Abstract:
The technique of magical realism is relevant to the postcolonial reality and the
subsequent voice of protest raised against the ways in which (post)colonialism has told
upon the politico-social and cultural economy of the (previously-)colonized nations.
Labelled as subversive, hybrid and mestizo, magical realism has been noted to be a
significant tool of social protest. However, the effectiveness of the relationship between
magical realism and social protest, with reference to the works of García Márquez, have
not been focus of a detailed scholarship. The present thesis explores how and in what
ways magical realism has been helpful to García Márquez in registering protest against
exploitation, which is a major form of social injustice. His recourse in magical realism
has a definite and visible political edge and his work not only does make the reader
question the so-called absolute nature of the real, but also reviews the borders of an
unconsciously politicised ideology that (de-)shapes the very structure of his worldview.
This thematic research is an effort to demonstrate that García Márquez’s fiction has
overt political implications along with an undertone of protest against social injustice.
He achieves the desired intensity of protest by the means of magical realism, in which
he incorporates and juxtaposes various elements derived from disparate sources, e.g.
oral/folklore culture, myth, and stereotypes. To ultimately bring forth and enhance the
themes, the disparity of sources is manifested in the very structure of his fiction and is
further strengthened by an essentially carnivalesque language founded on hyperbole,
humour, and irony. It has been generalised that it is on the basis of these textual features
that a magical realist text is able to challenge Western epistemology, proving the socalled
rational as inconsistent and arbitrary in all respects.
