Virajini Thennakoon’s novel ‘Camellia’ has won the Golden Book Award Sri Lanka 2024. Since it was published last year, there have been many discussions and reviews claiming that this novel is a work of magical realism.
But labeling it as a magical realism work won’t do justification for this amazing novel about Sri Lanka’s underrepresented community who are earning foreign exchange for a long time. This review clarifies the work explaining how the aspects of magical realism are covered in the novel.
As we know, the term ‘Magical Realism’ first used by the German critic Franz Roh to explain paintings emerged in 1920s Germany. However, to highlight how ordinary objects may appear magical, amazing, and odd when you pause and gaze at them, Roh coined the word “magischer realismus.”
Later, this genre was popular among Latin American writers who tried to write against colonialism. They found a new voice in magical realism to criticise colonial oppressors. Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges identified as the first Latin American author who used magical realism. But it was Gabriel Garcia Marquez who made it popular around the world with his famous novel ‘One Hundred Years in Solitude’ which won the Nobel Prize for him.
Although Virajini’s novel has many layers of socio-political issues, gender issues and many themes, this review is to identify the aspects of magical realism in the novel. Since the term magical realism came to light there were different opinions about the aspects of magical realism. But there were few common aspects among all the critics who described the aspects of magical realism.
Familiar setting
The first aspect is ‘Realistic Setting.’ Every magical realism novel takes place in a setting in this world that’s familiar to the reader. If we closely look at the ‘Camellia’, the setting is nothing new to the Sri Lankan reader. The setting takes place in a familiar tea estate in the era of the British Government. The characters, environment, equipment, political and social events that occurred during the time of the novel were related in history, familiar to the reader.
The second aspect is ‘Magical Elements.’ From speaking objects to dead characters walking, telepathy and many supernatural powers, magical realism stories have magical elements that do not happen in the real world. But in the stories those elements are represented as normal. When reading ‘Camellia’ the reader would find many magical elements as mentioned above.
For instance, Ambhiga, a character in the novel, who hangs her tea plucking casket on her back for her lifetime, would not occur in the real world. But the idea of using these magical elements was to showcase the weight on her people from the beginning would carry on for generations. If the author wanted to explain this weight it would take many pages to describe the whole thing. Magical elements can work as a metaphor. When Ambiga died, people couldn’t remove her cane basket because it was tightly bound with her like a new organ.
Also, when Appan died, it was impossible to move his dead body from the store room. It was there for many days without rotting. Instead the body became more beautiful and healthier.
‘’During this time, particular changes began to happen in the Appan’s body. He was a thin, hunched back, black man, but after he died, day-to-day he left those physical features like he was resurrected with a new soul.” – Page 131
After the betrayal of Henry, Camellia didn’t change her wedding dress for six months.
“After spending six months in the upstairs of Seram Bungalow, one evening when Camellia appeared in front of the school with a torn veil and holding up the dirty wedding dress, the children ran for the hills scared by her appearance.” – page 176
Magical elements artfully weave into the fabrics of mundane life in above sentences to normalise the magic.
The author didn’t try to explain these incidents with full information but penned it down like a very normal incident. This can be explained as another aspect of magical realism. To normalise the magic as much as possible and reinforce that it as a part of everyday life, authors of magical realism deliberately leave the magic in their works of literature unexplained. Limited information is the third aspect of magical realism. In the novel, the author used limited information for several events that happened in ‘Moon Melt’ estate. How Anita went to sleep for seven days to Camellia’s six months in the same dress.
Subtle criticism
The next aspect is ‘Social or Political Critique. Magical realism is frequently used by writers to subtly criticise society, particularly politics and the ruling elite. In regions of the world, such as Latin America, that were exploited and economically oppressed by Western nations, the genre received popularity. Authors of magic realism used the genre to criticise and express their distaste for American imperialism. While reading ‘Camellia’ readers would find the critique against colonial oppressors and their local agents, social dilemma of tea plantation workers, the place of a woman in feudal society. And about relationships too.
It is obvious with these examples that Virajini’s novel ‘Camellia’ is a work of magical realism. Apart from that it has socio-political themes that need to be discussed among the readership. While reading it I found one similarity between Marquez novels, ‘One hundred Years of Solitude’ and ‘Camellia’. Both novels have a hypothetical place, Marquez created ‘Macondo’ back in the 60s and Virajini created ‘Moon Melt’ in 2023.
It is obvious that Virajini’s novel would pave a new way for the next generations to follow if they want to use magical realism. While trying to explain how this novel could be claimed as a magical realism work, there is not enough space to describe the language used in the book. This article would not be enough to discuss it. However, ‘Camellia’ will be an all-time novel.
