1
Magical Realism
To what extent do magical realist texts offer a feminist perspective?
Magical realism, as ‘a mode suited to exploring- and transgressing- boundaries’1, is useful for
feminist objectives. The genre challenges dominant ways of seeing the world and can
therefore be used to contest androcentric worldviews. In The House of the Spirits (1985), for
example, the use of the supernatural empowers the women of the Trueba household. In Nights
at the Circus (1984) the magically realist body of Fevvers is a symbolic representation of the
New Woman. In both texts, however, the extent to which magical realism can offer a feminist
perspective is challenged. In Isabel Allende’s narrative, magically realist moments
increasingly diminish and in Angela Carter’s text the feminist utopia is
significantly undermined.
In The House of the Spirits the location of magic within the female domestic sphere
offers an alternative representation of reality to dominant rational thought. In the text
traditionally female associated traits, such as the imagination, take precedence. In the del
Valle household Nίvea, the matriarch, is at the centre of a world where ‘the laws of physics
and logic did not always apply.’2 The female characters are endowed with powers of
prophesy, clairvoyance, dream interpretation and telekinesis. This ‘runaway imagination’ (HS,
p.14), peculiar to ‘all the women in her family on her mother’s side’ (HS, p.14), is remarkably
acute in Clara de Valle. Clara’s powers of telekinesis, for instance, did ‘not disappear with the
onset of menstruation’ (HS, p.96) but became more pronounced, until she was able to ‘move
the keys on the piano with the cover down’ (HS, p.96). Such magical abilities are narrated as
1
Louis Parkinson Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris, ‘Introduction: Daiquiri Birds and Flaubertian
Parrot(ie)s’, in Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community, ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy
B. Faris (Durham: Duke UP, 1995), pp. p.1-11 (p.5).
2
Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits (1985), trans. Magda Bogin (London: Black Swan, 1992),
p.102-103. All further references are to this edition and are given in the text as HS.
, 2
ordinary occurrences in Allende’s representation of reality. The location of magic within the
female body also presents a challenge to dominant concepts of traditional femininity. Severo
del Valle, an embodiment of masculine reason, insists that Rosa ‘stand firmly in reality’ (HS,
p.16) and ‘learn the domestic skills’ (HS, p.16) of her sex. Nίvea, however, unconcerned with
‘earthly demands’ (HS, p.16), prefers to teach her daughters magical skills. In The House of
the Spirits, therefore, magic is endowed in women to challenge dominant assumptions of
rational thought.
The women in The House of the Spirits must continually resist a dangerous machismo
that shapes society. Esteban Trueba represents this aggressive patriarchal authority as he turns
violence upon his workers and his family throughout the text. The supernatural and the
powers of silence enable the women to resist his aggression. Clara’s spirituality, for example,
provides an escape from her husband. Esteban continually struggles to posses the ‘undefined
and luminous material that lay within’ (HS, p.118) his wife. But on the occasion when he
strikes her, ‘knocking her against the wall’ (HS, p.233-4), Clara never speaks to her husband
again. Blanca similarly resists her father’s aggression through the refuge of silence. When
Esteban discovers that Blanca has been with a man at Tres Marías, for instance, he reacts by
‘beating her mercilessly’ (HS, p.232). When he demands who she has been seeing, Blanca
resolutely swears that she will ‘never tell’ (HS, p.232). Allende, as Jenkins argues,
‘reproduces the silences of Clara that reflect a kind of subversive mimicry of patriarchal
scripts of female submission.’3 In addition to the refuge of silence, Clara and Blanca can
escape to the ‘the big house on the corner’ (HS, p.242) where the spiritualistic Mora sisters
restore their ‘bruised bodies and grieving souls’ (HS, p.242). In The House of the Spirits Clara
and Blanca can resist domestic violence through the powers of silence and the supernatural.
The female characters in The House of the Spirits are shown to bring peace and clarity
to the savage, masculine realm of politics. During the intense political turmoil, when the
Magical Realism
To what extent do magical realist texts offer a feminist perspective?
Magical realism, as ‘a mode suited to exploring- and transgressing- boundaries’1, is useful for
feminist objectives. The genre challenges dominant ways of seeing the world and can
therefore be used to contest androcentric worldviews. In The House of the Spirits (1985), for
example, the use of the supernatural empowers the women of the Trueba household. In Nights
at the Circus (1984) the magically realist body of Fevvers is a symbolic representation of the
New Woman. In both texts, however, the extent to which magical realism can offer a feminist
perspective is challenged. In Isabel Allende’s narrative, magically realist moments
increasingly diminish and in Angela Carter’s text the feminist utopia is
significantly undermined.
In The House of the Spirits the location of magic within the female domestic sphere
offers an alternative representation of reality to dominant rational thought. In the text
traditionally female associated traits, such as the imagination, take precedence. In the del
Valle household Nίvea, the matriarch, is at the centre of a world where ‘the laws of physics
and logic did not always apply.’2 The female characters are endowed with powers of
prophesy, clairvoyance, dream interpretation and telekinesis. This ‘runaway imagination’ (HS,
p.14), peculiar to ‘all the women in her family on her mother’s side’ (HS, p.14), is remarkably
acute in Clara de Valle. Clara’s powers of telekinesis, for instance, did ‘not disappear with the
onset of menstruation’ (HS, p.96) but became more pronounced, until she was able to ‘move
the keys on the piano with the cover down’ (HS, p.96). Such magical abilities are narrated as
1
Louis Parkinson Zamora, and Wendy B. Faris, ‘Introduction: Daiquiri Birds and Flaubertian
Parrot(ie)s’, in Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community, ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy
B. Faris (Durham: Duke UP, 1995), pp. p.1-11 (p.5).
2
Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits (1985), trans. Magda Bogin (London: Black Swan, 1992),
p.102-103. All further references are to this edition and are given in the text as HS.
, 2
ordinary occurrences in Allende’s representation of reality. The location of magic within the
female body also presents a challenge to dominant concepts of traditional femininity. Severo
del Valle, an embodiment of masculine reason, insists that Rosa ‘stand firmly in reality’ (HS,
p.16) and ‘learn the domestic skills’ (HS, p.16) of her sex. Nίvea, however, unconcerned with
‘earthly demands’ (HS, p.16), prefers to teach her daughters magical skills. In The House of
the Spirits, therefore, magic is endowed in women to challenge dominant assumptions of
rational thought.
The women in The House of the Spirits must continually resist a dangerous machismo
that shapes society. Esteban Trueba represents this aggressive patriarchal authority as he turns
violence upon his workers and his family throughout the text. The supernatural and the
powers of silence enable the women to resist his aggression. Clara’s spirituality, for example,
provides an escape from her husband. Esteban continually struggles to posses the ‘undefined
and luminous material that lay within’ (HS, p.118) his wife. But on the occasion when he
strikes her, ‘knocking her against the wall’ (HS, p.233-4), Clara never speaks to her husband
again. Blanca similarly resists her father’s aggression through the refuge of silence. When
Esteban discovers that Blanca has been with a man at Tres Marías, for instance, he reacts by
‘beating her mercilessly’ (HS, p.232). When he demands who she has been seeing, Blanca
resolutely swears that she will ‘never tell’ (HS, p.232). Allende, as Jenkins argues,
‘reproduces the silences of Clara that reflect a kind of subversive mimicry of patriarchal
scripts of female submission.’3 In addition to the refuge of silence, Clara and Blanca can
escape to the ‘the big house on the corner’ (HS, p.242) where the spiritualistic Mora sisters
restore their ‘bruised bodies and grieving souls’ (HS, p.242). In The House of the Spirits Clara
and Blanca can resist domestic violence through the powers of silence and the supernatural.
The female characters in The House of the Spirits are shown to bring peace and clarity
to the savage, masculine realm of politics. During the intense political turmoil, when the
