This work explores the power of myth in post-colonial
society and the relationship between the magical
realist and realist genres in fiction. The particular
focus is on the writings of Miguel Angel Asturias
the Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan author whose works
first brought magical realism into Western
literature. Asturias offered an early and powerful
critique in a subtle and artistic form of the
world-views that shape Central America: the Mayan and
the Western. His critique has gone on to become a
major literary form, one that arguably underpins much
modern thinking on the connections between art and
society. The work will be of interest to students of
literature and of the culture of Central America, and
be of value to anyone studying the relations between
indigenous and Western ways of thought and the
impacts on culture of colonisation.
society and the relationship between the magical
realist and realist genres in fiction. The particular
focus is on the writings of Miguel Angel Asturias
the Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan author whose works
first brought magical realism into Western
literature. Asturias offered an early and powerful
critique in a subtle and artistic form of the
world-views that shape Central America: the Mayan and
the Western. His critique has gone on to become a
major literary form, one that arguably underpins much
modern thinking on the connections between art and
society. The work will be of interest to students of
literature and of the culture of Central America, and
be of value to anyone studying the relations between
indigenous and Western ways of thought and the
impacts on culture of colonisation.