Elements of Magical Realism and Sublime in Toad's Mouth
"Toad's Mouth" is a short story written by Isabel Allende in 1989. She has lived in Chili for most of her life, but she was born in Lima, Peru. Her father was a diplomat in Peru, but when her parents divorced, Allende's mother took her back to Santiago, Chili, to live with her grandparents. She wrote her first novel, The House of Spirits, around 1981. It became an international best seller. After reading "Toad's Mouth, I believe that magical realism and sublime literature have many things in common.
Like magical realism, sublime literature has magical and realistic elements. Most of the magical elements in this story seem to fit into the sublime category. Burke describes the sublime as having great vastness (Burke). The English raised vast numbers of sheep. "After a few years the animals had multiplied in such numbers that from a distance they looked like clouds trapped against the ground; they ate all the vegetation and trampled the last altars of the indigenous cultures" (83). The story also talks about the vast country side and far places that people came from. James B. Twitchell says that the landscapes "often are focused on a point just where the horizontal margin of nature meets the supernatural world of the sky, where the landscape is connected with the quiet sky" (Twitchell). The land is described as, "stone, sedge, and ice; endless plains that toward Tierra del Fuego break up into a rosary of islands, peaks of a snowy cordillera closing off the distant horizon, and silence that dates from the birth of time, interrupted periodically by the subterranean sigh of glaciers slipping slowly toward the sea" (83). Another sublime element is the fact t...
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...l. "Toad's Mouth". A Hammock Beneath the Mangoes. Ed. Thomas Colchie. N. Y.: Plume Printing, 1991. 81-88.
Arensberg, Mary. The American Sublime. Ed. Mary Arensberg. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1986.
Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. New York: Pengiun Classics, 1998.
Faris, Wendy B. "Scheherasade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction". Magical Realism Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, Duke U.P.: 1995. 163-190.
Sandner, David. The Fantastic Sublime Romanticism and Transcendence in Nineteenth-Century Children's Fantasy Literature. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1996.
Twitchell, James B. Romantic Horizons Aspects of the Sublime in English Poetry and Painting, 1770-1850. Columbia: U of Missouri Press, 1983.
Everett, Nicholas From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamiltong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2004. 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. 21
“Out of the north deep waves rolled down upon the island. They broke against the rocks and roared into the caves, sending up white sprays of water. Before night a storm would certainly strike” (O’Dell, 19). This passage from Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins describes the Ocean that surrounds the island and characters in the story. In this description the narrator, Karana, shows the reader that the people on the island fear and respect the power of the Ocean. The Ocean is depicted throughout the novel as something enormous and powerful. The way the Ocean is seen demonstrates an example of the Burkeian Sublime. According to Burke, the Sublime is an experience that comes from authority and power. A common example for the Burkeian Sublime is looking at the power of mountains. Mountains are Sublime because they’re large in size, and have the power to kill people. Therefore, through looking at Burke’s requirements for the Sublime the conclusion is made that Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins contains the Burkeian Sublime.
Burke, Edmund. "Proportion Further Considered". A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909-1917 (New York: Bartleby.com, 2001). http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/305.html
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Leonardo’s version of the Last Supper was painted El fresco depicting the scene passively without emotion. The work has the supper table horizontal across the lower third and Jesus and his twelve disciples dining behind it, before a backdrop of both man made structure and natural landscape. The artwork is un-cluttered and simple. The lighting is subtle and non-dramatic. Colour is conservative and dull this is partly due to the limited paint available and the technique and decay of fresco painting. The wor...
Simpkins, Scott. "Sources of Magic Realism/Supplements to Realism in Contemporary Latin American Literature." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 145-157.
What can be said about the sublime? Class discussion led to the definition of sublime as the element found in travel literature that is unexplainable. It is that part of travel literature where the writer is in awe of his or her surroundings, where nature can be dangerous or where nature reminds a human being of their mortality. The term "sublime" has been applied to travel texts studied in class and it is hard not to compare the sublime from texts earlier in the term to the texts in the later part of the term. Two texts that can be compared in terms of the sublime are A Tour in Switzerland by Helen Williams and History of a Six Weeks' Tour by Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. There are similarities and differences found in both texts concerning individual perspectives of travel and the sublime. The main focus of this commentary will be comparing and contrasting the perspectives of Williams and Shelley within their respective texts, the language of the sublime and the descriptions of the sublime.
Engberg, Gillian. "The Bite of the Mango." Booklist 1 Jan. 2009: 59. General OneFile. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
In conclusion these two poems by William Blake are both deep and have hidden meanings, they both use imagery, repetition, alliteration and ryming couplets as well as biblical references to create a vivid pictures in the readers head. But these poems do differ in many ways such as the structure, theme and way it is written. The Tyger appeals to me most as it has more hidden meanings than the Lamb and the Lamb is boring and as if written by a child (for effect). In this essay I have analysed, contrasted and compared the two poems The Tyger and The Lamb to the best of my ability detailing the poetic devices used and the underlying meanings.
Flores, Angel. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 109-116.
In conclusion, due to being a simplistic poem using a sheep connect with Christ, shows that the poem “The Lamb” belongs with Songs of Innocence, while using a fearing tone, and using a more sophisticated language here by shows that the poem, “The Tyger” belongs with Songs of Innocence. The lamb shows emotion that involves a story revolved around God and Christ. The fact that the small lamb is cute and innocent, shows that it belongs where it is placed; along with the tiger showing that it is a fierce creature, capable of extreme bodily harm, shows that the poem, “The Tyger” belongs with Songs of Experience. Overall William Blake did an excellent job manufacturing these poems while placing them into categories of Innocence and Experiences. These are very terrific poems that deserve their titles and a spot in our literature book.
Saklofske, Jon. "Remediating William Blake: Unbinding The Network Architectures Of Blake's Songs." European Romantic Review 22.3 (2011): 381-388. Literary Reference Center. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
The construction of children’s literature was a gradual process. For a long period of time children’s books were frowned upon. The stories were said to be vulgar and frightening. Adults censored children’s ears to stories of daily life, tales with improbable endings were not to be heard. It was not until the mid 1800s that stories of fairies and princesses began to be recognized. Although children’s literature was accepted, the books were not available for all children. With limited access to education, few public libraries, and the books’ costs, these texts were only available to the middle and high- class. As public education and libraries grew so did the accessibility of books and their popularity. They no longer were considered offensive, but rather cherished and loved by many children. Children’s literature became orthodox and a revolution began, changing literature as it was known.
The beginning line of the poem is, “Can I see another’s woe, and not be in sorrow too?” William Blake first asks whether one can witness another person’s sorrow and not refrain from feeling sorrowful too. William Blake ask the question repeatedly in the first two stanzas before he gives the answer later in the third stanza, “No, never can it