MAGICAL AND FANTASTICAL ELEMENTS IN “THE INCREDIBLE AND SAD TALE OF INNOCENT ERENDIRA AND HER HEARTLESS GRANDMOTHER” BY MARQUEZ

Abstract

The term “magical realism” has been a much debated subject in literary theory. Since Franz Roh first coined the term in 1925 in connection with Post-Expressionist Art, it has been most closely associated with two major periods in Latin American and Caribbean Culture, The first being that of the 1940s and 1950s, in which the concept was closely connected with that of the “marvellous” as something ontologically necessary to the regional population’s “vision of everyday reality”; and the second being that of the increasing period of the Latin American novel in the late 1950s and 1960s. As a prominent writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez produced successful novels and short stories which are rich in magic realism. “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother”, one of his well-known stories, contains both magical/supernatural elements and rational/realistic components in terms of characters and plot. Marquez’s story The Innocent Erendira illustrates Todorov’s idea of the fantastic narration which demonstrates a hesitation of the character or the reader between a natural or supernatural explanation of the events described. In this article, I will be examining the magical realist elements and Todorov’s idea of fantastic and their application on the story.