Biography of Gabriel Garca Mrquez & Magical Realism and the Boom

By: Shanel Chisholm Madhavika Gopal Daniel Schwapp

Gabriel Garca Mrquez

He was born on March 6, 1928 in the small town of Aracataca,in Magdalena, Colombia (a tropical region of northern Colombia, between the mountains and the Caribbean Sea).

He grew up with his grandparents in Aracataca- his grandfather was a colonel from the civil war. After his grandfather died he went to live with his parents in Sucre, Colombia- Luisa Santiaga Mrquez and Gabriel Eligio Garca.

He went to a Jesuit college and began to read law, but his studies were soon broken off for his work as a journalist. In 1954 he was sent to Rome on an assignment for his newspaper, and since then he has mostly lived abroad - in Paris, New York, Barcelona and Mexico.

He has written screenplays and has continued to work as a journalist.

Some of his works are: 1. Love in the Time of Cholera 2. Autumn of the Patriarch 3. One Hundred Years of Solitude 4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold etc,

Most of his novels are related to some aspect of Mrquezs life. Chronicle of a Death Foretold is base on a murder that took place in Sucre in 1951. Santigos character is based on one of Mrquezs childhood friends, Cayetano Gentile Chimento.

Mrquezs grandmother Doa Tranquilina Iguarn Cotes influenced his writing tremendously. As a child his grandmother told him stores of ghosts, premonitions ( strong feelings that something is about to happen), omen and portent (a sign that something is likely to happen).

According to Garca Mrquez she was "the source of the magical, superstitious and supernatural view of reality".

Magical Realism and the Boom

The Latin American Boom was a literary movement of the 60s and 70s when young Latin American novelists works were being circulated around Europe. Writers like:
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Julio Cortzar of Argentina Carlos Fuentes of Mexico Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru Gabriel Garca Mrquez of Colombia

Mrquez is the most internationally renowned of the Boom writers. He has achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for introducing what has been labeled Magical Realism to the literary world. He experimented with more or less traditional approaches to reality, so that "the most frightful, the most unusual things are told with the deadpan expression.

What is Magical Realism?

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It is an aesthetic style of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences- a mixture of real world and fantasy

Why is Magical Realism used? - Magical Realism rose in popularity during the time of the boom. This form of telling a story makes people want to read more. It brings about a connection between real life and fantasy. Also, it was used as an educational tool.

Magical Realism in

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

There are many example of Magical Realism in the novel. The dreams Santiago had Hed dreamed he was going through a grove of timber trees where a gentle drizzle was falling, and for an instant he was happy in his dream (3) he was alone in a tinfoil airplane an lyin through the almond trees without bumping into anything (4) Placida Linero closes the door and doesnt let Santiago enter, and he dies on the door.

Xius died because of sadness, He was healthier than the rest of us, but when you listened with the stethoscope you could hear the tears bubbling inside his heart (37). Santiagos Mother can analyze dreams but, fails to predict what is going to happen to her son. The Narrators mother just gets to know things.

So he put the knife in his hand and dragged him off almost by force in search of their sister's lost honour. There's no way out of this," he told him. "It's as if it had already happened.They left by way of the pigpen gate with the knives unwrapped, trailed by the uproar of the dogs in the yards.(61)

In addition, the dogs, aroused by the smell of death, increased the uneasiness. They hadn't stopped howling since I went into the house, when Santiago Nasar was still in his death throes in the kitchen and I found Divina Flor weeping in great howls and holding them off with a stick."Help me," she shouted to me. "What they want is to eat his guts.We locked them up in the stable. Plcida Linero later ordered them taken to some place far off until after the funeral. But toward noon, no one knew how, they escaped from where they were and burst madly into the house. Plcida Linero, just once, lost her grip."Those shitty dogs!" she shouted. "Kill them!(74)

They pushed open the door to the courtyard, surrounded by the dogs, who recognised them in the half light of dawn, and they greeted Prudencia Cotes's mother in the kitchen.(62)

THANK YOU!!!