Superstition, Nostalgia, and the Transformative Nature of Magical Realism in "Big Mama's Funeral" Alexandra Nieman College

A defining characteristic of the Latin American literary tradition is the concept of magical realism, and Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez is often thought to be the father of magical realism as it is understood today. Even though magical realism is a pervading literary phenomenon in Latin American and other post-colonial fiction, many critics hesitate to give it a concrete definition, unable to agree if it should be categorized as a genre, technique, stylistic choice, trope, or rhetorical device. Although, in regards to García Márquez specifically, his own magical realism can be described as "a technique of heightening the intensity of realistic portrayal of social and political issues by introducing grotesque or fanciful material" (Encyclopedia of Nobel Laureates)

García Márquez employs magical realism in his stories like "Big Mama's Funeral" to highlight the superstitious culture of pre-colonial Latin America against a Western culture that values rationality. García Márquez's story begins and ends with a similar sentiment of the need to tell the circumstances of Big Mama's life and death before historians or the inevitable passage of time result in the events being forgotten, which illustrates magical realism's...