What magical realism “shows”: the “unspeakable” in Wittgenstein as seen through the language used in Latin American magical realism novels

Abstract

Ludwig Wittgenstein, in his work Tractatus Logicus-Philosophicus, states the following: “There is, certainly, the inexpressible, that which shows itself (...).” (TLP, § 6.522). Based on this idea, the present text seeks to argue that what Wittgenstein refers to when he speaks of the unspeakable, that which can only be revealed to the subject, is easily and effectively shown through the literary genre of magical realism, as seen and studied in Latin American novels of magical realism, specifically The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Magical realism has the particular characteristic of shaping reality at will and making those metamorphoses part of everyday life, thereby exalting the mysteries of lived reality. Wittgenstein concludes his Tractatus with the following proposition: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” (Ibid. §7). That silence is not passive, but active in its action of showing, and it devotes its efforts to finding different ways of expressing itself, especially as seen through the Colombian armed conflict. Magical realism does not seek to create new realities, but rather to anchor an existing one and show everything in a pictorial way, making it a very useful tool for portraying, or even reflecting, the world as a whole and complete image, without distancing itself from it when painting it.