Angels in the Age of Simulacra: Hyperreality and Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

Abstract

Post modernism is a literary approach that focuses on the fragmented, ironic and selfaware nature of contemporary narratives, challenging conventional notions of structure, meaning and truth. In postmodernism, Jean Baudrillard’s coined the concept of hyperreality in Simulacra and Simulation (1981) that is closely related to his idea of Simulacrum, by which hypereality is defined as something that substitutes reality with its representations. Simulacra is synonym of hyperreality .The text selected for analysis is short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (1972) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This study aims to examine the elements of hyperreality, magic realism, subjectivity of truth, loss of faith in the story which highlights the construction of narrative structure and enrichment of thematic depth within the framework of postmodern modern literature.