Examples Of Magical Realism In Gothic Literature

Jacquelyn Barrett’s spookiest experience was, less than a year ago, she got a call from my oldest sister Hannah saying,”did you hear what happened to Grandpa Barrett?” For over two hours she was stuck inside of Citrus Valley Gym, playing with the boys volleyball team. Right after practice ended, her mom got a call from her dad and the next thing she remembers her mom saying “do you know? Grandpa Barrett passed away about a half an hour ago. “Right away on that day 3 April 2017 at 4:50 her life had changed forever. This scenario relates to Gothic literature and Magical realism because it was a very surreal moment. These genres are similar because both genres blend reality and magical moments in one. Gothic literature is a setting that begins with bleak setting and has an ambiguous ending. Also it has a scary and mysterious feeling and makes you wonder what's going to happen next. It impacts the reader by putting intelligent words and a gloomy setting. A example of gothic literature is in the story “Where is here”. In the story “Where is Here” a stranger appears at the family's house and the family reacted with curiosity and concern(69). Magical Realism is a literary genre, therefore there is a realistic narrative and natural techniques, combine with surreal elements of dream or fantasy. Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” is a good example of Magical Realism because both the brother and sister started to hear “noises” coming from a part of the house, so they limited

One of the spookiest experiences of Elizabeth’s life was when she had a very strange dream. She found herself in a room with bare white walls. It felt like a sterile hospital room with no furniture, just a mattress, a mirror, and a sink. There was no door either just a window. When she opened it, she realized she was in a tall skyscraper and she was so high up, she could barely see the ground below as far as she can remember. She had to spend her whole life in that room. This scenario relates to the traits of gothic lit and magical realism because it occurred in a mythical setting, while she lived in that strange room she would go through the same exact routine every day. Both stories are very descriptive in their settings. However, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” has a mysterious setting that relates to gothic elements. Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” is an example of magical realism because it has fantastic supernatural elements and the characters acted realistically

Both Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” have similar settings because both take place in a spooky large houses. However, in Poe’s story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,”the setting is different because it was dark,gloomy and old house in the middle of nowhere. By contrast, Cortazar’s “House Taken Over,”the house is a little more modern and bright, well taken care of and the environment is greener.Gothic Literature is literature that has bleak or remote setting, a gloomy or melancholy mood. Also, characters or sometime tormented in a physical or psychological way. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the house of Usher” is a good example of gothic literature because the setting of the story is very bleak and dark,and the characters in them are tormented physically and psychologically . for example, in the story, it states ,”With the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit (13).” This sentence proves my claim because the quote is saying that the character’s spirit feels tormented when he starts to walk into the house. Therefore, “The Fall of the house of Usher” is gothic literature because it shows it shows characters in the story being tormented.

“Fear is not real. It is the product of thoughts you create. Danger is very real, but fear is only a choice.” Fear is not something that is always real, such as when Usher was scared but there was nothing to fear yet, but the danger at the end of the story, especially for Ushers friend, was something to fear for. In the Gothic Literature short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, the setting is somber and creates an illusion of darkness. On the other hand, “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar, portrays the idea of magical realism in, which setting is more realistic and less gloomy. Although Gothic Literature and Magical Realism are similar, there are also many differences, especially in their settings.

Gothic Literature and Magical Realism are similar because they both contain strange and fantasy related plot lines. Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of The House of Usher” the narrator conveys “Nevertheless, in the mansion of gloom, I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks”(14). In this quotation from the story, the author says “mansion” indicating the house that his friend Roderick lives in, is huge. Furthermore, in “House Taken Over” by Julio Cotazar, the author notes “Irene and I got used to staying in the house by ourselves, which was crazy, eight people could have lived in the place and not have gotten in each other's way”(38) .Therefore, a conclusion can be made that the house, Irene and her brother live in is very big and has an enormous amount of room for a huge group of people even though just two live in it. Both “Fall of the House of Usher” and “House Taken Over” indicate the houses discussed in each story are rather extensive and spacious. Each story is told with just two characters who live in an enormous house, causing the story to sound strange, creepy, and somewhat lonely feeling considering two people usually, would not need such big of a house. Reasoning for the two stories being similar regarding fantasy and fiction is when you realize that you don’t see a mansion every day. Mansions are not common and usually in stories and movies where they do exist, they are creepy or belong to the bad guy of the story. In addition, it is

One of Diana spookiest experiences of her life was when her cousins and Diana would hear weird sounds in the night. This scenario relates to the traits of Gothic Lit and Magical Realism because the sounds did happen so it's reality. Gothic Lit and Magical Realism are similar because they are both scary, mysterious, and are dramatic. Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” is an example of Gothic Literature because it has a dark and gloomy setting in a large old mansion. While Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” is an example of Magical Realism because it has a mysterious ending.

the gothic literature is fiction but might have some real events and magical realism is a fictiious.

Gothic literature is a style characterized by multiple elements, such as fear, death, gloom, as well as romantic elements like nature, individuality, and high emotion. Magical realism, on the other hand, began as a painting style. It then evolved into the literary style associated with Latin America, which puts fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. One of the most important elements of these genres is the setting of the stories. In The Fall of the House of Usher and House Taken Over, the setting creates atmosphere, reflects genre, and reflects characters.

Gothic Literature is a writing style that has dark setting, it has an overall atmosphere of mystery, exoticism, death. A Gothic story will revolve around a large, ancient house or an obscure setting that conceals a terrible secret or that serves as the refuge of an especially frightening and threatening character

Magical realism and gothic literature are different genres because of their settings. Magical realism is a genre that is fantasy-like in a realistic- everyday life setting, but Gothic literature is characterized by horror, death, and gloom. For example , in Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Is Here”, In the story the narrator states, “In the living room he saw that the lights were flickering as if on the brink of going out; the

Gothic literature has been criticized as being a dreary, dark, and death-involving subset of Romanticism (a literary movement accentuating human individuality, imagination, and subjectivity). In addition, gothic lit incorporates several themes- not all about deathly acts - but includes some emotional and surprising themes such as dreams, nightmares, or hallucinations, and grotesque or bizarre occurrences. Two short stories, both written by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “The Raven,” and “The Black Cat,” as well as the novel The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, all encompass these gothic elements, found throughout each story.

One of the spookiest experiences in Harley’s life was on a cold, dark Halloween night when Harley and her friends, Lauryn and Heidi, got chased by a clown for 3 blocks on a gloomy narrow road. This scenario relates to traits  of Gothic Literature and Magical Realism because, that experience was in a dark setting and contained weird incidents and a disturbing plot. Those two genres are similar because they both usually have unrealistic characters and scary plots. However, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” is an example of Gothic Literature because, the story’s setting is in an isolated, creepy, and large house with odd characters and a frightening plot line, while Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” is an example of  Magical Realism because the realistic characters are accepting the unimpressed narrative tone in an ordinary way of life. Gothic Literature is a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom. Settings are usually in a isolated and haunted location in a big house or castle with trap doors, dark rooms, and secret passages. Characters are usually supernatural beings or monsters.

The genres are different because gothic literature has strange and violent plot lines whereas magical realism contrasts reality and fantasy with supernatural and unreal elements. For instance in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher”, “... and in her violent and now final death agonies, bore him to floor a corpse, and a victim to terrors he had anticipated.”(line 45-47).

Edgar Allen Poe is recognized as a great writer of Gothic. Poe stories all relate to each other in some way. Most of his short stories consist of mystery and horror. The two stories I choose was the “The Black Cat” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. They both can be compared to each other by their setting, characters, and theme.

MAGIC REALISM AS A POST COLONIAL DEVICE IN GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ’S ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE.