Hauptseminar As if by Magic Magical Realism in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction

Stories containing Magical Realist incidents are neither fairy tales nor science fiction, but of course they have something in common with these genres: all sorts of inexplicable, illogical and thus -magical- things happen in these stories. Dead objects come to life, protagonists fly through time, dead people come back to visit the living, characters turn into animals and so on. In contrast to fairy tales or science fiction, these magical incidents happen in a fictional world which is rather comparable to what we know as -the real world-. In this seminar we are going to find out what exactly Magical Realism is in contrast to other fantastic writings. It will thus also provide a short historical overview concerning the origin of the mode. In addition to this, we will look at texts from different cultural backgrounds, such as Britain, Latin America and South Africa, to figure out whether there is a culturally distinct use of Magical Realism. Furthermore, we shall have a closer look at the functions of Magical Realist elements in narrations: why is it that so many texts of different cultural backgrounds use the mode? What does the mixture of Realism and magic tell us about human beings and their cultures? Students are asked to buy their own copies of Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet (preferably the Black Swan edition, 1998) and Zakes Mda, She plays with the Darkness (preferably the Picador Edition, 2004). A Reader with various extracts from novels and theoretical texts will be available in the copy shop Reckhammerweg from early April onwards. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen SS 2010 Bachelor, Bachelor Anglistik