Aspekte van die magiese realisme in enkele Afrikaanse romans
In magical realist texts, realistic and magical elements coexist; the non-natural is perceived as organic and consistent with reality. Like post-modern and post-colonial texts, these are characterized by achronological and synchretistic experiences of time, metatextual commentary, circular elements and the blending of myth and history. Eventually, different and very subjective narrators, focalizers with an excentristic focus, establish alternative histories. The use of fantasy, legend and myth, ingredients of a new multicultural identity, exemplifies the description of colonised pasts. In these texts forefathers that refuse to die and ghosts in hybrid spaces in isolated communities become metaphors for a whole nation. The local version of magical realism is rooted in typical, isolated South African spaces, with their histories of colonised pasts, racial discrimination and political upheaval. The search for a new multicultural identity is evident in the rewriting of the past, the presentation of previously marginalised voices and the relativisation of documented history.