| Summary: | The theory which this dissertation proposes to establish is that the decisive element that distinguishes the magical realist narrative from other forms of contemporary Spanish American fiction is the primitive world view expressed by the narrator. The term "primitive" is used in the sense of "tribal" or "pre-ego" consciousness, and the primitive world view expressed by the narrator does not differentiate between the contents of the human psyche and the objective world, thus investing the world described with magical and mythical qualities. The projection of psychic contents creates a "humanized" world where the barriers between subject and object dissolve, and the individual perceives the fundamental unity of the world and at the same time is perceived as an integral part of the cosmos. The association made by various authors and critics of the primitive with the magical realist narrative is briefly traced and is followed by an analysis of four magical-realist novels: El reino de este mundo, Los rios profundos, Mulata de tal and Cien anos de soledad. Although these novels were written by authors of different generations, nationalities and literary styles, in all four the magical-mythical vision of reality is the common denominator which relates them to each other and also differentiates them from other literary tendencies such as the surrealist, the psychological and the fantastic. In conclusion, the magical realist perspective is seen to fit into Tzvetan Todorov's category of the marvelous, whose thematic basis in pan-determinism and pan-signification is but another expression of the undifferentiated world consciousness of the primitive.
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