Magical Realism

1
Magical Realism

• World Literature

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Magical Realism

• Frame or surface of the work may be
  conventionally realistic, but contrasting
  elements invade the realism and change the whole
  basis of the art.
• Supernatural
• Myth
• Dream
• Fantasy

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Magical Realism

• Popularity in many parts of the world just after
  WWII
• Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina, South America)
• Gabriel García Márquez (Columbia, South America)
• Isabel Allende (Chile, South America)
• Günter Grass (Germany)
• Italo Calvino (Italy)
• Umberto Eco (Italy)

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Magical Realism

• Popularity in many parts of the world just after
  WWII
• John Fowles
• John Barth
• Thomas Pynchon
• Emma Tennant
• Don DeLillo
• Salman Rushdie
• Leslie Silko

5
Márquez on Magical Realism

• The question of what is real is at the heart of
  magical realism.
• Implies that our notions of reality are too
  limitedthat reality includes magic, miracles and
  monsters.
• By making things happen in his fictional world of
  Macondo that do not happen in most novels (or in
  most readers' experiences either), Marquez asks
  us to question our assumptions about our world,
  and to examine our certainties about ourselves
  and our community.
• Because the magical events in Macondo are
  presented matter-of-factly, our own sense of what
  is possible is amplified and enriched. Ordinary
  objects and events are enchanted.

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Márquez on Magical Realism

• Suggests that cultures and countries differ in
  what they call "real."
• It is here that magical realism serves its most
  important function, because it facilitates the
  inclusion of alternative belief systems.
• It is no coincidence that magical realism is
  flourishing in cultures such as Mexico and
  Colombia, where European and indigenous cultures
  have mixed, with the result that ancient myths
  are often just beneath the surface of modernity.

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Magical Realism

• Engages belief systems that defy rational,
  empirical (scientific) proof
• Crucial difference between magical realism and
  science fiction/fantasy is that magical realism
  sets magical events in realistic contexts, thus
  requiring us to question what is "real," and how
  we can tell.
• Undermines our certainties, and we eventually
  accept (often without authorial explanation) the
  fusion, or co-existence, of contradictory
  worldsworlds that would be irreconcilable in
  other modes of fiction.
• Is not "either/or" but "both at once"

8
Magical Realism

• Events don't follow our expectations of
  if/then, like most novels.
• If this happens, then this will follow.
• Things often happen without an explanation, or
  for reasons that we don't expect.
• Remedios the Beauty rises to heaven with her
  sister-in-law's sheets. No reason is given, and
  her sister-in-law Fernanda does not wonder how
  this could happen. She accepts it without
  surprise, and only regrets that she has lost her
  sheets.

9
Magical Realism

• Also defies our expectation of fictional selves.
• In realistic novels, characters are given
  individualized names, personalities, and family
  histories.
• We identify with them because their specific
  humanity engages us, and their individuality
  resembles our own.

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Magical Realism

• Objects and places in magical realist novels
  behave in ways that they could not in a realistic
  fiction.

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Sources

• Zamora, Lois Parkinson. Magical Realism in a
  Nutshell. Oprahs Book
• Club. oyos/magic/
• oyos_magic_nutshell.jhtml.
• Harmon Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 10th
  ed.