Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk

Apart from the works mentioned above, Olga Tokarczuk published two short story collections: „Gra na wielu bębenkach” (2001) and „Ostatnie historie” (2004), as well as the novel „Anna In w grobowcach świata” (2006), published as part of the international publishing series Myths, and a crime novel „Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” (2009), which was later adapted for the movie „Spoor” directed by Agnieszka Holland. The English translation of the latter, by Jennifer Croft, gained international recognition in the form of The Man Booker International Prize in 2018.

The presence of the magical realist mode in Tokarczuk’s work has important implications for the study of magical realism in general and Polish literary studies in particular.In 1997, she published a short story collection „Szafa”, and in 1998 the novel „House of Day, House of Night” (translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones), very characteristic due to its ‘constellation’ structure, which forms also the axis of the novel „Flights” from 2007. By using these and other magical realist narrative techniques, Tokarczuk deftly questions dominant discourses of Polish history and culture, such as that of the “Recovered Territories” or the power of religious faith. In both novels, Tokarczuk’s poetics of the Word (Logos) becomes key to establishing a sense of magical realism in the texts. In Primeval, Tokarczuk presents a world that exists at the intersection between cyclical (mythical) and linear times in House the novel asserts historical order through the dominance of space over time. While Tokarczuk herself rejects the label “magical realism,” her novels exhibit such key magical realist characteristics as disruption of rationally ordered time and space, the rejection of dominant historical and cultural narratives, an exploration of alternate epistemological forms of inquiry, and literalization of language, metaphor, and imagination. Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the magical realist mode of writing in two novels by Polish author Olga Tokarczuk: Primeval and Other Times (1996) and House of Day, House of Night (1998). Published by: SAGE Publications Ltd Keywords: Olga Tokarczuk magical realism Primeval and Other Times House of Day, House of Night contemporary Polish literature Subject(s): Cultural history, Novel, Polish Literature, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)

Magical Realism in Olga Tokarczuk’s Primeval and Other Times and House of Day, House of Night Author(s): Ewa V. Magical Realism in Olga Tokarczuk’s Primeval and Other Times and House of Day, House of Night

Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk