A Critical Understanding of the Representation of Magical Realism Through Folklore and Myth in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the various definitions of magic and the magical which are lined with the realities of the world. It explores the role played by C.S. Lewis in adding a different perspective to the definitions that were given by various writers such as J.R.R Tolkien and or Gabriel Marquez. This paper gives a detailed description of how myth and folklore are converted and suffused with magical realism. It details the transfer of myth from one generation to another and from one world to another. The underlying question in the analysis and its main concern is to show the consequences of the existence of rites and magic in a magical world like Narnia in relation to the ‘real’ earth. Such a task requires re-defining the concepts of the natural and the supernatural by the reader, and, following from that, creating a new perspective on magic.

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