Fantasy and Magical Realism in Violin

Fantasy and Magical Realism in Violin

Violin is a novel by Anne Rice. The genre of the book is fantasy and the text allows for many comparisons to made between fantasy and magical realism.

I felt that there were a lot of fantastic elements in this book. An example of a fantastic element is when Tirana laid in bed with Karl after he died. She kept him in the house for about four days after his death because she didn't want the funeral parlor to burn him; she wanted to be with him forever (8). I feel this is more toward the fantastic because I cannot see anyone keeping someone after he is dead. The smell alone would make me want to get throw out the body. Another element of fantasy was when she would kiss him as if he was alive. (10). I don't think that anyone could kiss a dead person when he wasn't kissing back. I feel that these are all things that we would never do and this would never happen.

Wendy B. Faris quotes, " Magical realism combines realism and the fantastic in such a way that the magical elements grow organically out of reality portrayed" (163). I saw this aspect a lot in this book. Fantastic elements combined with realism elements to make magical elements appear. Some of the examples were when Triana kept Karl as if he was still alive. I wanted to think that he was still alive because she kept him so long after his death.

I didn't personally run into many realistic elements. Most of the elements of realism where when the author described a character or the setting where it was taking place. The elements that I did run into were at the beginning of the book when the author described the violinist. He was tall and gaunt, but not in an unattractive way. He had black hair with brai...

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Rice, Anne. Violin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Inc.,1997.