Magical realism is a Latin-American narrative strategy that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic stories. It is often conflated with magic realism, marvelous realism, and magico realism, but it is a literary style that weaves fantasy into everyday life. The term “magical realism” describes a work of fiction where fantasy slips into everyday life, but the focus isn’t on the fantastical elements of the story.
Magical realism is a literary genre that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements. It is different from fantasy, as the writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it, discovering what is mysterious in things, life, and human acts. The term was invented by German photographer, art historian, and art critic Franz Roh in 1925 to describe modern realist paintings with fantasy or dream-like subjects.
Magical realism is characterized by its meticulously realistic style of imaginary or fantastic scenes or images, often dealing with blurring the lines between reality and magical elements. It is a genre that has been associated with Latin America and is often used in literature to explore the mysteries of everyday life.
In summary, magic realism is a literary style that incorporates supernatural or magical elements into realistic depictions of everyday life. It is a genre that is not without controversy, but it is a valuable tool for writers and readers alike.
📹 Magical Realism In 6 Minutes: Literary Fantasy or Fantastic Literature? 📚
Magical realism is an interesting word combination that is used often, but usually with little understanding. So, what is magical …
What makes a story magic realism?
Magical realism is a genre that blends elements of fantasy, folklore, and mythology, often focusing on ordinary characters and everyday life. It is characterized by a realistic setting, inclusion of magical or impossible elements, and acceptance of magic as normal by characters. The genre often explores political or social issues, blending the magical with the realistic. The term “magical realism” was first used in 1925 by German art critic Franz Roh to describe a style of painting that depicted the magical within the ordinary. In the 1940s and 50s, writers in Latin America expanded on this idea, incorporating mythical elements into realistic narratives.
Who is the father of magic realism?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Nobel Prize-winning Columbian writer, journalist, and screenwriter, was a pioneer in the magic realism writing style. Born in Aracataca, Colombia, Marquez was raised by his grandparents, who influenced his political ideology and his writing. When his grandfather died, he moved to Bogota, the capital city, where he developed an interest in reading books. Inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, he pursued writing. Initially planning to study law, he enrolled at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 1947 and published his first short story in a periodical. However, violence broke out during his studies.
Is Harry Potter magic realism?
The Harry Potter novels and films are set in a magical world that exists parallel to the real world. This is achieved through the use of magic realism, a technique whereby the characters are immersed in a fantastical world of mystery.
What are the three rules of magical realism?
Magical realism involves adhering to three elements: magical exposition, storytelling through literary fiction conventions, and using fantasy as an extended metaphor. Carmen Maria Machado’s “Especially Heinous” is a short story that pushes boundaries by incorporating two fantasy plots: the dark drum of Manhattan’s spirits and unexplained doppelgangers whose job performance exceeds the protagonists’.
The story explores how Stabler and Benson investigate their surreal experiences, with many “episodes” devoted to a character’s internal life. Contemporary fiction often seeks to expand the boundaries of form, and this story’s narrative construction uses episode summaries instead of paragraphs.
The extended metaphor in “Especially Heinous” is the irate spirits of Manhattan’s voiceless women, who represent a rejection of sexism and rape culture. The story captures much of the western feminist zeitgeist, and the doppelgangers may represent an idealized version of the protagonists without the weight of past trauma.
How do you identify magical realism?
Magical realism is a fiction style where fantasy is integrated into everyday life, focusing on the meanings of these elements for characters. This unit aims to help students identify magical elements in A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings and analyze how García Márquez uses morality, religion, irony, and symbolism to comment on humanity. The unit also explores how culture influences our understanding of magical/mystical events, how they can tell us about the real world and ourselves, and what constitutes a magical experience in our lives.
How do you explain realism?
Realism is an accurate, detailed, and unembellished depiction of nature or contemporary life in the arts. It rejects imaginative idealization and focuses on close observation of outward appearances. Realism has been present in various artistic currents in different civilizations, including ancient Hellenistic Greek sculptures, 17th-century painters like Caravaggio, Dutch genre painters, Spanish painters like José de Ribera, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Zurbarán, and the Le Nain brothers in France. The works of 18th-century English novelists Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett may also be considered realistic.
Realism was not consciously adopted as an aesthetic program until the mid-19th century in France, where it became a major trend in French novels and paintings between 1850 and 1880. The term realism was first used in 1826 in the Mercure français du XIX e siècle, which described a doctrine based on truthful and accurate depiction of models from nature and contemporary life. French proponents of realism rejected the artificiality of academies’ Classicism and Romanticism and aimed to portray the lives, appearances, problems, customs, and mores of the middle and lower classes.
Realism was stimulated by intellectual developments in the first half of the 19th century, such as the anti-Romantic movement in Germany, Auguste Comte’s Positivist philosophy, professional journalism, and the development of photography. These developments stimulated interest in accurately recording contemporary life and society.
Is magical realism real or just realistic?
Magical realism is a genre of fiction that blurs the line between fantasy and reality. It does so by blending fantastical elements into the real world in a manner similar to fairy tales, thereby blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality.
Is magic realism a theory?
Magical realism is a literary genre that incorporates elements of fantasy or the supernatural into a narrative that is firmly situated in the real world. This genre is a subcategory of realism in fiction, incorporating elements of the fantastic as a standard component.
What is magic realism in simple words?
Magical realism is a genre that incorporates fantastical events into a realistic tone, incorporating elements from fables, folk tales, and myths into contemporary social contexts. Characters with fantasy traits like levitation, telepathy, and telekinesis help to incorporate modern political realities. The existence of fantastic elements in the real world serves as the foundation for magical realism, as writers reveal the magical in the existing world, as seen in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
In this world, the supernatural realm blends with the natural world, and a characteristic of narrator reticence is the deliberate withholding of information about the fictitious world. Magical events are presented as ordinary occurrences, allowing the reader to accept the marvelous as normal and common.
What is the best definition of the term magic realism?
Magic realism is a Latin-American narrative strategy that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into realistic fiction. It was first applied in the 1940s by Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier and is considered a natural outcome of postcolonial writing. It involves addressing the realities of the conquerors and the conquered. Notable Latin-American magic realists include Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Amado, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, and Isabel Allende.
Who is the most famous writer of magical realism?
Magical realism, a genre originating from Latin American authors like Franz Kafka and García Márquez, has gained popularity worldwide. The genre’s definition and definition are blurred when borders are crossed and myths, beliefs, and different realities merge. Nobel Prize laureates have produced incredible books that enrich the genre, with five novels by Nobel Prize laureates showcasing magical realism. Regardless of their placement within the genre’s varied bookcase, these magical works of literature are generally considered magical works of literature.
📹 What Is Magical Realism?
After reading a handful of Magical Realism books here are my conclusions! My book reviews of Magical Realism books: The …
I read a magical realism text for the first time in a magazine. It told the story of three dragons who were adopted by a couple. they raised them as if they were human. The way the author narrated the passage of their age, in childhood, adolescence and even adulthood is comical and fantastic at the same time. Dragons fight, mess, do drugs, get married, divorce and die.
Believe it or not, Magical Surrealism helped me move past issues that were preventing me from achieving a true, meaningful life. When I picked up the book “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, I was expecting to read a very long childrens’ tale. As I read the book, the characters in the story, their obsessions, the Insomnia plague, the levitating priest…etc, I discovered things within myself that were hindering me from becoming a fulfilled person. I realized that, as the characters in this story would repeat the same patterns of obsession and isolation–time after time after time–so was I. In every character of the Buendia Family, I saw a piece of me. If there is one thing that the Magical Realism within the “One Hundred Years of Solitude” taught me is that sometimes, it is easier to continue ruminating in a world of our own, than face reality and the challenge of change. “SPOILER WARNING!!!”. It is sad to think that the story ends with the last surviving member of the family, in that one last moment of clarity, that he realized all of the mistakes that the past members of the family had done, and that now, in that hurricane destroying the entire Macondo Universe, that he was nothing more than a fictitious character in an ending novel. Reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was just one of the first steps to recovering from depression. It was a long and challenging road. I am an ER Nurse now. I am a happy father, with a wonderful wife and a newborn daughter that brings joy to my life.
Pedro Páramo by the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo is one of the masterpieces of Latin American literature, it is considered the novel that inaugurated the literary subgenre of “Magical Realism in Latin America”. Juan Rulfo’s work finally gave me the path I was looking for to continue with my books,” Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez confessed in an interview.
Excellent explanation. I completely agree with your explanation of magic realism and also the idea that it is a post colonial resistance against Eurocentrism, but I think its scope is even bigger. One aspect of magic realism is politically ideological, that is the postcolonial stuff. Another aspect is challenging the constricted mentality created by strict adherence to materialistic/scientific determinism. This aspect is more philosophical, and not just ethical like the ideological aspect but also epistemological or maybe even metaphysical i.e. it may draw our attention to fundamental questions about the nature of reality and the likes. This is just my personal opinion.
Magical realism is a form of realism, but realism enhanced. Derrida spoke of “participation without belonging” w/ genres that briefly partake of other genres, & that happens in magic realism. Taken as a whole, “Cien anos de soledad” realistically depicts Colombia’s convulsive history; Garcia Marquez claimed that the eruptions of unreality in the book actually happened.
Magical realism is not from Colombia because the term is European in concoction. However, when European writers viewed the way Latin American writers wrote they saw it as realism with a splash of “magical”. They viewed these stories through a lens of exotification, without realising that it’s ALL real and that it’s a description of the absurdities found in Latin American societies. If we think about what exotification is, it’s about seeing what’s mundane or normalized in one society and treating it as special or unique because one is not used to it. It’s very much about ignorance and how what we don’t understand can often appear magical. As a result, how these authors chose to tell the story is what mattered. This is why magical realism, in my opinion, does not exist. It’s a term created in ignorance and perhaps the literary term itself is the most magical part about the whole genre.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I’m glad I already had a solid enough concept of Magical Realism; yet this made me aware that culturally it made such a political impact. My debut book “Just a Little Broken” I like to think is in the same vein as the genre. It allows a significant amount of freedom in storytelling, especially within a reality-based land. I appreciate all the information and nuances packed into these articles.
This all remind me of the french “fantastique” genre of the 19th century in authors such as Maupassant or Théophile Gauthier altough it is different from what was shown here because the text first person narrators do pinpoint and question the unrealistic elements that introduce themselves in an otherwise perfectly realist world. However the characters rational explanations (and the expectations of the readers seeking to know if what happened really happened in the story or is an hallucination) often come short because at the end certain elements that contradict the hallucination explanation appears at the end, leaving us bamboozled enough to not being effectively sure enough to prove that what the characters experienced was real or not.
I think that one VERY important book was left out of this article- Juan Rolfo’s 1955 short story, Pedro Páramo. A young man by the name of Juan Preciado travels to the small town of Comala at the request of his mother, and soon finds out that it is a quiet town of the literal dead. What happens next is an incredibly surreal hopscotching between the past and the present, where the dead and living interact just because, and much more. While it was initially received coldly, its popularity later exploded. The most notable fan of it was none other than Gabriel García Márquez himself, who said that his discovery of the novel in 1961 was what not just got him out of a writing block, but directly led to the creation of One Hundred Years of Solitude. He also claimed to be able to, “recite the whole book, forwards and backwards.” While more obscure these days, Pedro Páramo’s influence, and what it influenced, cannot be overlooked in any discussion about Magic Realism.
Props just on the fact that you included Carpentier. The dude basically established the “rules of magic realism” for LatinAmerican literature, and yet very few people know who he is or have ever read his incredible novels. It’s amazing too, because even Harold Bloom included Carpentier in this “100 Geniuses”. And William H. Gass was also a huge fan of Carpentier, placing him side by side with Borges.
I am taking gender and literature course this spring semester in 2024, and my professor discussed magical realism and allusion. I still have difficult time grasping magical realism because I am not a logical and analytical type of person, I am working on my left brain little more. I am more right brained I am more spiritual, creative and artistic, and likes to see the big picture and think outside the box. I kinda see magical realism kinda like allusion. You mention or refer to a person, place, literature or text. What does this have to do with magical realism? Let’s say a Disney movie where a young woman and young man meet each other by fate for searching for the lost empire that has been lost in human history or civilization, and the young man who’s scavenging more about the lost empire that was hidden away in human civilization. What am I referencing? I’ll give the answer if no one got the answer. If you use allusion in magical realism it’s kind of like the magic is there right in your face, yet it’s not there. It’s difficult to comprehend magical realism because the point of magical realism is to use reality as your base, and take references from literature, texts, myths, places and mesh them together without mentioning what they’re referring to. It’s kinda like surrealism where you find yourself it’s like finding your identity. There’s this pyramid where environment begins at the bottom of the pyramid and identity is at the top, and above it is spirit, consciousness or God.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude” I finished on the second try. I could see unfortunate Latin America, all in despair and confusion, invaded by foreign powers. Tony Morrison’s “Beloved” I read long long time ago and I found its Korean version too difficult to properly understand. I enjoyed Murakami Haruki books too. I used to dream a lot, almost every night.. Each dream that I had was exactly how true magical realism was. I saw no reason ever to bother to read magical realism novels..😁😉
i have a problem understanding why not claiming to be a latin american literature genre…. it seems eurocentric fousing on the semantics of an expression used for VISUAL arts that is not even that relevant and influential in art history, even more for LITERATURE no one would claim that van gogh is not european art when he had inspiration from japanese art for example or that impressionism is not european because john singer sargent was american
i hate the use of the term to describe any literary work from Latin America. Borges and Cortazar for example would not be magical realism because they do not make any sort of social commentary, Borges himself was a great fan of fantasy writers and i think that some of his short stories such as El Aleph are more like philosophical fantasy
Magical realism has to have a political component, not just social commentary—as you say. If there’s no political point of view, a work can be fantastical or fantasy but not magical realism. As such, there may have been many works of fantasy before magical realism but it was fantastic literature. Americans and Europeans constantly fail to realize that because what Latin American writers were political about, is the colonialism of Europeans and Americans. The other little detail missing on your article is Pedro Paramo, the first work of Magical Realism .100 Years of Solitude owes everything to Pedro Paramo. Where 100 years of Solitude is like an Agatha Christie novel, Pedro Paramo is like Edgar Alan Poe. Also, Haruki Murakami is more of a fantastical literature writer, not magical realist. You do need to research your articles more.
I am a PhD in English literature specializing in Latin American literature, and I am currently teaching a class on magical realism. I am also figuring out my way through the genre as I teach, but I can give you some guideposts for what it is. First, magical realism is not beyond the realm of possibility for the point of view from which it is being written. In other words, it is often based in traditions, practices, and beliefs that are typical for the culture from which it is being produced–although it takes those traditions, practices, and beliefs and levels them up into the extraordinary, aka the magical. However, what I think really distinguishes magical realism from other genres are the particular themes that get explored in these books. Magical realism often deals with topics of trauma, loss, and/or alienation because it ultimately serves as a form of social commentary. Consequently, magical realism pretty much always aims to say something true about the world through the extraordinary.
I definitely think it should be noted that typically with magical realism, the narrator/protag is the one normalizing the magic. Or in any case, the fantasy element/s aren’t plot points, rather imagery, metaphor, devices to push a theme across, rather than an actual rising or falling action. It is an effect rather than a cause. For instance, really simple example. But say there’s a guy named Tony. Tony is dumped by his fiance and is real sad about it. Due to his heartbreak, Tony transforms into a bird to fly away from his problems. That I would consider magical realism because it’s an effect to illustrate a theme. However, if Tony woke up one day as a bird and thus was dumped because his fiance was like “What the hell? Why are you a bird?” and he has to spend the rest of the book as a shapeshifter, trying to find his place in the world, I’d say that’s fantasy. Because it is action/cause of action. Similarly, though many characterize it as such, I have a hard time seeing Every Heart a Doorway as magical realism. The world doesn’t normalize these kids’ experiences. And the fantasy element is the center of every event and is the motive for every character to act. It’s certainly a very gentle urban fantasy read where their isn’t magic thrown in your face. But I find it a little to… overt to be considered magical realism.
Magical Realism is my favorite genre and I’m from South America… I’ve read many definitions for this genre, and they’re all quite vague (which is funny considering that the genre itself is vague and weird, as you said). But there’s something that I’ve read many times that draw the line between fantasy and magical realism, and it’s quite the opposite of what you said… the magical aspects that appear in magical realism are not normal for the world they live in. For example, in The House of The Spirits we have Clara who has this ability to kinda talk to the dead and has premonitions, but in their world this is not normal, so they decide to hide her ‘gift’. I don’t know how to explain this, but this magical aspects sort of break normality in their contemporary world, where in fantasy all of the magic and fantasy aspects are normal and they make sense to their world.
Gabriel García Márquez brought Magical Realism to the surface – much like Darwin brought his theory to the surface in his time; enlightening an already established subject to society. In recent years it has been, in my view, Haruki Murakami who has spearheaded (not exclusively) the style today. (I like to think of the genre, which is actually under an umbrella that shadows a bunch of similar styles as “Abtractual Realism” – my term – in order to differentiate it (isolate) from the batch of styles.))This specific style is by far my favorite. I do not only read it, but my creative writings free flows in its inventive nature. Here is a very brief snippet of one of my personal (Magical/Abstractual Realism) creative works…can you see the genre behind the words? Enjoy:_Her head, like equal halves joined by mirrored opposites, told her manner. One of her eyes, the left one, scoped the room confidently while the right one drooped every so slight. A keen observer, a counselor of all sorts of cognition, would recognize the skewed parallels in her features; each nuance, each shifting of expression; the imbalance.With pupils clouded by years of blindness, Orlando could, by miracle, capture such modes – the sounds of her shifting steps, the cycles of her breathing; how certain vowels were slurred. Orlando knew that her outlet was the creative, a pianists, a writer of romantic poems, a dancer, and that her struggles were in her decisions- the same choices that drove her life of solitude up to that point.
This was a mega super cool article Ariel!! I’ve really enjoyed this little series ^-^ If you want more magical realism recommendations, The Tiny Wife and Everything We Miss are really short and sweet examples of using magical realism to add whimsy and significance to everyday life which is just a delight to read <3
HI!!! I never knew “booktube” existed till now. You are wonderful! I also LOVE magical realism, but never know how to find more of it. Has your list of recommendations grown since the making of this? If so, please do share!! I also appreciate your article confessional about changing up your reading patterns from YA to other. GOOD FOR YOU! Consider me, as a person who reads zero YA, your new fan. CooL! Thank you for your content Ariel.
I remember in college I was asked to do a power point for Franz Kafka, and every source I found about him described him as the one who started magical realism, even though he didn’t start it. But at the same time I found out many magical realism writers were inspired by Kafka. So you can argue that magical realism, kind of, began with him. His works aren’t fantasical, but they are surreal and unusual at times.
I love the creative structure of this article. I guess I thought Gabriel Garcia Marquez invented magical realism because he uses it so well but wherever it started, I am glad this literary element exists because while I don’t like fantasy books, I do like a little bit of unexplainable magic in my reality.
Great article, I’ve immediately subscribed 😊❤❤❤ At the moment, I’m on my way in writing my MA Thesis on Magic Realism, comparing two novels of Amos Tutuola. 😂🤞🤞🤞🤞 I really like the way you went through Murakami and Allende; I definitely suggest you to read Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier, Tony Morrison, Ben Okri and Günter Grass (The Tin Drum).
To me, it seem so right to say every person understand the magical realism in his way, authors and critics, and readers of course. So yeah its very difficult to explain the differences between fantasy and magical realism. In school, I’m student of spanish literature, they said to us that fantasy are imposibles events; the magical realism are those events posibles but extremely difficult to happen. I think that magical realism is an objective vision of the reality but with elements unexpected that can happen. This is so confuse, but so enjoyable to read! I love the article, I read Everybody sees the ants from King and makes me want to read more about of the autor. Oh, and I recommend to you, perhaps you know already, One hundred year of solitude from Gabriel García Marquéz and Pedro Páramo from Juan Rulfo!
Kung Fu Hustle and Crouching Tiger are great examples of magical realism movies. Lots of Kung Fu movies were magical realism. The best definition I can come up with is to contrast with contemporary fantasy like Harry Potter. In HP or Vampire Diaries the world initially seems like our contemporary world and there is a character who goes on a journey to discover the specialness and magic in the world that is hidden .The reader from our world goes on this journey of discovery with the character. There is a sense of a “guided tour” in contemporary fantasy, because the reader expects that the author will explain “how it all works” in the end. In 100 years of solitude, the world is contemporary and there are magical things, but the difference is that nobody is going on a journey to discover them. They’re just in the background. Neither the reader nor the narrator character is making any effort to piece together how or why these amazing things are happening, they’re just taken for granted. The author feels no compulsion to construct a coherent system of rules that govern the world.
Magic Realism started in Mexico with the literature of Elena Garro. She was the founder of this particular writing style. I suggest you read Recollections of things to come (Los recuerdos del porvenir, 1963). After that, all other authors followed including Juan Rulfo and Gabriel García Marquéz. Magic Realism as a genre was called that a decade later after Los recuerdos del porvenir. Gabriel García Marquez, after reading her book, began writing One hundred years of solitude and copied her style to the letter. But as history goes, female writers are never recognized or celebrated in comparison to their male counterparts.
Magical realism is my absolute favorite thing to read! I’m also about to attempt to write it. Hoping I can pull it off okay. Also I love the style of this article- it was cute and informative! Murakami is my favorite magical realism writer so far. If you liked the Windup Bird Chronicles, you should try out 1Q84. It’s a massive book, but it’s stunningly written.
Nice article. I think an aspect of magical realism that you kind of touched on is that the magic is usually a metaphor for another realistic issue. In the house of spirits you mentioned it made political commentary and in I crawl through it it is a metaphor for metal illnesses. I’ve also read a book recently called The Heart of Redness, and I think it effectively uses magical realism to show the effect of history on the present by having these physical scars that are passed down through the generations. This is what I believe is the difference between magical realism and contemporary fantasy. Magical realism aims to address issues in the real world through magic, while fantasy is magic set in the real world.
From the conclusion that fantasy takes place in its own world, further conclusions follow, such as “Specific natural laws of its own to which this world is subject”. In magical realism, on the other hand, it is our natural laws plus magical elements that are not further explained and, above all, that DO NOT NEED EXPLANATION. This creates special opportunities for an author, for example to criticize what already exists in the form of magical elements, without the dangers that could arise in other genres. Nonetheless, a very good article.
I WANT YOU TO DO THIS FOR EVERY GENRE YOU’RE INTERESTED TO EXPLORE! it’s gonna be like going in an adventure.. a literary adventure. p.s: I was inspired to go exploring Plays. Not only Shakespeare’s but Plays in general. I noticed that among the books I read, I rarely pick up plays so I decided to dedicate the month for them.
Hi Ariel I really enjoy this article’s subject. Have you read One Hundred Years Of Solitude? That’s magical realism and my favorite book. I think that book can give you a different perspective about magical realism. I could tell you why but, that book has one of the best endings I’ve come across and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may want to read it. Also good editing 🙂
No way to boil it down. The minute you do, flowers appear. Your second and third points are spot on. Even still, it would take those books you’ve used as examples X 10 to get to the nitty gritty of what the genre is. Historical context is paramount. Easy to reference German and Latin American sources as angles. More difficult to pin point why those cultures and many more find a home in authorial reticence.
Magical realism is my favourite genre and I completely get what you mean by it’s hard to explain the difference between it and fantasy. To me, the magic in fantasy draws attention to itself as spectacle and the plot tends to follow it. From what I read fantasy tends to be more plot driven unlike magic realism which tends to be character focused.
I suppose the reason why ‘magical realism’ is so hard to define is because the word ‘realism’ is pretty weird to use when we talk about literature. We all believe in different things and so when we’re writing fiction (when we’re writing, period. but let’s say it’s about fiction), we’re creating a new world. No exceptions. The way we describe characters, events, thoughts and feelings, it’s always our own way. So no fiction can be described as ‘realism’. I would go further and argue that if a book has a clear genre it’s not a good book at all, but let’s just leave it at that.
Hi! I’m a friend of Hamel’s (mentioned in one of your other articles). Just thought I’d say hi and offer some additional readings, if you’re interested. I’m just finishing up English this year too. =) You do have the basic differences down between fantasy and magical realism down in that fantasy involves another world while magical realism happens in our “real” world to an individual. But you also get the weird ones that seem to exist in both like “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” which is what we call a portal fantasy. It’s really cool stuff. If you want to get a bit more out of it, I took a course on fantasy and the fantastic (in other words, fantasy and magical realism) and can send you some articles about it.
I love the genre of magical realism, but I can only handle it in small doses. I got into the genre back in college in the nineties, starting with Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude. I was hooked. I read the rest of his catalogue and moved onto other Latin American authors like Julio Cortazar and Jorge Louis Borges, who’s considered the father of Latin American magical realism. Then it was on to other writers in the genre like Jorge Amado of Brazil, then Jose Saramago of Portugal, Haruki Murakami and Kobo Abe of Japan, and Salman Rushdie, then of India and the UK. I eventually had to take a break from magical realism because it can really make your head spin after a while. As a writer myself, I rarely deal with magical realism. I find it difficult to write and opt for actuality, whether I’m writing science fiction, fantasy or horror. What I mean by actuality is that there is no doubt, no matter how outrageous the scenario, that what is happening to characters is actually happening, not just fancy imaginings of their own mind. A couple of writers with a unique spin on magical realism that I highly recommend are the American writers Steven Millhauser and Nicholas Christopher. Absolutely wonderful writers. Millhauser writes wonderful novels, novellas and short stories like Martin Dressler (novel), Enchanted Night (novella), and The Barnum Museum. Nicholas Christopher writes novels like Vernonica and The Bestiary, both of them wonderful.
Great article! I’m a male with a very picky taste in books. I almost exclusively like Magical Realism and it makes it hard to find new books at the store sense stores dont typically have a shelf for magical realism at least where I live. I’ll definitely check these books out. Do you think magical realism can be used in other types of mediums such as comics/graphic novels, films, and articlegames? For example, Life Is Strange takes place in real life world about a high school girl but she has the ability to time travel and this is only used to further explain the lesson of the story and progress the characters, not just time traveling for the sake of time travel. There is also moments where we see animal spirits, and weird environmental changes (snow in the summer) that help describe what is happening in the story.
I think (I might be wrong, but it’s worth a shot)… With magical realism, the author brings magic into the settings surrounding the character in the “normal world.” While fantasy, the author brings the character (or the reader) into a foreign world full of magic (creatures, cultures, elements, etc.)
Have you ever read any of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s works? I recently read Love in the Time of Cholera, it has very high praise, and while the writing is beautiful, I didn’t enjoy the plot or very many of his characters, so it left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth for the genre. I’m hoping to try reading some other magical realism books to see if I like them better! 🙂
>Magical Realism >No GGM Is like starting on Japanese surrealism and not perusal Miyazaki. But seriously, tho. 100YOS, Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Colonel, Love in times of Cholera, Love and other Demons, etc. I love his books so much. I come from his region as well and it’s so beautiful how he describes the kinds of things our great grandfathers told us, tales of witches and magic and travelers, war and peace, fantastic natural landscapes, it’s… it’s quite a journey, even for someone living the actual tale lmao
I think what I’m getting as I explore the differences in the genres is that fantasy has the “yer a wizard, harry” moment. Where the reader (and often the protag) has a realization moment of “there’s a whole separate/secret world that exists outside our normal world with all this wacky stuff? whaaaat?” In magical realism, there’s no ‘normal world vs magical world’, and it’s not because the whole world is magical (like in the LOTR series where our global reality doesn’t exist). It’s just kinda: here is the world, there’s only one, and it is normal, because it has all the normal stuff like computers and takeout food and people who can turn their enemies into toads by singing about it between the hours of 2 and 5 am. Or something like that. This is my understanding.
Great article. Magical realism is such an interesting topic. I’ve really enjoyed your series on it. I personally haven’t read any of these books as I’m not much of a reader, but I have seen some film adaptations of some novels in the genre (Like Water For Chocolate is beautiful as a film). This article is making me want to go read some magical realism now. I Crawl Through It sounds interesting, so maybe I’ll start there 🙂
So would you say books like Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier or Dream a little dream by Kerstin Gier are magical realism? (The second series probably yes … but time travel?) And your right, it’S cool that it is so vague and the author and the reader can ultimately decide what they think it is Love your discussion articles 🙂 Currently perusal them all
Hmmm… I suppose i’ve read only one magical realism book in my life. As far as I know in english it’s called The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan, it’s about an isolated society inside a boarding school for disabled kids and how these kids interact with each other and the Outsides. it’s really popular in my country but outside no one has heard of it?? I’m actually not sure if there are problematic aspects (ablism and stuff) to it because the time I read it was quite long ago, but it seems to handle the topic pretty well. I guess I need to reread it, tbh everything i remember is really vague and confusing…
Have you read All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders? It’s sorta magical realism, sorta sci-fi, sorta fantasy- it’s a really weird book that’s so peculiar. I personally loved it and if you’re interested in reading something different it at least worth reading the synopsis on goodreads or the first fee chapters in a bookstore
I’ve never read anything in this genre and your article was very interesting. I know you haven’t read that many books in this genre yet, maybe you can answer my question (or someone else who watched this article is welcome too) – Do you think that magical realism has tropes like fantasy genre for example (orphaned hero,the chosen one, perilous journey ets)? And if it does, what are they?
I would say a great example of magical realism in pop culture media would be “Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai”, mind the name, but now discovering magical realism I’d figure that this piece of media is such a powerful emotional take on the genre, and I suggest those into japanese idol culture would get into it
Hello Ariel, I am very interested in magic realism, I haven’t read many books with it in it but I really want to. I am also very interested in screenplay and would like in studying it further at university. As a person who has investigated the concept that is ‘magic realism’ what are your thoughts on it in movies? Have you seen any and could recommend some? Is it just used as an externalized metaphor such as in the Black Swan? And how could magic realism be affectively used in transition from a book into a film? I would love to know your opinions on this topic as I have always found your interpretations and opinions fascinating. If anyone else in the comments knows anything please share your opinions as well! 🙂
Hello Ariel, My name is Segundo, from Argentina. If you really like Magical Realism, I recommend you to read the amazing southamerican author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Magical Realism is very popular in South America because It’s the best genre to describe and write about all the different political and historical moments that took place in the last century such as populism, dictatorships, regional conflicts and such things. I really like your articles! Bye!
I fail every single time I try to explain magical realism to someone. I guess it’s easier for people to create their own definitions of this term, based on their reading. It’s a shame you couldn’t enjoy The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It was too weird for me too at first. But, if you ever want to read Murakami’s works again, you should pick Kafka on the Shore. It’s a masterpiece. Or his short stories. They are brilliant.
The fantasy in a made up world isn’t quite right as much fantasy works within an otherwise ordinary society. I think maybe the line is more about the ‘magical’ events in magical realism being unexplained and relatively unremarked. They are not, in the terms of the book, magical; they simply are. Where in a fantasy book the magic maybe a magical system, a secret society, an artefact or whatever. As unexplained as the magic system may be in a fantasy book it generally references magic (or a pseudo scientific explanation in some cases). Though really, like you say, there are always books that blur the boundaries and it’s up to each author and each reader to interpret the text in front of them. 🙂
I would agree with you about magical realismo being diferentes of fantasy in the fact that it happens in the real world,not in a made up setting. But also,I think that maybe you could play a lil bit with a fantasy world to make it as real as posible,like Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. Do you think his movies fall in the category of magical realismo?
I thought it had started in France and Spain ..no??? And then it inspired the boom of South American literature in the 60’s-80’s. I think I read that somewhere. I read it came from the surrealist movement headed mostly by Dali… and the salons at the time (artistic salons —not the hair kind lol). And then magical realism came out of the surrealist movement.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle isn’t really magical realism… 😐😮 Haruki Murakami has a very deep and unique understanding if the world that he shares with us. I feel like he shares with us how he perceives the world rather than including magic in his works. Even though he has character like Creta and Malta in this novel, they’re not exactly magic… Phsycics do exist in real life and in a way I feel like this novel is very spiritual and has nothing to do with magic. I don’t really know how to convey my thoughts right now but Murakami’s novels are hard to understand, let alone explain. So I don’t agree with the label “Magical Realism” that is often struck to his books. His works are so unique and hard to explain because they feel like they are written by some kind of spiritual being who understands and oversees everything.
You missed Asia in your article, but probably from a lack of first hand knowledge on Asia which is fine. Pretty much all the shows and pop-lit in Asia is Magical Realism. Coming from the blend in culture and myths, excluding the contemporary element you mentioned… more “period magical realism”… unless set in the heavens, which is written in a magical realism way.
Modern day Magical realism is making a wish on a blooming dandelion and blowing the petals completely off the flower and believing your wish to come true. Modern day magical realism is also making a birthday wish upon a lit candle topped on a birthday cake. I believe. And lastly, I believe magical realism is four leaf clovers granting luck. This is just my hypothesis. I came to your article to understand what it could possibly mean .
jesus! I found this late but I just want to say YES to all you say it defines Magical Realism but I would also add that the magic is not explained and doesn’t have a “system” on its own, weird shit happens just because… btw you should read Carlos Ruiz Zafón. he writes Magical Realism beautifully, more so if you can read it in its original Spanish!
“To say it isn´t a latin genre is just to reinforce north american imperialism in the rest of the continet and see the world through your anglo-european biased view, shame on you!” “Magical Realism” is a Latin American born genre! An escapism from the harsh reality that many Latinos face everyday like dictatorship, poverty, violence, politics and so on; basically in the same way Godzilla movies are a quintessential part of Japanese culture because they provide the catharsis of the repressed feelings japanese people have towards the atomic bomb, Magical Realism provides the catharsis to the repressed feelings and harsh latin reality through a magical one… In the same way Godzilla and other japanese monsters can appear in US movise, Magical Realism can be employed by japanese writers and whichever nationality, however that doesn´t erase the genre origin as you make it seem in your article. You didn´t read ” One Hundred Years of Solitude” and say the style doesn´t have a starting point, such a sloppy job.