Magic realism and baroque literature

The thesis is focused on comparison of the Magic realism with the Baroque. Common characteristics were analyzed in following literary works: the baroque play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) Life is a dream (La vida es sueo) and the novel The President (El Segor Presidente) by a Nobel Price-winning Guatemalan writer, representative of Magic realism, Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974). The analysis was accomplished by using the transhistorical method which allows to interconnect two trends from different time periods and sociological aspects. Suffering, distress, insecurity and neverending armed conflicts characterise the Baroque period. Beginning of dictatorship, insecurity and persecution of indigenous population create a background of the magic realism in Latin America. In the formal expressions and content we can find following Baroque features in the Magic Realism: important contrasts (opposition of darkness and light, space and exuberance, barbarian manner and mercy), animalization of characters, theatralisation of Calderon`s theatre (théâtre dans le théâtre); syncretism, lots of metamorphs and allegory, oxymorons and important textual sonority. Asturias`s novel sometimes changes into a poetic prose and therefore it is approaching Calderon's literary expression. Additional irony in Asturias`s..