Magical Realism and Post-colonialism: transgressions and reconfigurations in Jamaica Kincaid’s At the bottom of the river"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/1678-2054.2024vol44n2p124Keywords:
magical realism, post-colonialism, Jamaica Kincaid, obeahAbstract
Over time, the modes of the uncanny and the fantastic have undergone reformulations and reinterpretations based on new perspectives that emerge in the landscape of literary theory and criticism. Among contemporary approaches, the dialogue between magical realism and post-colonial studies is particularly significant. This article aims to discuss the possibilities that magical realism, as a literary strategy, offers to texts situated within a post-colonial context. We will begin by briefly presenting some theoretical frameworks that connect magical realism and post-colonialism, particularly from the perspectives of Moudileno (2006) and Warnes (2009). We then shift the discussion to the Caribbean theoretical-critical scope through the work of theorists such as Wynter (2000), Glissant (1989), Harris (1983), and Gikandi (2018). Finally, we analyze selected excerpts from At the Bottom of the River (2013), originally published in 1983, by the Antiguan writer Jamaica Kincaid, with a focus on the figure of the jablesse, an Obeah entity. Obeah is an Afro-Caribbean system of beliefs characterized by magical rituals. In this way, by articulating a post-colonialist perspective with magical realism, we aim to foreground worldviews that are often disregarded or obscured by colonization – views that nevertheless form an integral part of Caribbean imagination, history, and daily life.
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