Honors Program
Midway Honors, Honors in English
Date of Award
5-2017
Thesis Professor(s)
Michael Cody
Thesis Professor Department
Literature and Language
Thesis Reader(s)
Karen Kornweibel, Lindsey C. King
Abstract
American Indian author Susan Power’s novel The Grass Dancer is often categorized as magical realism, yet Power has stated the novel is a representation of her reality and that it is not a magical realist text. The term magical realism was first applied to the work of Latin American authors such as Gabriel García Márquez whose writing depicts magical events in a matter-of-fact narrative tone. It has since expanded to include other cultures. The question is whether it is a term that can readily be applied to the literary work of all cultures. The closest Wendy B. Faris, one of the most prominent experts on magical realism, comes to discussing the term in relation to the work of American Indian authors is by simply acknowledging Ojibwe writer Louise Erdrich’s label as a magical realist author. In order to aid Power in her rejection of the association, I delve into both her Dakota heritage and her life through the lens of biographical criticism in order to obtain a working image of her reality. By locating and examining the seeds of truth in her fiction, I explain the magical qualities of her novel in a rational and logical manner.
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Lewis, Abby N., "How Disassociating the Past Reassociates the Present: Distilling the Magic out of Magic Realism in Susan Power’s The Grass Dancer" (2017). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 421. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/421
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons