Blow Up RC

Between Cortazar’s short story and Antonioni’s film of Blow Up , magic realist devices such as cyclical time and reality and what is imaginary are present in both works. In the short story the reader is being introduced to different events in what seems to be out of order. In the film the people with painted faces are shown several times throughout the movie doing the same thing which makes it feel as though time is either repeating itself or time is at a standstill because their actions do not change. Reality/imagination is another magic realist device that is prevalent in both works. Although the plots are a little different, both of these works use this device in the same way. In Cortazar’s short story the reader is introduced to characters and scenarios, but at many instances it is unclear of what is real and what the main character is experiencing through his camera lens or via his imagination. At many times in both the film and short story the main character starts to create imagined scenarios of what he believes are possible series of events. The main points of incorporating these magic realist devices are to show the power of one’s imagination. In both these works the camera plays a big role as a vehicle to ones imagination.