Magic in Literary Works: From Enchantment to Re-enchantment of The World and to Hyperreality as the Postmodernist Aesthetics

Abstract

Magic has been part of literature since the early form of literature. Magic in literature transforms in the three levels of human civilization; traditional –modern- and postmodern era. Max Weber‟s concept of

disenchantment of the world to Berman‟s re-enchantment of the world, Fedric Jameson‟s postulation of late

capitalism and Baudrillard‟s hyperreality are framing concepts of the magic discussion in this article.

However, the literary phenomena in the works I scrutinize to prove my arguments are analyzed by using

Brian McHale‟s Postmodernist Fiction. All the material objects are analyzed through their elements of

literature to find out the dominants that show their positions in the era and the society‟s perception upon the

world. Finally I found out that magic in the literary works become one of the formulas of fiction in

presenting rupture of readers‟ consciousness through the fictional world constructed in the literary works.

The postmodern men (whether as the writer nor the reader) celebrate the loss of significant-signified failure

phenomena in hyper-realities as their aesthetics presentation.