Magic Realism: Canvassing the Mind in Bessie Head’s Maru

Abstract

Bessie Amelia Head, one of the most renowned African woman writers, explores the effects of racial oppression. Her novels portray the intricate relationships that exist between the constructive identity and racial discreteness. Being bi- racial, she experienced discrimination even in her birth place as well as in her adopted land Botswana. Head’s novels can be seen as a systematic study of women’s roles and handicaps in society, especially in an unjust one like South Africa. She has also x-rayed their emotional, psychological and spiritual endowments in the context of human society. Her women characters are always thrust into a resisting landscape from which they must transcend and realize their identity. This paper focuses on the magical realism in her novels that can be seen through the psychological sphere of her fictional characters.