Haunting Encounters and Re-mystification: Magical Realism as a Litrary Device in Toni Morrison and Mahasweta Devi’s Fiction

Abstract

This paper explores the haunting encounters and influence of supernatural elements on the characters and the stories especially in the postcolonial fiction produced by women writers of both east and west origins. This research is delimited to one novel by Toni Morrison’s Beloved and one novella “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay and Pirtha” by Mahasweta Devi. Both the women writers have different origins but their writings show an ample amount of similar traits to present their ideas and they have used supernatural elements and haunting encounters as a literary device in the proceeding of plot and stories in the selected texts. This research is qualitative in nature, theories presented by Jacques Derrida and W.B Faris help as a major theoretical framework in this research. This paper explores different grounds and techniques of using supernatural elements as magical realism by the writers in their fictional works.