The wonderful realism in one hundred years of solitude: an element of representation of the author’s memories

Abstract

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez, we found a wealth of unusual events: dead roam at night; woman ascends to heaven to extend a blanket; a levite priest by eating chocolate; yellow butterflies follow a man wherever he goes. These are just a few of the several passages in which the wonderful is in full state in the daily lives of the characters. Taking into account that each author uses wonderful realism in his own way, the purpose of this study is precisely to show how the unusual is constituted in the work in question, through the analysis of excerpts in which this literary resource is present. From this method, we try to unravel its possible relations with the author's history and the context in which it arose. In the course of our investigation, we conclude that this strategy serves, in this particular novel, as a poetic element of representation of the author's memories, which confers unity to the text and ends up generating a sense of identification with Latin American culture in the process of forgetfulness. From a bibliographical research, we use as theoretical support some scholars, such as: Emir Rodriguez Monegal (1968) and Irlemar Chiampi (1980), who discuss about the literary renewal of which Gabo is part, Pollak (1989) and Pedruzzi (2014) as regards the question of memory, Selma Calasans (1988; 2004), Alejo Carpentier (1985) and Gabriel García Márquez (1979; 2007), who talk about wonderful realism and help us to establish a connection with the novel in evidence.