Magic realism to the fore

by Charith Perera

Magam Soliya by Mohan Raj Madawala would mark a seminal trajectory in the evolution of contemporary Sinhala novel. It stands out among contemporary Sinhala novels for its impressive diction, use of diverse narrative modes as well as creating a surreal fictional realm within the matrix of a traditional village in transition against the backdrop of a turbulent period in the history of the nation.

The extremely grabbing narrative is interspersed with magic and supernatural occurrences, practice of black magic and occult, deeply-rooted Asian mystic spirituality and in the periphery of the evolving saga of the village with its myriad of inter-personal relationships, chants, rituals, miraculous occurrences and dominant morality and sexuality, is ranging Uva Wellasa rebellion.

Mohan Raj Madawala’s Magam Solyai, opens diverse avenues of inquiry, marking a seminal trajectory in the evolution of contemporary Sinhala novel. One of the significant aspects of the narrative is the criss-crossing of literary genres. It is, indeed, hard to classify Magam Soliya into a prominent literary genres such as magic realism, historical novel or purely fantasy like The Lord of the Rings.

What is obvious, however, is that the novelist has, in his own way, salvaged the contemporary Sinhala novel from the quicksand of largely misunderstood ‘postmodernist novel’ and from the filthy discourse in Sinhala novel which led to the birth of scores of tirash, reflecting nothing but the wierd mind of the authors. In fact, The present crisis in the contemporary Sinhala novel seems to be in the form as well as in the content.

Fictional realm

The novel is woven around a fictional village at the edge of wilderness against the backdrop of turbulent time with the formation of the Uva Wellassa rebellion against the British rule in Sri Lanka.

The novel commences with a description of the temple which is the nucleus of the social activities in the village and offering a brief history of the temple and of the village.

Through the family of Punchi Rala and the villagers, the author portrays complex web of interpersonal connections in the village among the villagers and the pivotal role the Buddhist temple plays in its affairs.

The narrative is interspersed with magic and supernatural occurrences. However, the author has been able to narrate the events in such a way that they seem as real or very close to reality.

It is this aspect of the narrative which reminds the reader of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

In an academic paper titled ‘Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, B.J Geetha says prominent characteristic of magic realism is that the author’s ability to present magic and supernatural occurrence as if the events are commonplace. “Magic realism is a literary form in which odd, eerie, and dreamlike tales are related as if the events were commonplace. Magic realism is the opposite of the “once-upon-a-time” style of story-telling in which the author emphasizes the fantastic quality of imaginary events.

Magic realism

In the world of magic realism, the narrator speaks of the surreal so naturally it becomes real. Magic realism in its literary and artistic applications aimed to re-imagine the world and its reality. It is not an escapist venture but rather an opportunity to see the fantastic in the everyday. There are multiple stylistic traits of magic realism.

The key, however, is rejection of subjectivity and emotionalism, simultaneity of past, present and future and defamiliarisation.

However, these traits distinguish magic realism from the fantasy genre. In fantasy novels, the created world must have an internal logic. Magic realism, however, is not subject to natural or physical laws.” Mohan Raja Madawala has made use of traditional occultism, black magic and Asian mystic spirituality as sources of the magic and supernatural occurrences. What is queer is that Valli , a young woman , acquires her magic powers through her mother’s spirit Gomari who is alive. Characters such as Podina , a village midwife and wet-nurse who takes care of Puncha, who is unconscious boy by birth and his only nourishment is Podina’s breast milk. Most of the characters of the novel are extraordinary in different manners.

Apart from Valli’s black magic, events such as pregnancy of Manika who was a maiden and had never had sex with a man and she only had eye-contact with Bindu, the author tries to portray a pre-colonial largely self-sufficient village.

The author narrates the event in a convincing manner; “She understood the events well. Before Bindu died, She recalled how both of them (Bindu and Mankia) were looking at each other’s naked bodies almost like in a meditative mood for more than a week , without ever touching each other’s bodies and they were secluded from others.” It is a queer case of conception by sight.

The difference between Mohan Raj and Garcia Marquez is that apparently, Mohan has not used elements of fantasy and magic to address some specific themes. It is obvious that magic and fantasy elements have been used to portray the kind of belief systems and the occultism prevalent at the time.

Themes

In contrast Marquez uses magic realism to address specific issues and deal with diverse themes. B.J Geetha said, “Gabriel uses the form of magical realism and the content derived from history and politics to address some of the most difficult and meaningful themes.

He addresses war, suffering, and death with clarity and political slant. By the mid-1960’s, Colombia had witnessed in excess of two-hundred-thousand politically motivated deaths.” One of the significant traits of Magam Soliya is that it bears typical characteristics, to a certain extent, of a historical novel. But, it also differs to characteristic Sinhalese historical novels such as W.A Silva’s Sunethra which is woven around a single episode in the history. Although Magam Soliya is set in the pre-colonial Sri Lanka against the brewing of the Uva Wellasa rebellion, historical events are peripheral to the plot. It is towards the end of the narrative that repercussions of the rebelling would make a profound impact on the lives of the villagers.

Given the dubious nature of generic definition of historical novel, it is hard to put Magam Soliya into the category of historical novel.

Carlos Mata Indurain in an academic paper titled ‘Brief Definition and Characterisation of a Historical Novel said, “What makes it possible for us to bring together under this heading such dissimilar works as Ivanhoe and The Charterhouse of Parma, War and Peace and The Last of the Mohicans, The Lord of Bembibre and Bomarzo? We all have, with a greater or lesser degree of precision, a notion of what a historical novel is, and intuitively possess the certainty of whether a novel is historical or not. But when we consider a generic definition, the question is not so simple. The most obvious characteristic is that in all the above mentioned novels, so different from one another, the (fictitious, invented) action takes place in a more or less distant (real, historical) past. This is a first approximation that, even though it is still too vague and general, coincides with a definition provided by Buendía: ‘To define the historical novel strictly speaking means simply saying that a novelistic action unfolds in the past; its main characters are imaginary, whereas the historical figures and the real facts constitute the secondary element of the story.”

Civilisation

Significantly, Magam Soliya is not a just recalling of a history of a village at the periphery of civilisation but a narrative which codifies an important phase in the evolution of the village with its agricultural based economy. Punchi Rala, one of the main characters of the novel, was a hard-working farmer who cultivated grains and vegetables in a farm in the forest.

Through the cohabitation between Vali and Punchi Rala , the author portrays a kind of sex life in the village. Being Vali’s father, the cohabitation is incestual and the author hints out that it may be part and parcel of the moral code of the village. However, the graphic descriptions of love making in the novel, does not, certainly, warrant it to be bluntly classified as sex thriller or a thrash as such scenes were organically incorporated into the plot.

Through the spiritual life of the chief bhikkhu of the village temple and then, Upasaka Unnase, a layman who assumes the role of the bhikkhu and also cohabitates with a woman, the author depicts the spiritual development and through the character of Vali, the author discusses the occultism and black magic. One such incident is when Vali made a charm on Podi Nilame with whom Vali had a passionate relationship when he married a woman from a neigbouring village. According to the charm, the newly wedded couple could not have sex as they begin to see each other as incarnated devils.

“By that time, they were panting having had a fierce fight with considerable bloodletting. Their honeymoon bed had turned into a virtual battlefield with torn out garments and bedsheets. As Podi Nilame could no longer bear the foul smell and heat, he threw off the piece of cloth wrapped around his waist and wore a fresh one and had gone into the courtyard. It was well past the mightnight. How could I see her as a she-devil? And she could see him as a devil. Am I really a devil? He was thoroughly confused.”

The novel is full of such events and it is obvious that the author has exploited traditional belief systems, black magic and occultism to lend the narrative a mystic texture. The author has effectively used colloquial idiom and an impressive diction that it makes Magam Soliya a compelling read. What is noteworthy in the narrative is that Mohan Raj has demonstrated in no uncertain terms, that the contemporary Sinhalese authors could always experiment with diverse narrative modes, criss-crossing diverse literary genres.