Magic-Realism as a Technique in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
The term "magic realism" seems, at first glance, to be oxymoronic. How can anything real seem magical? How can magic be real? The interconnectedness, however, of the quotidian and the fantastical is a hallmark of Latin American literature and one of the greatest living practitioners of this literary technique is the Columbian writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, the author creates what is probably the best known, and best loved, example of the magic-realist tale. He weaves myth and folktale together with the day-to-day life of the town of Macondo and so creates a novel in which both histories--of a family and of a country--sit comfortably together. 4 pgs. 7 f/c. 5b.