realist narrative in The Souls of Black Folk (1903). Resonating through such descriptions is a question about the aesthetic and political function of ecstasy in the aftermath of Reconstruction. While Howells depicts the black church as a site of emotional and bodily excess, Anna Julia Cooper’s A Voice from the South (1892) and Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy (1892) radically challenge this formation, offering an important take on the uses of ecstatic collectivity. They also gesture to the imminent secularism of literary history, which has largely omitted these texts from the boundaries of realism, perhaps in part because they articulate a critical relationship to secularism as a silent but hegemonic force in the Jim Crow era’s hysterical regulation of racial difference.

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