Patriarchy and Power in Magical Realism
Patriarchy and Power in Magical Realism

Author: Maryam Ebadi Asayesh

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2017-08-21

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1527500829

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although the term magic(al) realism appeared in 1925 in pictorial art in Germany, it became well-known with the boom of magical realist fiction in Latin America in the 1960s. Since the 1980s, it has become one of the popular modes of writing worldwide. Due to its oxymoronic and hybrid nature, it has caught the attention of critics. Some have called it a postcolonial form of writing because of its prominence in postcolonial countries, while others have called it a postmodern mode because of the time of its emergence and the techniques applied in these kinds of novels. This book discusses how magical realism was used in the works of three contemporary female writers, Indigo or, Mapping the Waters (1992) by the British Marina Warner, The House of the Spirits (1982) by the Latin American writer Isabel Allende, and Fatma: a novel of Arabia (2002) by the Saudi Arabian Raja Alem. It shows how, by applying magical realism, these writers empowered women. Using revisionary nostalgia, these works changed the process of history writing by the powerful, showed the presence of women, and gave voice to their unheard stories. Even the techniques applied in these novels presented the clash with patriarchy and power.

Touba and the Meaning of Night
Touba and the Meaning of Night

Author: Shahrnush Parsipur

Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1558616314

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An Iranian woman forges her own path through life in this “stylishly original contribution to modern feminist literature” (Publishers Weekly). After her father’s death, fourteen-year-old Touba takes her family’s financial security into her own hands by proposing to a fifty-two-year-old relative. But, intimidated by her outspoken nature, Touba’s husband soon divorces her. When she marries again, it is to a prince with whom she experiences tenderness and physical passion and bears four children—but their relationship sours when he proves unfaithful. Touba is granted a divorce, and as her unconventional life continues, she becomes the matriarch of an ever-changing household of family members and refugees . . . Hailed as “one of the unsurpassed masterpieces of modern Persian literature” (Iranian.com), Touba and the Meaning of Night explores the ongoing tensions between rationalism and mysticism, tradition and modernity, male dominance and female will—all from a distinctly Iranian viewpoint. Defying both Western stereotypes of Iranian women and expectations of literary form, this beautiful novel reflects the unique voice of its author as well as an important tradition in Persian women’s writing. “Parsipur’s novel carries the reader on a mystical and emotional odyssey spanning eight decades of Iranian cultural, political, and religious history . . . rewarding and enlightening.” —Booklist “A sweeping chronicle of modern Iranian history and a study of the plight of twentieth-century Iranian women . . . [displaying] deft utilization of magic realism and Persian myths . . . rich and well-crafted.” —Library Journal

Magical Realism and Literature
Magical Realism and Literature

Author: Christopher Warnes

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-11-12

Total Pages: 730

ISBN-13: 1108621759

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Magical realism can lay claim to being one of most recognizable genres of prose writing. It mingles the probable and improbable, the real and the fantastic, and it provided the late-twentieth century novel with an infusion of creative energy in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and beyond. Writers such as Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, and many others harnessed the resources of narrative realism to the representation of folklore, belief, and fantasy. This book sheds new light on magical realism, exploring in detail its global origins and development. It offers new perspectives of the history of the ideas behind this literary tradition, including magic, realism, otherness, primitivism, ethnography, indigeneity, and space and time.

Fatma
Fatma

Author: Raja Alem

Publisher: Syracuse University Press

Published: 2015-02-01

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 081560758X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'There was a blue cast to Satjma's handsomely sculpted mesmerizing tale of earthbound witchery and celestial love." Fatma, an Arabian peasant girl, unwittingly embarks upon a strange journey of transformation the day her father marries her off to a snake handler. Unbeknownst to the new bride, her husband milks the venom of his snakes for use in potions he sells on the side. Bitten by one of the snakes, Fatma changes from naïve girl to sensuous woman. What's more, she now gains an arcane affinity for her husband's reptiles as well as a talent for controlling them. This trait will enable her to travel from the sands of Arabia to the shadows of the Netherworld beyond the realm of ordinary human experience. Resonating with ritual and mystery, Fatma is a fabulous tale of one woman's path to ecstasy—an enraptured vision of enchantment in this world and fulfillment in another. The first novel to be published in English by one of the most distinguished of modern Arabic writers, this imaginative work blends naturalistic prose, poetry, and song with all the magic of its author's abundant literary gifts.

Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

Author: Mohammed Hanif

Publisher: Bond Street Books

Published: 2012-05-29

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 0385677286

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the author of the universally acclaimed debut novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes: a subversive, often shockingly funny new novel set in steaming Karachi, about second chances, thwarted ambitions, and love in the most unlikely places. The patients of the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments need a miracle, and Alice Bhatti may be just what they're looking for. She's the new junior nurse, but that's the only thing ordinary about her. Her father is a part-time healer in the French Colony, Karachi's Christian slum--and it seems she has inherited his part-time gift. With a bit of begrudging but inspired improvisation, Alice brings succour to the patients lining the hospital's corridors. Yet, a Christian in an Islamic world, she is ensnared in the red tape of hospital bureaucracy, trapped by the caste system, and torn between her duty to her patients, her father, and her husband--an apprentice to the nefarious "Gentlemen's Squad" of the police, and about to plunge them both into a situation so dangerous that perhaps not even a miracle can save them. But, of course, Alice Bhatti is no ordinary nurse...

Women & Power
Women & Power

Author: Mary Beard

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2017-11-02

Total Pages: 87

ISBN-13: 1782834532

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An updated edition of the Sunday Times Bestseller Britain's best-known classicist Mary Beard, is also a committed and vocal feminist. With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women. Her examples range from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton. Beard explores the cultural underpinnings of misogyny, considering the public voice of women, our cultural assumptions about women's relationship with power, and how powerful women resist being packaged into a male template. A year on since the advent of #metoo, Beard looks at how the discussions have moved on during this time, and how that intersects with issues of rape and consent, and the stories men tell themselves to support their actions. In trademark Beardian style, using examples ancient and modern, Beard argues, 'it's time for change - and now!' From the author of international bestseller SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.

So Far From God
So Far From God

Author: Ana Castillo

Publisher: WW Norton

Published: 2005-06-14

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0393326934

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A delightful novel...impossible to resist." —Barbara Kingsolver, Los Angeles Times Book Review Sofia and her fated daughters, Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, and la Loca, endure hardship and enjoy love in the sleepy New Mexico hamlet of Tome, a town teeming with marvels where the comic and the horrific, the real and the supernatural, reside.

Magic(al) Realism
Magic(al) Realism

Author: Maggie Ann Bowers

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-02

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1134493118

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bestselling novels by Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a multitude of others have enchanted us by blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Their genre of writing has been variously defined as 'magic', 'magical' or 'marvellous' realism and is quickly becoming a core area of literary studies. This guide offers a first step for those wishing to consider this area in greater depth, by: exploring the many definitions and terms used in relation to the genre tracing the origins of the movement in painting and fiction offering an historical overview of the contexts for magic(al) realism providing analysis of key works of magic(al) realist fiction, film and art. This is an essential guide for those interested in or studying one of today's most popular genres.

Four Treasures of the Sky
Four Treasures of the Sky

Author: Jenny Tinghui Zhang

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Published: 2022-04-05

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1250811791

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK · A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE · REVIEWED ON THE FRONT COVER · INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Zhang’s blend of history and magical realism will appeal to fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer as well as Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement.” —Booklist (starred review) "Engrossing...Epic" (The New York Times Book Review) · "Transporting" (Washington Post) · "Propulsive" (Oprah Daily) · "Surreal and sprawling" (NPR) · "An absolute must-read" (BuzzFeed) · "Radiant" (BookPage) A dazzling debut novel set against the backdrop of the Chinese Exclusion Act, about a Chinese girl fighting to claim her place in the 1880s American West Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her. As anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country in a wave of unimaginable violence, Daiyu must draw on each of the selves she has been—including the ones she most wants to leave behind—in order to finally claim her own name and story. At once a literary tour de force and a groundbreaking work of historical fiction, Four Treasures of the Sky announces Jenny Tinghui Zhang as an indelible new voice. Steeped in untold history and Chinese folklore, this novel is a spellbinding feat.