Magical realism, freedom, and control in Garcia Marquez, Millhauser, and Winterson

This thesis addresses the topic of magical realism in the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Steven Millhauser, and Jeanette Winterson. In magical realism, the improbable, impossible, or extraordinary appears frequently. However, this element of the extraordinary in the characters' lives---whether it appears in the form of an extraordinary ability, or the ability to view the world as extraordinary---greatly limits the characters' choices and freedom.; In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, a family curse and a prophetic scroll cause the Buendia family to experience unparalleled loneliness and, ultimately, total extinction. In Steven Millhauser's Portrait of a Romantic, and Edwin Mullhouse, and in Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body, the narrators' hyperreal perceptions of the world lead directly to the novels' extraordinary conclusions---including suicide, murder, and madness. This thesis explores how the presence of magical realism in the texts influences the characters within the novels.