Thesiss

The overarching theme of my thesis combines elements of magical realism with historical people, events, indigenous (Taino/Borike’n) spirituality, and folktales of Puerto Rico. Specifically, I researched, learned, wrote about, and explored the island’s dense history, political st…

Despite being a literary style for more than half a century, magical realism is an enigma that is difficult to define. While the term is seamlessly associated with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, magical realism’s loose definition has led critics to question its value to the progression…

Magic Realism in the context of literature tends to be considered peculiar to Latin America, but that perception is changing. Much more frequently now, magic realism is discussed both as a tendency within postmodern literature, as Well as a mode unfettered by geographical bounda…

Dog Days on the Chaparral is an installation comprised of three photographic sculptures made in response to the question “where are you from?” Although I define myself as both Portuguese and American, as someone who immigrated as a child, my identification as either ebbs and flo…

This dissertation examines the use of magical realism as a device for political criticism in the postcolonial African novel as seen in the works of Kojo B. Laing, Ben Okri, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, namely Woman of the Aeroplanes, The Famished Road, and Wizard of the Crow, respecti…

This creative dissertation implements an interdisciplinary methodology in reviewing theoretical arguments pertaining to the trope of Anthropological Magical Realism in literature. Part I examines my novel Babu Bangladesh! to evaluate how it maneuvers within this literary sect. P…

This dissertation examines three magical realist novels published by writers from different parts of the world —India, Turkey, and Nigeria— in 1980s and early 1990s. In contemporary criticism, magical realism has usually been considered as a specifically Latin American or postco…

The aim of this study is to offer psychoanalytical readings of two of Ibrahim al-K uni's magical realist novels— al-Khusuf and al-Majus . Almost all of Kuni's novels are set in the desert. In his humanistic concern for his homeland, he takes on several issues such as the invasio…

Magical realism has been applied as a critical label to literature since the 1920s. Even in its initial critical incarnation, though, its definition has varied widely. This dissertation, through first looking at the historical debate surrounding the term, crafts a definition of …