Interpreting Magical Realism Through Cultural and Global Lenses

Abstract

This paper investigates the reception of magical realism in Latin American fiction through the lens of reader response and global literary circulation, with a particular focus on Louis de Bernières’ The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Building on previous phases that examined the political and cultural functions of magical realism, this phase shifts attention to how readers from differing cultural and ideological backgrounds interpret the genre’s thematic and symbolic dimensions. By analyzing critical responses, translation practices, and cultural contexts, this study explores the divergent ways in which magical realism is perceived by Latin American and Western audiences. The research highlights how the subversive
political intent of magical realism—rooted in postcolonial resistance and indigenous worldview—is often diluted or reinterpreted when consumed through a Western literary framework. Special attention is given to the complexities of de Bernières, a British author, adopting a Latin American narrative form, raising questions about authenticity, cultural appropriation, and the globalization of literary style. Drawing on reader-response theory and postcolonial reception studies, the paper argues that magical realism is not a universally experienced aesthetic but a culturally situated mode of storytelling who’s meaning shifts with audience, context, and language. Ultimately, this study contends that the reception of magical realism reveals much about global power dynamics in literature: who tells the story, who consumes it, and how meaning is negotiated across cultural boundaries. In doing so, it emphasizes the importance of understanding magical realism not just as a genre, but as a dialogic space where politics, culture, and reader interpretation intersect.