Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana

The Ideal World In Search Of Its Reference: AN INQUIRY INTO THE UNDERLYING NATURE OF:
Magical Realism
Author(s): Floyd Merrell
Source: Chasqui, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Febrero - 1975), pp. 5-17
Published by: Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20778118
Accessed: 12-04-2015 12:40 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Chasqui.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The IdealWorld InSearch Of ItsReference:
THE
INTO
ANINQUIRY OF
NATURE
UNDERLYING

???? ????
????
::::: ????
???
? hi ??? :..
????
?? "??< ::?:
::

the appearance of Alejo Car

seminal essay on "lo re
Since pentieri
al maravilloso,f,l many critics have
referred to the element of fantasy
found in much Spanish American prose
of the past few decades as "magical
MerreII
F/oyd realism."2 On confronting the numer
ous contradictory definitions of ma
gical realism, one could infer that
almost all modern literature of the
Western World might be included with
in the boundaries of this term since
a rampant individualism and the Car
tesian dualism have severed man from

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 nature (subject from object) to create that anomalously conceived, "un
real world" alluded to by Gottlob Frege as ideal sense and real refer
enced
However, these definitions, rather than summary, represent sincere
attempts to conceptualize a phenomenon whose complexity and apparent ir
regularity seem to defy concrete description. For example, Angel Flores
puts forth the assumption that magical realism consists simply of a fu
sion of the real and the fantastic. Believing Kafka to have established
the paradigm for Spanish American magical realism, Flores maintains that
the modern writer finds in this expression an efficient
"hybridized"
tool for creating his fiction.^ Criticizing Flores1 rather arbitrary
determination of literary influences, A. Valbuena Briones asserts that
magical realism is a universal phenomenon presupposing a vision of real
ity where the world of fantasy and myth coexist with the immediately
perceivable (real) world.5 According to Luis Leal, the magico-realist
waiter confronts a reality from which he attempts to eviscerate "lo ma
ravilloso. "6 Unlike conventional fantastic literature where the super
natural (irrational) intervenes in a world governed by rational princi
? in literature, the mysterious does not descend up
ples, magico-realist
on a rational world but remains concealed, albeit vitally alive, behind
a fa?ade of orderly appearance.
E. Dale Carter, apparently influenced by the earlier essay of Flo
res, concludes that magical realism: (l) consists above all of a combin
ation of reality and fantasy, (2) transforms real
phenomena into irreal
categories, (3) deforms the ordinary conceptions of time and Space, and
(U) represents an esoteric literature directed toward an initiated mi
Vicente Cabrera and Luis Gonz?lez-del-Valle take issue with
nority.^
each one of these conclusions. First they propose that to consciously
fuse reality and fantasy is not the fundamental objective of magico-re
alist creativity. On the contrary, this fusion gives way to a subjec
tive creative process where the conjunction of two planes of "reality"
simply supplies a means to an end. Secondly, rather than transforming
the real into the unreal, magical realism elevates the unreal to the
category of verisimilitude. Thirdly, the idea of space-time deformation
is a phenomenon characteristic of modern prose in general and does not
belong exclusively to magical realism. Finally, although certain exam
ples of magical realism (Mulata de tal) may be esoteric, others (Cien
a?os de soledad) have demonstrated by their cross-cultural popularity
that there must be some deep-seated (unconscious) communication between
author and reader which is attributable to the magico-realist process.
Cabrera and Gonz?lez-del-Valle conclude that since the "traditional"
magical realism of the 30's and Uo's, a "new" Spanish American narrative
has This "new" prose is based on a revised aes
technique appeared.9
thetic vision where the writer, considered not a mere imitator of reali
ty but an inventor in the full sense, takes on the attributes of a pro

phet, or a Gran Lengua in Miguel Angel Asturias1 terms, to tap the sub
conscious of the "race."

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 ANDREALITY
INVENTION
the present study I vili not entertain the question of delimiting
In in concrete terns the aesthetic and stylistic dimensions of magical
realism. Instead, departing from the premise of Cabrera and Gonz?lez
dei-Valle that the nev Spanish American magico-realist novel discloses
a distinct conception of reality, I will inquire into: (l) the episte
mologica! implications involved in the generation of magico-realist
prose in general, and (2) the underlying nature of magical realism as
a literary phenomenon which is characteristic of man's basic means of

conceptualizing his experiences and interpreting his environment. The

theory I intend to establish must ipso facto rest on deductive princi
ples and entail a set of broad (holistic) analogies. Let me begin by
juxtaposing four apparently incongruous statements in order to illus
trate how not only are they united by commonunderlying structures
which characterize the basic activity of the human mind but, by extra
polation, magico-realist prose in general manifests those same struc
tures: 1) At the close of the 15th century the world was lived and ex
perienced as a scientific "truth19 which was created ex nihilo by God
and hence perfect (i.e., not susceptible to alteration). There was
consequently no place in this cosmologica! scheme for the existence of
the American continent. It thus became necessary to "invent11 America;
that is, to alter man's world-view allowing for the integration of an
additional continent. As a result, man was now conceived as a beine
living in a world which he could transform through his own efforts.3-*
2) "These great towns... seemed like an enchanted vision from the tale
of Amadis. Indeed, some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all
a dream.??.It was all so wonderful that I do not know how to describe
this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before.11
(Bernal D?az del Castillo)11 3) The Copernicani revolution released man
from the bonds of a limited world as defined by his reigning theological
dogma to an infinite universe where the boundaries of his potentiali
ties are determined only through his own self-limitations.12 k) tfY
que, por la virginidad del paisaje, por la formaci?n, por la ontolog?a,
por la presencia f?ustica del indio y del negro, por la revelaci?n que
constituy? su redente descubrimiento, por los fecundos mestizos que
propici?, Am?rica est? muy lejos de haber agotado su caudal de mitolo
g?as. ?Pero qu? es la historia de Am?rica toda sino una cr?nica de lo
real-maravilloso?99 (Alejo Carpentier)13
The discovery ("invention19), conquest, and settlement of America
were colored by preconceived pictures of the world. Columbus acted
within a world in which America, unconceived and unconceivable (given
the reigning cosmologica! paradigm), did not exist. It was as yet
merely a possibility of which he had no idea. Thus he simply per
suaded himself that he had reached Asia, and that the ocean was smal
ler and the earth was larger than was commonly supposed.1^ That is to
say, he was faced with the problem of how to explain the newly-found
lands and at the same time retain the established picture of the world.
When reality persisted in its refusal to conform to the established

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 cosmological paradigm, a new paradigm was finally created to accomodate
the new lands. This became possible only after Western man had also be
come liberated from his prison-like domain in which he had existed pri
or to the Copernican revolution* Whereas before its "invention," Amer
ica had been forced into the accepted cosmological paradigm, it was now
looked upon as a utopia in embryo,!5 as a land of opportunity, of the
future, and of freedom. Now Europe was considered a worn-out model to
be made over and perfected in America.l6
Diaz del Castillo, whether willfully or not, effectively protrays
the efforts of the European to impose his preconceived picture of the
world on the American environment. Like Don Quixote, Diaz del Castillo
surrenders himself to his model, the novel of Chivalry, as he contem
plates the grandeur of the Aztec capital. However, while his image of
reality is shaped around the model, that same model binds him insofar as
he is restricted in his freedom to adopt a different model and thus al
ter his image of America: his picture of the world has been determined
for him by the model of all Chivalry.1^ Thus "reality" for D?az del
Castillo is dictated by an external model which constantly threatens to
imprison him within a closed system of images.1"
The above considerations are analogically relevant to Carpentieri
original notion of "lo real maravilloso." Although inspired by the sur
realists, Carpentier ultimately discarded the French movement. Emil
Volek outlines the distinctions between surrealism and Carpentieri con
ception of magical realism. Surrealism, on the one hand, emphasizes
Freudian irrationalism as a controlling factor in the arts. Creativity
is therefore reduced to a rigidly determined "psychic mechanism" which
disallows any real moral or aesthetic preoccupation. On the other hand,
American reality stimulates in the writer a desire to present, through
the concrete thematic dimensions of his text, a reality portraying not
only his own individual consciousness but also a transubjective reality
set within the bounds of the collective framework of his people. First,
on the part of the writer is required an act of faith in the existence
of "lo real maravilloso" as a conditio sine qua non. The magico-realist
world is then recreated from within and intensified by the writer's "vi
tal inner forces"to produce a synthesis between author subjectivity,
collective conscious, and objective reality. Through this process the
programmatic "exoticism" of the surrealists is effectively transcended.^9
In the light of Volek9 s thesis it can be concluded that whereas
Diaz del Castillo misplaced his faith in Amad?s as the paradigmatic
model, Carpentieri leap of faith in positing the existence of "lo real
maravilloso" is, in the long run, equally tenuous. Hence, in contrast
to Diaz del Castillo who perceived TenochtitlSn through his mediating
model (the novel of Chivalry), Carpentier rejects his potential media
tor (surrealist theory) convincing himself that the fantastic need not
exist solely as a subconscious fiction but is embodied in the very es
sence of America's physical reality; and the writer's task is to cap
ture this awe-inspiring fantastic world.20
Whether or not Carpentier is faithful to his postulated technique
of (mimetically) portraying the American environment, his essay is nev
ertheless important since it expresses the views of one of Latin Ameri

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 cafs foremost writers at a time when the novel was in a state of tran
sition. It is significant, however, that the Cuban's artistic endeav
ors have in part belied his consciously elaborated goals Just as many
19th century realist and naturalist writers produced good literature in
spite of their theoretical base.21 Rather than portray reality, in es
sence Carpentier?along with most of the ffnewlfmagico-realist writers?
"invents11 reality.

TWO OFTHE
PICTURES
DISTINCT WORLD
clarify the preceding statements it will be necessary to introduce
a new set of Consider for a moment the rather
To general concepts.
daring statement that literature is a form of knowledge.22 Following
Plato's scathing attacks on poetry, such a claim to truth and value in
literary statement has been reiterated time and time again. If litera
ture can be considered a form of "tacit knowing," it follows that epis
temologica! paradigms must govern the history of literature (and conse
quently all the arts) just as they govern the history of scientific and
philosophic thought.23 For example, empiricism in the Humean tradition
posits the "passivist" theory where sense-data are the sole source of
knowledge acquisition. Against this receptacle theory of knowledge the
Kantian "construetivist" theory argues that knowledge is not a mere
bundle of perceptions received by our senses and stored in the mind as
if it were a warehouse, but that it is a result of our mental activity.
Similarly, in literature, the mimetic mode posits the mind of the writ
er as a sort of tabula rasa to be filled by a conglomerate of sense
perceptions, and the text represents a transcription of the full slate
into poetic language. On the other hand, the genetic mode may be con
strued as either synchronie or diachronic. In the first case an invar
iant categorical apparatus represents the timeless framework of human
reason, while in the second, man's intellectual make-up, in Hegelian
fcushion, is constantly changing, and the development of his reasoning
faculties must coincide with the historical development of society. In
either case the text is not a faithful copy of reality but a "transfor
mation" of that reality as a result of the writer's dynamic mental ac
tivity.
Genesis and mimesis are the two poles of opposition revealed both
through essaysthe on magical realism and in Spanish American
magico
realist prose. The essays of Carpentier, Flores, Leal, Valbuena Brio
nes, and Carter disclose a "traditional" conception of magical realism
which is characteristic of Spanish American narrative during the 309 s
and UO's. Cabrera and Gonz?lez-del-Valle, however, propose that the
"new" Spanieh American narrative manifests an attempt to reconstruct
reality artistically rather than merely to inject reality with elements
of the unreal. The former "mimetic view" is analogous to the absolut
ist classical notion of the universe where an invariant reality is de
tenni nable through a search for, and a conscious adoption of, that abso
lute model of all existence?which ultimately became the mechanical mo

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 del of Newtonian physics. In contrast, the "genetic view" proposed by
Cabrera and Gonzalez-del-Valle can be favorably compared to the twenti
eth century relativist conception of physical reality where, Just as the
novelist must create his own autonomous universe in his work of art
which stands in relationship to all other autonomous (relative) univer
ses, so too the scientist must hypostatize, or in essence "invent," a
reality which is then verified and established as the most probable (or
potential) reality.2** Artistic and scientific creativity merge in con
temporary times and the conscious adoption of a given paradigm may now
be conceived as necessarily subordinated to unconscious as well as con
scious "constructivist" activities.25 Thus the "invention" of realities
is ultimately the sine qua non of all human mental processes.
To carry these broad analogies a step further, if all past and

present human mental constructs are viewed in relativist terms, it fol

lows that any given picture of the world must be incompatible with other
world-images. For example, Diaz del Castillo1s "true" history of the
Spaniard's preordination by God to subdue the barbarous American nations
and fulfill all righteousness is a stark contrast to the indigenous in
of rape and plunder.2" And the Medieval theological doc
terpretation
trine where God imposed the undesirable conditions of temporal existence
on man in punishment for original sin is certainly incoherent with the
post-Copernican philosophy of a transformable world.2'
Analogous conflicts of "reality" characterize magical realism. On
a thematic level, in Carpentieri El reino de este mundo2^ Macandal is a
renegade in the eyes of the "rationalistic" French colonizers while to
the black slaves he possesses superhuman powers and will ultimately lead
them from bondage. The French, after finally capturing him, watch him
die at the stake whereas the blacks, immersed in a magico-mystical con

ception of reality, see him rise from the flames and escape. The second
half of Borges1 "El sur"29 consists of a dream (posited reality) which
is more real than the protagonist's physical existence in a sanatorium
during the first half. A world of chaos rather than order, contingency
rather than necessity, imposes itself on "rational" existence in Los.
premios;30 but then, as Persio maintains, perhaps this is, in the long
run, theauthentic reality. The tale of Don Anselmo in La casa verde3l
is elevated to mythical categories, and the local inhabitants of La Man
gacheria are no longer certain as to whether he and his Green House were
a part of the incessant flow of everyday existence ("passivist" theory
of reality) or merely a figment of the imagination ("constructivist"
theory). From the very outset, a fantastic world dominates over "reali
ty" in Mulata de tal,32 ^ as the reader is gradually accustomed to
this dream-like existence it becomes as logical, though on a different
level, as the "logic" of the real world. We discover that in Cien afios
de soledad33 the penalty for committing incest is a pig-tailed progeny;
and as the taboo is violated, fear posits a fulfillment of this punish
ment until finally, in Rimbaudian fashion, the power of man's metaphor
triumphs and a new reality is "created." The terror of the past prompts
the protagonist in Aura3** to mentally posit ("invent") an irreal exis
tence which slowly overtakes perceptual reality, and Francisco Montero
finally discovers that the beautiful Aura is only a projection of the

10

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 ancient vornan who hired him to edit her deceased husband's biography.
Finally, Juan Preciado of Pedro P?ramo35 dies in a nightmarish vorld re
plete with distorted religious symbolism, a world which first existed in
the young man's preconceiving mind later to become more real than reali
ty itself. From the above examples, therefore, it is observed that ma
gico-realist fiction stems, on a thematic level, from the conflict be
tween two pictures of the world. However, theme is developed solely
through the writer's linguistic medium, and it is there that we must
search for the roots of magical realism.

MYTH DISCOURSE
AND
del Castillo's autobiographical narration of the conquest of New
essay on
"lo real Western World e
D?az Spain, Carpentier's maravilloso,"
pistemological paradigms, Juan Preciado's preconceived notion of reali
ty, etc., are all diverse examples of man's incessant symbolizing acti
vity. Alfred North Whitehead states that bare sense-data are devoid of
meaning, a "comparative emptiness" confronting a thinking being desiring
"deep significance" in the things and events in his world.3& ^o inject
meaning into this Heraclitean river sense of
perceptions and at the same
time avoid falling into Parmenidean
immutability, the notion of univer
sal symbolization?mystical, practical, or mathematical, since all are
fundamentally alike?appears to be revelatory of a basic human need. 37
This becomes apparent in Ernst Cassirer's work on "symbolic forms,"
where the limited Kantian system of categories of understanding is tran
scended. Symbolic forms comprise not only those of "reason," as Kant
would have it, but all activities characteristic of the human mind and
of culture (i.e., language, myth, religion, art, etc.). Rather than a
static framework of a priori categories, they are constructions of the
individual mind and of collective culture, developing in close interac
tion with the various fields of cultural activity.38 The universal ap
plication of this symbolic function can surprisingly tie together two
such disparate intellectuals as Cassirer and Claude L?vi-Strauss. Des
pite his well-known insistence on the reducibility of all symbolic acti
vity to a small set of abstract laws, L?vi-Strauss describes in his es
say entitled "The Effectiveness of Symbols" an ongoing process where
genuine transformations may occur in human culture and in the indivi
dual. 39
On considering L?vi-Strauss' study of "primitive" and "modern"
uses of symbols, it follows, by analogy, that magical realism quite pos
sibly evokes mythical elements which underlie modern man's fa?ade of
"rationalism." This stems primarily from the common origin and symboli
zing function of both myth (human discourse arising as a mediator be
tween the symbol and reality) and language (the building blocks of dis
course). Myth and language are "two diverse shoots from the same parent
stem, the same impulse of symbolic formulation, springing from the same
basic mental activity."**0 Whether the purpose of myth is to "provide a
logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction,"^1 or to "resolve

11

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
an inner tension," ^2 in either case the structure of the human mind is
revealed and there is in the process an advance from (ideal) feeling
toward (real) reference/ But discursive language, myth, and even reli
gion must assume at least a fragment of substantial truth in the rela
tionship between the ideal and the real. The artist confesses, however,
that his work must necessarily be an illusion as opposed to the world of
empirical reality. Nevertheless, this illusion f,has its own truth be
cause it possesses its own laws."1* 3 it springs from the tension be
tween the ideal (a void demanding fulfillment) and the real (external
reference).
If the ideal exists in opposition to reality, language, which pro
vides the tool to symbolically mediate that opposition, ultimately dis
torts and transforms reality. This transformed reality cannot be a
faithful reproduction of the image the artist is attempting to portray
but, as it is filtered through the symbolizing grid of human mental ac
tivity, it becomes merely an approximation of the image. The artist ap
proaches?but never realizes?the genuine reproduction of inner feeling,
while the ultimate expression remains unutterable. Thus, as Ludwig

Wittgenstein proposes: "What finds its reflection in language, language

cannot represent.HM The work of art simply exhibits without being able
to explicitly tell.
Extrapolating the above speculations in light of the oonclusions
of Cabrera and Gonz?lez-del-Valle, in magico-realist fiction the irreal
is first "invented,19 then elevated to the category of verisimilitude.
Nevertheless, since the work of art is a symbolic representation of the
artist's desire, the dichotomy between the real (appearances) and the
unreal (essences underlying reality and motivated by the artist's inner
feelings) is perpetuated. Consequently, the unreal, unutterable in its
entirety, must be displayed through the artist's linguistic medium ra
ther than narrated; and the reader instills meaning into the work of art
through intuition rather than through conscious "rational" mechanisms.
This satisfies Cassirer1s two-fold linguistic function where "discur
sive" language describes the factual world while "mythical" (imagina
tive) language expresses inner feelings.^5

AWORLD
OFBECOMING
Langer tells us that illusion prompts the symbolic activity
portrayed
Susanne in a work of art. The artist having admitted to his illu
sions, his work becomes only a "semblance of reality."^ Although this
semblance is mere form from a practical standpoint, it nevertheless
seems charged with reality. Consequently there exists an element of
"unreality" in all art forms which impels the beholder to reach beyond
himself. A synthetic activity?inherent within the work of art and la
tent within the mind of the beholder?ensues where abstractions and
either-or propositional thinking are superseded by concret
potentially
7
ing processes and both-and gradations

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Analogously, magical realism is by nature a synthetic, totalizing
activity, a characteristic it still shares with myth.This synthetic
activity is displayed in El reino de est? mundo where form and content
are "organically" conjoined, and the world is sensed in a myriad of con
crete forms rather than contemplated in abstract terms. Thus the reader
perceives the impact of black culture on the French colonizers, the re
ciprocal interaction between man and his natural environment, and the
opposition between the intellectually conceived inherent goodness of (i
deal) "Enlightenment" man and the invariant nature of (real) man. Simi
larly, the disintegrating world of Cien a?os de soledad disguises a cov
ert symbolic activity common to all the macondenses which endures in
spite of their alienation and represents an indestructible unifying
thread in a world of apparent solitude. Consequently, Jos? Arcadio
Buend?a's experiments do not lay in rest indefinitely but are resumed by
his successors whose quest for the unknown continues undaunted. Melqu?
ades1 parchments are
repeatedly opened in an attempt to satisfy human
longings above and
beyond the immediately perceived world. And Ursula
Iguar?n, that of stability
rock and conservatism, represents, by her in
domitable will,a magnetic force around which the entire family revolves.
Juan Prediado becomes cognizant, in the second half of Pedro P?ramo
where he narrates from the grave, that the preconceived reality in which
he met his death was merely an illusion. Nature, it is ultimately dis
covered in Rulfo's novel, is not "out there" and detached from man but
it becomes an extension of his own self as he perceives it through the
tainted spectacles of a priori postulation. Consequently, he finds him
self trapped, without exit, in a world where he is both creator-subject
and object of creation. It is significant, therefore, that Juan Precia
do and the other dead characters achieve a synthetic unity with their
objective surroundings only in their post-mortem (retrospective) exis
tence. This "organicist" view of reality to be found in much magico-re
alist literature is nowhere more evident than in Cort?zar1s "Axolotl,"
where the protagonist discovers, through his contemplation of some Mexi
can salamanders in an aquarium of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, that
"est?bamos vinculados, que algo infinitamente perdido y distante segu?a
sin embargo uni?ndonos."*9
not a world a world of
Thus, magical realism portrays a?is_ but
becoming, adynamic, open system incessantly striving to synthesize the
stubborn dualisms created by human culture. In essence Diaz del Casti
llo's awe was that of Jos? Arcadio Buendfa vis-?-vis the magic of Mel
qu?ades. Juan Preciado1s fear as he confronted a nightmarish world was
that of Moctezuma on viewing the approach of the "white gods" forecas
ted by the sages to appear in the year of ce acati? 1519. And Pauline
Bonaparte, who, in El reino de este mundo viewed American reality and
the bon sauvage through romantic eyes, was not behaving unlike Vasco de
Quiroga when he envisioned the actualization of Sir Thomas More's Uto
pia in the province of Michoac?n. In every instance the constructive
mind and physical reality reciprocally acted on one another. Magical
realism, in the final analysis, must be considered a local expression
whose function and structure reveal a universal epistemological phenom
enon.

13

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 NOTES

^Tientos
y diferencias (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Aut?noma de
M?xico, 19610, pp. 115-35.

2The term, magical realism, vas actually coined by the German

critic Franz Roh in his study on contemporary art. See Angel Valbuena
Briones, "Una cala en el realismo m?gico,11 Cuadernos Americanos, l66
(septiembre-octubre 1969), 233-Ul.

3cited in Paul Ricoeur, "Structure, Word, Event" Philosophy Today ?

12 (1968), llU-29.

^"Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction," Hisp?nia, 38, No.

2 (1955), 187-92.

^Valbuena Briones, p. 236.

6"ei realismo m?gico en la literatura hispanoamericana," Cuadernos

Americanos, 153 (julio-agosto I967), 230-35.

^Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Liter

ary Genre, trans. Richard Howard (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve Uni
versity Press, 1973), p. 173.

8"Breve rese?a del realismo m?gico en Hispanoam?rica," in Ocho

cuentos hispanoamericanos. Antologia del realismo m?gico (Nev York: The
Odyssey Press, 1970), pp. xi-xv.

9cabrera and Gonz?lez-del-Valle, La nueva ficci?n hispanoamericana

a trav?s de M.A. Asturias y G. Garc?a M?rquez (Nev York: Eliseo Torres
and Sons, 1972), pp. 11-31.

10Edmundo O1Gorman, The Invention of America (Bloomington: Indiana

University Press, I961).

llThe Conquest of Spain, trans. J.M. Cohen (Baltimore: Penguin

Ney
Books, Inc., 1963), p. 21k.

12Alexandre Koyr?, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe

(Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1957).

13rientos y diferencias, p. 135.

^The dogged persistence vitti vhich Columbus continued in his belief

is demonstrated by his subsequent make-shift hypotheses. First he claimed
that the coast of Cuba vas actually the coast of the Chinese province of

14

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Mangi* However, Cuba vas soon circumnavigated and this notion vas dis
carded. Later, after having explored the northeast coast of South Amer
ica he declared that he had discovered the Terrestrial Paradise. When
this idea vas met with scepticism in Spain he resorted to the alterna
tive hypothesis that South America vas in reality an extension of the A
siatic continent. 01Gorman, pp. 73-12U.

^Eugenio Imaz, ed., Utopias del Renacimiento (M?xico: Fondo de

Cultura Economica, 1956).

^0,Gorman, pp. 127-U5.

lTS?e Ren? Girard, Deceit, Desire, and the Hovel, trans. Yvonne
Freccer? (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1965), pp. 1-2.
i?
xoSimilarly, vhile the Medieval cosmologieal paradigm served as a
constraint for Columbus, its replacement by another paradigm marked a
temporary "opening out" for those vho, by "inventing" America, vere able
to escape their prison.

1^Volek, "Realismo m?gico: notas sobre su g?nesis y naturaleza en

Alejo Carpentier," Hueva Narrativa Hispanoamericana? 3, Ho. 2 (1973)t
173-175.

20Carpentier, pp. 132-35.

21Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man (Hev York: Bantam Books, 1970),

pp. 173-75.

22Cassirer, p. I88.

23see Thomas S. Kuhn,The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chi

cago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962)? The problem is, of course,
that the field of literary history is still unreduced to the status of a
rigorous discipline. Unlike the sciences, literature remains a field of
study without generally recognized methods of analysis, of the language
vith vhich findings are to be communicated, and of the techniques to be
used in establishing the truth of its findings. It must necessarily be
admitted, hovever, that perhaps literature is not ultimately reducible to
such rigor?or perhaps irreducibility is its main virtue.

for example, Hans Vaihinger, The Philosophy of 'As If1,

trans. C.K. Ogden (Hev York: H?rcourt, Brace and Co., Inc., 1935); and
Arthur Eddington, The Philosophy of Physical Science (Ann Arbor: The Uni
versity of Michigan Press, 195o).

25j. Bronovski, Science and Human Values (Hev York: Harper ? Row,
1965), pp. 3-24.

15

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 2t%iguel Le?n-Portilla, ed*, Visi?n de los vencidos. Relaciones
ind?genas de la conquista (M?xico: Universidad Nacional Aut?noma de M?^
x?co~ 1961).

2^0fGorman, pp. 127-^5.

2Qe1 reino de este mundo (Barcelona: Editorial Seix Barrai, i967).

2^Jorge Luis Borges, Antolog?a personal (Buenos Aires: Editorial

Sur, 1961), pp. 22-28.

3?Julio Cort?zar, Los premios (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamerica

na, I960).

^Mario Vargas Llosa, La casa verde (Barcelona: Editorial Seix Ba

rrai, 1965)?

32Miguel Angel Asturias, Mulata de tal (Buenos Aires: Losada, 19

63).

33?abriel Garc?a M?rquez, Cien a?os de soledad (Buenos Aires: Edi

torial Sudamericana, 1967)?

^Carlos Fuentes, Aura (M?xico: Ediciones Era, I962).

35Juan Rulfo, Pedro P?ramo (M?xico: Fondo de Cultura Econ?mica,

1955).

3^Symbolism, its Meaning and Effect (New York: The Macmillan Com
pany, 1927), pp. ?5-^9.

37sU8anne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key (New York: The New A

merican Library, 19^2), pp. 33-51*.

38The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, 3 vols., trans. Ralph Manheim

(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953-57), I, pp. 73-llU.

39L?vi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, trans. Claire Jacobson

and Brooke Grundfest Schoepf (New York:Doubleday 6 Company, Inc., 1967)f
pp. I8I-2OI.

^Cassirer, Language and Myth, trans. Susanne K. Langer (New York:

Dover Publications, Inc.7 1953), p. 88.

^L?vi-Strauss, p. 226.

^Cassirer, Language and Myth, p. 88.

^Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, II, p. 26l.

16

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. D.F. Pears and B.F.
McGuinness (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1961), p. 51.

^Language and Myth, p. 23-^3?

Feeling and Form (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,

^Langer,
1953), pp. 50-52.

An Essay on Man, pp. I58-68.

^Cassirer,

^Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, II, pp. 73-82,

h9 Relatos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1970), p. U22.

(Buenos

17

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.21 on Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:40:32 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions