Delineation of Magic Realism, Dream and Realistic in the Work of Chitra Banerjee by Depicting Culture
Exploring the Magical Realism and Cultural Themes in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Novels
by Rekha Rani*, Dr. Savita Ahuja,
- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540
Volume 15, Issue No. 7, Sep 2018, Pages 375 - 380 (6)
Published by: Ignited Minds Journals
ABSTRACT
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. She has been distributed in more than fifty magazines, including the Atlantic month to month and the new Yorkers, and her composing has been incorporated into more than fifty treasuries’. It expounds how those are identified with each other and offers curiosity to her novels. Divakaruni has utilized for the most part dream as a system to extend the magical elements in her novels. Magic realism has the ability to enhance our concept of what is genuine 'by joining all elements of the creative mind, especially as communicated in magic, myth and religion. In magical realism, the essayist stands up to reality and attempts to unwind it, to find what is puzzling in things, throughout everyday life, in human acts. Along these lines, she has mixed magic with realism. She has treated the inanimate things and reptiles, for example, snakes, spices and conch as though they can talk. The writer uses stream of cognizant procedures, dreams and glimmer back methods and other related strategies. The magical elements in her novel demonstrate that they omen reality and it has a connection with brain research moreover. Divakaruni revives the long overlooked Indian myth, conviction, convention, culture and even dreams which are so fundamental for presence, which in reality is just a blend of all in magic realism. In any case, as the novel advances, the dream element decreases and the realistic element ends up conspicuous. As the fundamental point of this paper is to talk about the different novels of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The paper highlights the principle themes of magic realism, myth and culture in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's select novels.
KEYWORD
magic realism, dream, realistic, Chitra Banerjee, culture, magical elements, novels, myth, belief, tradition
I. INTRODUCTION
The significant system magic realism incorporates different procedures. Chitra Divakaruni's utilization of various narrating methods – the third individual narrative, interior monologue, epistolary exchange, diary entries, stream-of-conscious dream successions – powerfully pass on the pain and perplexity of the heroes feel during their snapshots of extraordinary awareness. Her apt utilization of these various methods and styles permit the reader unique access into the complex cognizance of every one of the characters – including the men. The novels of chitra Banerjee is created through the different systems, for example, Stream of cognizant method, the task strategy, story inside a story, the inner voice technique, tales, dreams, epistolary technique, writing letters to dead father, stories of the movies, beautiful comparisons, historical incidents, pathos, suspense, jokes, actual event of the year, bildungsroman, Kunstler roman, conversing with the newborn child and recounting stories just as sharing individual life, the uproarious thinking about the characters, for example, ‗what I think' and ‗what I said.' streak back strategies, etc. It is accepted from the novels of Chitra that the universe of myth and magic related with magic realism kills any capability of obstruction or analysis in the story. Indeed, the utilization of myth in magic realism isn't unique in relation to its utilization in traditional legends, nor is it the main way by means of which magic happens in it. However, magic in magic realism is regularly exposed to a similar charge of regression and diversion from the genuine pending issues in the postcolonial world. Notwithstanding, in magic realism and with the blending of magic and realism, the ideological ramifications of the magic and realism, the ideological ramifications of the magic pragmatist accounts isn't an advancement of mythical past or a regression to a precolonial condition of "purity". The point in opposing a severe
express an elective view of a "reality" which has consistently existed. The result has frequently been an endeavour to unite elements thought to be illustrative of the two cultures. Magic realism in this sense is by all accounts favourable for this sort of hybridity or diversity. As per Wendy Faris, magic realism regularly gives voice in the topical space to indigenous or antiquated myth, legends and social practice and the area of story method to the literary customs that express them with the utilization of non-realistic events and images; it very well may be viewed as a sort of account primitivism
II. MAGIC REALISM
Magic realism regularly gives voice in the thematic area to indigenous or ancient myth, legends and cultural practice and the space of story method to the literary conventions that express them with the utilization of non-realistic events and images; it very well may be viewed as a sort of narrative primitivism. Myth frequently winds up communicating pride in a past grandeur and nostalgia for when that culture was both unchallenged and pure. The way to deal with utilization of myth in writing, represents the booking of certain pundits and essayist's versus magic realism. A Researcher G. Sundari in An International Literary Journal says: ―Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one of the exceptional voices of the outsider essayists. In the greater part of her novels, psychology, mythology and folklore are interrelated. Magical realism is commonly characterized in the Oxford English Dictionary as ―… any imaginative or particularly literary style in which realistic methods, for example, naturalistic detail, story, and so forth., are likewise joined with strange or dreamlike elements. Generally, an author of magical realism depicts a character or spot with realism in any case, as the essayist builds up the character or spot, at least one elements of magic are added to that particular character or on the other hand place. The theme enables the fiction writer to investigate the creative mind of genuine fiction, practicing the consider the possibility that fiction apparatus to urge the reader to envision the presence of the character or place and, in the readers' imagination, in the event that it existed, envision what it resembles to know the character or live in the spot. The thought enables the reader to envision a break from the burdens of the world and to live in and investigate a spot that gives escape and long life. Magic realism as a system of changing the fantastic into reality is spoken to by Chitra Banerjee. She can transform the fantastic into the authentic, as showed in The Mistress of Spices, Queen of Dreams and The Conch Bearer than different novels of her. Through magical realism she passes on a reality that of fiction in which magical elements mixes with genuine world, Myth and magic has additionally turned into a lasting wellspring of themes for literary writers like Chitra Banerjee. Magical events become some portion of regular day to day existence, ―… the otherworldly … is a normal issue, an ordinary event – admitted, accepted, and integrated into the rationality and materiality of literary realism. In her novel, chitra portrays the strange universe of fantasy in (magic) realistic approaches to demonstrate the mental reality of present-day man of today. Strange events are made coherent in magic realism. One such circumstance is that Anju's addressing Prem, the unborn baby in her womb. In a strange manner, it was more fulfilling to her than addressing her better half Sunil, despite the fact that Sunil was a cautious audience. She enlightened Prem concerning the old house, that trinket of a manner that had been in the Chatterjee family for ages; its disintegrating marble exterior, its stripping dividers, the dull bunches of its hallways, the block porch where she and Sudha went secretly at night to watch for falling stars to wish on.
III. MAGIC REALISM IN THE NOVELS OF CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI
Magic realism has the ability to advance our concept of what is genuine 'by fusing all elements of the creative mind, especially as communicated in magic, myth and religion. In magical realism, the writer faces reality and attempts to unwind it, to 3 find what is puzzling in things, throughout everyday life, in human acts. As a writer, she gives a sense of reality with the mixing of magic and furthermore her compositions fixate on women. The novels which have been decided for research are The Mistress of Spices (1995), Sister of my Heart (1999), The Vine of Desire (2002), The Conch Bearer (2003), Queen of Dreams (2004) and The Palace of Illusion (2008).The magical elements possess large amounts of her novels like The Mistress of Spices, Queen of Dreams and The Conch Bearer. There are numerous mythological references in Sister of my Heartand. The Palace of Illusion. Social qualities are highlighted in practically all novels particularly the novels which manage settlers 'issues. Magic realism is frequently amazingly genuine in Divakaruni‟s works and it contains inserted analysis about art, culture and human instinct. As myth and culture is dressed in magic realism, it conveys the traditional qualities. Magical realism grows and classifies the genuine in order to incorporate myth, magic and the other exceptional wonder in nature or experience. Magic and the
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In spite of the fact that the reason for the author is to demystify, it very well may be done distinctly through myth. Along these lines, myth which is the pride of one's country ought to be valued and the writers need to offer significance to celebrate their culture through myth. Culture depicted in her works incorporates food habit and language turns into a portion of the constituents of diaspora. Food, in that cultural mindset, was something to be devoured for survival, yet in addition an imaginative medium. As the food and culture being a key characteristic of a diaspora, a solid sense of association with a country is kept up through cultural practices and lifestyles. Among these culinary cultures has a significant part to play in diasporic distinguishing proof. Services or customs accomplish for the individuals what moms normally accomplish for children: connect with their interests, include them in a shared rhythmic pulse, and there by in still sentiments of closeness and communion. The principle themes of Divakaruni's novels are magic realism and its associated themes of myth and culture. The magical realism in her work unfurls to comprehend the magical event in one's life, for example, dreams, clairvoyance, and instinct predicts the future events. The magical elements in her novel demonstrate that they sign reality as it has a connection with brain research too. The dreams of the characters in the novel are realistic as they demonstrate that the individuals who have extra tactile power can have instinct of things to come events.
• Mistress of Spices
Divakaruni's first novel, The Mistress of Spices (1997) is special in that it is composed with a mix of exposition and poetry, effectively utilizing Magic Realism. Chitra drew on the folk tales which she had recalled from her youth days in Bengal, for example, the dozing city under the sea and the talking serpents, however she transformed them totally in The Mistress of Spices. In this novel, Tilo creates situations of her own when she becomes hopelessly enamoured with a non-Indian. This makes incredible clashes, as she needs to pick whether to serve her people or to pursue the way prompting her own satisfaction. Tilo needs to choose which parts of her heritage she will keep and which parts she will surrendered. Magical, enticing, and erotic, The Mistress of Spices is the account of Tilo, a young lady born and appointed as a courtesan accused of special powers. Once completely started in a rite of fire, Tilo ended up immortal with the twisted and ligament body of a 22 elderly person who goes through time to Oakland, California, where she opens a shop from which she an immortal and the changes of present-day life. The island which is depicted in The Mistress of Spices itself is where men are avoided and where, accordingly, there is neither hate nor fear. It is expressly expressed that it is an island of women. The Mistress of flavors spins around an Indian young lady with magical powers. Shashi Tharoor in ―The Los Angeles Time Observed that ―Divakaruni has composed an unordinary astute and frequently perfect first novel that mixes magical realism into the new shows of culinary fiction the as yet stewing kettle of Indian foreigner life in America (41) There is a great deal of assortment inside the class that is comprehensively marked ―magical realism.‖ coming up next is a rundown of the most well-known and popular books in this style of writing, and offer a smorgasbord style assortment of what type brings to the table: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Indian-British), Illywhacker by Peter Carey (Australia), One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabrief Garcia Marquez, (Colombia), Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Gzech),Nights at the Ciraus by Angela Carter, Immortality by Milan Kundera, La Casa de los Espiritus (The House of Spirits) by Isabel Allende, Chronicle of a Death-Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen, Electric Jesus Corpse via Carlton Mellick III, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Cooper guarantees that magical realism endeavours to catch reality by method for a portrayal of life 's numerous dimensions, seen and unseen, visible and invisible, rational and mysterious. All the while, such writers walk a political tightrope between catching this reality and giving decisively the fascinating departure from reality wanted by a portion of a portion of their western readership. (32) Magic realism can be viewed as a gadget restricting Indian culture of the past to the contemporary multicultural interface. Rushdie 's guideline utilization of magic realism in the text includes the clairvoyant abilities of Saleem and the other thousand and one youngsters born at the stroke of 12 PM on August fifteenth 1947 (the date of Indian Independence), abilities that empower them to speak with one another. The best-known magic pragmatist novel in territory Europe is Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) composed by the German novelist and Noble Prize victor Gunter Grass in 1959. Despite the fact that Grass himself confesses to having been affected by fantasies, his magical realism can be believed to have emerged from a similar source as Garcia Marquez‘s ; that is , the bending of truth through the impacts of extremely horrific violence, which
• Sister of My Heart
Divakaruni's subsequent novel, Sister of My Heart is a realistic treatment of the connection between two cousins, Sudha and Anju, who describe substituting section of this cutting-edge dramatization that creates over decades. Divakaruni comes back to the lives of Sudha and Anju in The Vine of Desire. In this spin-off, Sudha comes to live with Anju in the wake of leaving her husband. The author 's lyrical depictions of the characters 'inward and external worlds being a rich emotional chiaroscuro to an inspiring tale around two ladies who figure out how to settle on harmony with the troublesome decisions conditions which have forced upon them. In contrast to the magic realism of her first novel, Sister of My Heart (1999) is written in the pragmatist mode and portrays the confounded connections of a family in Bengal. Born in the enormous old Calcutta house on the equivalent tragic night that both their fathers were strangely lost, Sudha and Anju are inaccessible cousins, and are raised together. Closer even than sisters, they share garments, stresses, dreams. The Chatterjee family fortunes are at low ebb, as there are just widows at home – the girl' mothers, and their auntie. The parts themselves are on the other hand titled, Anju and Sudha, and contain inside their folds, methods that are epistolary and explanative, topography that is transcultural, tone that is descriptive and exceptionally lyrical, and style that is stressed and romantic. The male world just makes inconvenience for the heroes. Marriage destroys them and Anju moves to America while Sudha to rustic Bengal. Men separate them successfully as far as geology. Their lives are broken when they endeavour to adjust to the principles of the manly society. It is just when they choose to move to a female universe very expelled from male geographic definitions, though representative, that 23 they start to discover answers for their issues. At the point when Anju is annoyed with her premature delivery Sudha considers her via telephone and consoles her.
• Queen of Dreams
The novel Queen of Dreams consolidates the elements that Divakaruni is known for, the Indian American experience and magical realism, in a new blend everything prevails in two levels: 1. She successfully brings the reader into a migrant culture and experience.2. She demonstrates the shared belief that lies in a world that some would discover foreign. Queen of Dreams is a novel that has a place with the class of magical realism. It compares Mrs.Gupta's numinous world of dreams with the ordinary worries of her daughter 's life. Her quest for character and a sense of passionate consummation disengage from her parents and to find a way to accommodate with them when a family member dies and the horror 9/11 makes another open door for settling longstanding issues of alienation. The novel „Queen of Dreams' frequents one‘s dreams. A few novels get at one‘s subliminal and leave one with a waiting awareness of the secrets of life. This is Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni‟s fourth novel, short fiction and poetry. It is where the account switches back and forth between the comprehended and the mystical. Actually, it appears that 196 Divakaruni is a mystery purveyor of magic realism, where the things we don't see, (for example, dreams) can be at any rate incompletely clarified and comprehends through a sort of magic. The second 50% of the novel is the place reality, dreams and nightmares start to intertwine and blur. After her mother's death, Rakhi discovers her dream diary, which she peruses with the guide of her father to decipher the Bengali words trying to translate and comprehend her mother's life, and in this way understand her death. Rakhi additionally winds up battling with her business, relationships, and the devastating events of September 11, 2001. The novel is likewise isolated among India and the US, albeit set totally in America. To Rakhi, as no uncertainty to numerous US-born Indians, India speaks to the mystical and the ached for truly a place where there is dreams, and one that she is on a mission to comprehend, through the secretive vehicle of her mother's dream journal. The implicit articulation is that Indian women are chaste, modest, obedient and loyal. The women become an analogy for the purity, the celibacy and the holiness of the Ancient Spirit that is India, the "Things" they convey demonstrating their Indian ness. Indian women everlastingly remain the bearers of culture, the preservers of heritage. They are loaded with the protection of culture as religion, language, dress and food.
• Vine of Desire
The Vine of Desire (2002) is a story of uncommon depth and sensitivity and is additionally considered as a continuation of her prior novel, Sister of My Heart. With continuations one can follow the development of that character. This one is the story of Anju and Sudha, two young women a long way from Calcutta, the city of their youth, who following a time of living separate lives are reviving their friendship in America. The profound situated love they feel for one another gives the help they need makes Divakaruni manage another aspect of settler experience in the sense that the development isn't really a physical one or from east to west. By making Sudha conclude that she isn't keen on America any longer and might want to
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Calcutta with a Californian city.
• The Conch Bearer‟
The elements of magic realism are likewise possessing large amounts of Divakaruni's other novel ‗The Conch Bearer'. In it, the adventure of Anand who was a twelve-year-old boy is portrayed. He was poor worked in a coffee bar. Haru was his horrible manager. As Anand stacked the washed pots and tea glasses on the counter, he wanted that somebody would give him a magic apple like the one he had found out about. Once, he had trusted in his mother about his mystery wish. He stated, ―I could make Meera better, and we could see where father was, and in the event that he was good. (C.B:4) His desire worked out as expected when he met Abayadatta, one of the Brotherhoods who endowed him with a conch shell that had magical powers. That was a defining moment in his life. Prior Anand 's mother had questioned that those things would happen just in storybooks; Anand nodded, and said that he didn't reveal to her what he accepted that magic could occur. That it was going on constantly, surrounding them, then again, actually a great many people didn't think about it. Here and there he could nearly sense it zooming by him, fast as an imperceptible hummingbird. In the event that no one but he could make sense of how to get it and make it convey him along, as well, as long as he can remember would change. He was certain about it. (C.B:5) The other basic piece of magic realism is that it incorporates myth. Divakaruni is especially aware of myths and generalizations encompassing Indian women. She intentionally investigates after her migration and embarks to address and deconstruct. For example, one of the myths that Divakaruni investigates is the myth of widowhood. The general public, which is characterized by men, deplores women whose husband is dead. Either youthful or old the widow turns into an asexual, marginalized being who forecasts ill omen. Like Pishi even immature women were ravaged or damaged by shaving off their heads and wearing off „austere white‟ (SH4). Uncovering and scrutinizing this myth Divakaruni gets differentiate Nalini, who has a brilliant skin because of applying turmeric. Banerjee sees turmeric as the image of conjugal delight and portrayal of good karma of those women who are blessed with their husbands, is utilized certainly by Nalini as a unimportant wonder apparatus.
• The Palace of Illusions
Numerous writers started to re-examine all the more brilliantly the myths and generalizations of thoughts regarding India and its mythology, she utilizes storytelling as a system. Each Indian household has a storyteller. Their accounts depend on folktales, legends and myths. The utilization of myths is the most exceptional piece of the procedure of portrayal in The Palace of Illusions. It is through these unpretentious references, myths that the story of Divakaruni's fiction obtains the desired power to reflect the agony of Indian women. The Indian character of Divakaruni unavoidably attaches her to the Indian otherworldliness. She has been recounting accounts of Indian woman from her home in California. She utilizes myth not just as hold to connect herself with India yet in addition to rethink all the more brilliantly on those encompassing the great, self-affecting and generous Indian women. There are numerous ‗stories inside stories 'strategies followed in the novel The Palace of Illusion. The epic displays the sociological, political and cultural estimation of the spot. The cutting-edge age people support and uncertainty the presence of God. Despite the fact that there are the ideas of the cutting-edge writers to demystifying the epic, break the traditionalist traditions and culture, revising history: the foundations of the fundamental moral and ethics won't be cut off. Consequently, the provisos in the past are overlooked to the estimations of the epic. Like the crude sanctuaries, the traditional qualities are transmitted to a few ages through observing the rituals, services, etc.
IV. CONCLUSION
Some accept that the world of myth and magic related with magic realism kills any capability of opposition or analysis in the account. Truth be told, the utilization of myth in magic realism isn't not the same as its utilization in traditional legends, nor is it the main way by means of which magic happens in it. However, magic in magic realism is frequently exposed to a similar charge of regression and diversion from the genuine pending issues in the postcolonial world. In any case, in magic realism and with the blending of magic and realism, the ideological ramifications of the magic and realism, the ideological implication of the magic pragmatist accounts isn't an advancement of mythical past or a regression to a pre-frontier condition of ―purity, The elements of magic realism, myth and culture are connected together to present astonishment, novelty and new procedure to Chitra Banerjee's novels which additionally help to bring out different themes, for example, nostalgia, personality emergency, de-mythification and re-mythification.
the writer with an elective mode to express an elective view of a ―reality which has consistently existed. The result has regularly been an endeavour to unite elements thought to be illustrative of the two cultures. Magic realism in this sense is by all accounts hopeful for this sort of hybridity or diversity.
V. REFERENCES
1. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee (1998). The Mistress of Spices. U.S.A: First Anchor Books Edition; 1998. Print 2. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee (2003). Queen of Dreams. London: Time Warner Books, 2003. Print 3. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee (1999). Sister of my Heart. Great Britain: Black Swan edition published, 1999. Print 4. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee (2008). The Palace of Illusion. New York: Random House, Inc., 2008. Print. 5. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee (2002). The Vine of Desire: Random House, Inc, 2002. Print. 6. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee (2003). The Conch Bearer. USA: Roaring Brook Press, 2003. Print. 7. Bowers, Maggie Ann. Magic (al) Realism. London: Routledge, 2004. Print. 8. Roh, Franz (1995). ―Magic Realism: Post-Expressionism.‖ Zamora and Faris, 1995. pp. 15-31. Web. 05.12.2012. 9. Kaushik, Abha Shukla (2012). Postmodern Indian English Fiction: Some Perspectives, Aadi Publications. 10. Guenther, Irene (1995). ―Magic Realism, New Objectivity, and the Arts during the Weimar Republic.‖ Zamora and Faris, 1995. 33-73. Web 09.11.2013. 11. Dr. V. Srividhya (2016). ―Magic of the Spices: Elements of Magic Realism in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni‘s The Mistress of Spices‖, Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal http://www.rjelal.com; 12. K. M. Keerthika (2018). ―Myths and Magical Realism in Mistress of Spices: A Brief Appraisal‖, [Volume 5I, Issue 3I, July – Sept
Corresponding Author Rekha Rani*
Research Scholar, Department of English, NIILM University, Kaithal, Haryana rekhadahiya13288@gmail.com