Question
5
Scholars cite The Kingdom of This World, the 1949 novel by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier, as a
foundational text of magical realism, the Latin American style of fiction in which antirealistic plot
devices often borrowed from the folkloric traditions of Indigenous and colonial societies in the
Americas are deployed in an otherwise realistic mode of representation typical of the modern
novel. This stvle has exerted a decisive influence on Latina authors in the United States, including
Kathleen Alcala, whose 1998 novel Spirits of the Ordinary resembles classic magical realist novels in
its juxtaposition of literary realism with folklore_-namely, that of northern Mexico.
Which quotation from a literary scholar would most directly support the claim in the underlined
portion of the text?
"Even though Spirits of the Ordinary alternates between realistic and antirealistic modes of
representation, the influence of the folklore of northern Mexico remains constant throughout
the novel."
In the presence of imagery and scenarios drawn from Mexican folklore, the realistic causality
that governs the plot of Spirits of the Ordinary tends to relax, creating space for the magical to
'Much of the interest of Spirits of the Ordinary derives from the productive tension between its
competing influences- namely, Latin American magical realism and Mexican folklore.
The folklore of northern Mexico, which figures so prominently in the magical realist
tradition of Latin America, permits realistic as well as antirealistie scenarios- much as Spirits
of the Ordinary does.
Answer
"Much of the interest of Spirits of the Ordinary derives from the productive tension between its competing influences- namely, Latin American magical realism and Mexican folklore."