Bulgacov's Use of Magic Realism in Master and Margarita
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The Master and Margarita: Bulgakov’s Use of Magic Realism The Russian novel, Master and Margarita, was written in an environment of strict government control in early twentieth century, where even the presence of the manuscript in the author’s own house was something to fear. Bulgakov is believed to have burned the manuscript, only to re-write it later from memory. He must have felt a writer’s responsibility to record the historic issues that contradicted the country’s regime and atheistic religious stance.
In magic realism, many layers of reality and fiction are integrated within each other. It creates hybridity, a complex, parallel with multiple planes of reality, but still identifiable by the reader. As metafiction, it takes fantastical fiction and incorporates it so well into the real world that the reader sees logic and precision. The sense of mystery in magic realism also creates hidden meanings, magic, questions, and forces the reader to let go of pre-existing ties heightening the senses to reach more levels of reality. Magic realism draws attention to social-political statements, as in the novel The Master and Margarita.
Bulgakov uses the genre magic realism to overcome the censorship by the government by blending supernatural surreal and magical elements with the natural world using realistic narrative to enhance his message about what he believed to be the Soviet reality of the time.
Moscow is introduced to the readers with many magical and supernatural elements and events. It is Bulgakov’s way of portraying the chaotic and dramatic Moscow, with all the political changes it was going through, including revolutions, wars and the Great Famine. Daily routines in the lives of citizens were lost, and nothing was predictable. Magic realism allows the writer to exaggerate but at the same time, parallel the feeling and atmosphere of unpredictable change. When a delirious citizen drops from the ceiling, stripped of his clothing, suitcase in hand, his
The Master and Margarita: Bulgakov’s Use of Magic Realism The Russian novel, Master and Margarita, was written in an environment of strict government control in early twentieth century, where even the presence of the manuscript in the author’s own house was something to fear. Bulgakov is believed to have burned the manuscript, only to re-write it later from memory. He must have felt a writer’s responsibility to record the historic issues that contradicted the country’s regime and atheistic religious stance.
In magic realism, many layers of reality and fiction are integrated within each other. It creates hybridity, a complex, parallel with multiple planes of reality, but still identifiable by the reader. As metafiction, it takes fantastical fiction and incorporates it so well into the real world that the reader sees logic and precision. The sense of mystery in magic realism also creates hidden meanings, magic, questions, and forces the reader to let go of pre-existing ties heightening the senses to reach more levels of reality. Magic realism draws attention to social-political statements, as in the novel The Master and Margarita.
Bulgakov uses the genre magic realism to overcome the censorship by the government by blending supernatural surreal and magical elements with the natural world using realistic narrative to enhance his message about what he believed to be the Soviet reality of the time.
Moscow is introduced to the readers with many magical and supernatural elements and events. It is Bulgakov’s way of portraying the chaotic and dramatic Moscow, with all the political changes it was going through, including revolutions, wars and the Great Famine. Daily routines in the lives of citizens were lost, and nothing was predictable. Magic realism allows the writer to exaggerate but at the same time, parallel the feeling and atmosphere of unpredictable change. When a delirious citizen drops from the ceiling, stripped of his clothing, suitcase in hand, his
Cited: 1. Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita. Trans. Michael Glenny. London: Harvill, 1967. Print.