Comparative Literature

In contrast to pure fantasy, magical realism in literature sought to re-invigorate the ordinary with the sublime. Magical realism works do not contain the elves and wizards of a fairy tale—instead they explore the strangeness, horror, and awe of the real world.

Write an essay (2500-3500 words) in light of the guidelines that have been uploaded on BB on twoshort stories of your choice; one by Jorge Luis Borges and one by Gabriel Garcia Marquez showing how they used magic realism in their works. You need to draw a comparison between both authors that highlights their similarities and differences in terms of themes and techniques in relation to the school of magic realism.  A short story should not go beyond 20,000 words, otherwise it will be a novella or a novel, and both are not accepted. You can choose any stories by both writers except “The Garden of Forking Paths” and “The Library of Babel” and “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”by Borges and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Marquez. These will not be accepted because they are taught in other courses at DELL. These will not be accepted.

Please use MLA sixth edition for citation and for Works Cited, other styles are NOT accepted and you will lose marks even if you use them correctly. Quote from your references directly, don’t mix a writer’s words with yours, I will consider this as plagiarism. You should have at least 6 secondary references in your bibliography, in addition to the stories you are working on of course. Academic references don’t include Spark notes and similar websites, please use the databases you have on the university portal or on QNL such as Jstor, Taylor and Francis, EBSCO, Springer, …. etc. This is not a reflection essay where you simply write your own impressions of the stories, this is a research-based paper, which means you must read and interact with the critics who worked on your chosen texts. Of course your personal opinion and your own critical voice are significantly important, but you must also show the research efforts that had been exerted to write your paper.