Sofia Guimarães
PhD project: “Magic (and) Realism: Traces of Empire in Postcolonial Literature”
My PhD project, with the working title “Magic (and) Realism. Traces of Empire in Postcolonial Literature,” examines the evolution of the Magical Realist genre in 21st-century Anglophone prose. I focus on literature from diverse global regions, aiming to understand how the genre has developed and to identify its similarities and differences across various cultural contexts.
Given magic’s unique ability to portray the subjective experiences of individuals and communities in (post)imperial realities, my goal is to analyze the interplay between the real and the magical in these prose works. I will investigate the narrative devices employed to represent magic and how they depict violence, oppression, and injustice in fiction.
My research focuses particularly on temporality within these works. Recognizing that time is a constructed concept deeply intertwined with Eurocentric ideas of progress and modernity, my research will specifically analyze how time functions both as a formal narrative device and as a thematic element in these novels.
By applying postcolonial theory, narratology, and intersectional approaches (which consider gender, ethnicity, and class), I aim to understand how magical realist fiction captures the subjective experiences of postcolonial individuals and communities. This includes how it (re)creates their histories under imperial rule, (re)interprets their present postcolonial condition, and envisions their potential futures — whether hopeful or bleak.
For more information about Sofia Guimarães, visit the chair’s website.