Yamashita's Tropic of Orange
This paper studies Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange as a magical realist text and examines the implications for such a style on the notion of the urban. Specifically, I will explore how Yamashita uses magical realism to collapse boundaries and socially transform Los Angeles into an embattled utopia for the disenfranchised. First, however, magical realism is a loaded term and some definitions are in order. In addition to important recent innovations in the form and its purposes, magical realism is in dialogue with a longer history of writing, including the epic, chivalric traditions, Greek pastoral, medieval dream visions, romantic traditions and Gothic fictions, all of which contribute a fantastic strain to the form. In the twentieth century, magical realism was coined by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925 and is commonly-held as a literary movement championed and mastered by Latin American authors (Marquez, Llosa, Fuentes), resonating internationally with the earlier experiments of Gogol, James, Kafka, Flaubert and the Weimar Republic, and now recycled as a counter-hegemonic global commodity in postcolonial contexts (Rushdie, Okri). What defines this writing, then, and how does it function? Why does Yamashita use this form to tell her story?
For the purposes of this paper, I would like to adopt the synthesized definition editors Zamora and Faris distill from several key writers and academics featured in the anthology/reader Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community:
An essential difference, then, between realism and magical realism involves the intentionality implicit in the conventions of the two modes…realism intends its version of the world as a singular version, as an objective (hence ...
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...lects "at one and the same time a certain thing to be said and the only way to say it fully" (qtd. in Zamora and Faris, 5). Yamashita employs magical realism to transform Los Angeles from the layered real to the textured magical, a disruptive decentering of hegemonic power and the nature of reality manifested as urban re-ordering and virtual proliferation. Los Angeles, formerly a postmodernist city of separation and alienation, is transformed by magical realist poetics into a modernist celebration of plurality marked by ontological uncertainties.
Works Cited
Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. London: Verso,
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Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy
Faris. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 1995
Yamashita, Karen Tei. Tropic of Orange. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1997.
Faris, Wendy B. "Scherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995.
...story telling traditions. All storytellers are children of the ones, which came before them and stand on the shoulders of those who have told the tales in the past. Marquez and Anaya did not hesitate to make liberal use of magical realism, both as a way to create tension in their stories and to contact the deeper hearing of their audience. Magical realism was just another tool in their literary boxes, to be used with skill and discretion for the greater benefit of the tale being told. It worked well for the cantadora, sitting in the doorway weaving her basket as she wove her tale and it works equally well today as we pause from our lives, quiet our souls, and prepare to listen as the story unfolds.
Of all the examples of magical realism, the characteristic which enhances the utmost dramatic effect are the mirror reversals. The primary main character is Edward Bloom, from a litt...
Magical realism is a genre in which extraordinary events are incorporated into the ordinary world, usually referred to as realistic fiction. In Latin American culture many authors use this type of literature to describe phenomenal events that occur within our ordinary world. Magical realism can be analyzed through different novels, short stories and movies, for example, Bless me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, “The Night Face Up,” by Julio Cortazar, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the movie Big Fish by Tim Burton. Magical realism is a style of writing used to link the abnormal with the ordinary.
In the book Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, magical realism plays a large roll in the book. Magical Realism blends realistic elements with magical elements to create ‘magical realism.’ As a matter of fact, magical realism is used for a graphical explanation to access a better comprehension of reality; therefore, the readers can understand the connection from primeval or magical. In other words, fictional realism emphasis the elements of everyday life. Laura Esquivel effectively uses a fictional style to voice magical elements such as, Tita’s breast milk, the quail with rose pedals in the soup and the death of Pedro and Tita.
Faris, Wendy B. "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 163-186.
Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2004. 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. 21
Herbert has come to represent the West. Márquez relies heavily on magical realism, which is when a story has a realistic setting but incorporates fantastical elements and hyperbole, as well as symbolism to portray his themes. In “The Sea of Lost Time,” it is made evident that Márquez believes that his culture ought to be respected, but instead is being convoluted and abolished due to Western influence, as is exemplified by his use of magical realism, and symbolism, particularly the sea, the smell of roses, and the turtles.
Roh, Franz. "Magic Realism: Post-Expressionism." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 15-30.
In order to see how Magical Realism is found in this treatment, one must first consider at least one of the identifying marks of Magical Realism. Among the characteristics that identify Magical Realism is the feeling of transcendence that the reader has while reading a Magical Realist text (Simpkins 150). During transcendence, a reader senses something that is beyond the real world. At the same time, however, the reader still feels as if he or she were rooted in the world (Sandner 52). After the reader undergoes transcendence, then he or she should have a different outlook on life.
Delbaere-Garant, Jeannie. "Variations on Magical Realism". Magical Realism Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkison Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham" Duke U.P., 1995. 249-263.
“I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!” (Williams, 2009, p. 738).
Roh, Franz. "Magic Realism: Post-Expressionism." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 15-30.
Magical Realism evolved only in the last century. Franz Roh was the first to use the term to describe paintings and the new style that had come about after the expressionistic era (7, p.15), however it was Alejo Carpentier who used it to describe Latin America's fanatastical writing styles (3, p.373). He felt that magical realism expounded upon reality and "was able to elude realism's insufficiency, in its inablility to describe an ex-centric experience"(3, p.373). Latin America, though perhaps the first to name the new writing phenomena, was not the only country to use it. In the course of this paper I will compare and contrast several different novels from female authors who evoked magical realism into their writing styles. These authors come from Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean, showing the wide range of history and environments. Feeling that the Caribbean alone may prove to narrow a topic for a style that has taken the world by storm, I felt it only fitting that other countries should be included the theme of women in the paper. Also, I selected Africa and parts of Latin America to compare to Caribbean writings because these two continents play a pivotal role in shaping what the Caribbean has become today.
"What came to dominate the story and to leave a lasting impression was the view of man as a mystery surrounded by realistic data. A poetic divination or denial of reality. Something that for lack of a better word could be called magical realism." -Uslar Pietri