Magic realism

Magic realism

Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction [1] in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought. It is a film, literary and visual art genre.


The term is broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous: Winona State University Asst. Professor of Japanese Studies, and author, Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as "...what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe."[2] This critical perspective towards magical realism stems from the Western reader's disassociation with mythology, a root of magical realism more easily understood by non-Western cultures.[3] Western confusion regarding magical realism is due to the "...conception of the real" created in a magical realist text: rather than explain reality using natural or physical laws, as in typical Western texts, magical realist texts create a reality " which the relation between incidents, characters, and setting could not be based upon or justified by their status within the physical world or their normal acceptance by bourgeois mentality."[4] Many writers are categorized as "magical realist," which confuses what the term really means and how wide its definition is.[5]



While the term magical realism in its modern sense first appeared in 1955, the German art critic Franz Roh first used the phrase in 1925, to refer to a painterly style also known as Neue Sachlichkeit (the New Objectivity),[6] an alternative championed by fellow German museum director Gustav Hartlaub.[7] Roh believed magic realism is related to, but distinctive from, surrealism, due to magic realism's focus on the material object and the actual existence of things in the world, as opposed to the more cerebral, psychological and subconscious reality that the surrealists explored.[8] Magic realism was later used to describe the uncanny realism by American painters such as Ivan Albright, Paul Cadmus, George Tooker and other artists during the 1940s and 1950s. However, in contrast with its use in literature, magical realist art does not often include overtly fantastic or magical content, but rather looks at the mundane, the every day, through a hyper-realistic and often mysterious lens.[9] The extent to which magical elements enter in visual art depends on the subcategory, discussed in detail below.

Roh's magic realism's theoretical implications greatly influenced European and Latin American literature. Italian Massimo Bontempelli, for instance, considered the first magic realist creative writer, sought to present the "...mysterious and fantastic quality of reality." He claimed that literature could be a means to create a collective consciousness by "...opening new mythical and magical perspectives on reality," and used his writings to inspire an Italian nation governed by Fascism.[8] Venezuelan Arturo Uslar-Pietri was closely associated with Roh's form of magic realism and knew Bontempelli in Paris. Rather than follow Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier's developing versions of "the (Latin) American marvelous real," Uslar-Pietri's writings emphasize "...the mystery of human living amongst the reality of life." He believed magic realism was "...a continuation of the 'vanguardia' [or Avant-garde] modernist experimental writings of Latin America."[8]

Literary magic realism originated in Latin America. Writers often traveled between their home country and European cultural hubs, such as Paris or Berlin, and were influenced by the art movement of the time.[3][10] Carpentier and Uslar-Pietri, for example, were strongly influenced by European artistic movements, such as Surrealism, during their stays in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.[8] One major event that linked painterly and literary magic realisms was the translation and publication of Roh's book into Spanish by Spain's Revista de Occidente in 1927, headed by major literary figure José Ortega y Gasset. "Within a year, Magic Realism was being applied to the prose of European authors in the literary circles of Buenos Aires."[11] Jorge Luis Borges inspired and encouraged other Latin American writers in the development of magical realism - particularly with his first magical realist publication, Historia universal de la infamia in 1935, .[12] Between 1940 and 1950, magical realism in Latin America reached its peak, with prominent writers appearing mainly in Argentina.[13]




Fantastical elements

As recently as 2008, magical realism in literature has been defined as "...a kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the 'reliable' tone of objective realistic report, designating a tendency of the modern novel to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the energies of fable, folk tale, and myth while maintaining a strong contemporary social relevance. The fantastic attributes given to characters in such novels—levitation, flight, telepathy, telekinesis—are among the means that magic realism adopts in order to encompass the often phantasmagorical political realities of the 20th century."[14]


In an essay entitled "The Baroque and the Marvelous Real" the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier championed the idea that the baroque is defined by a lack of emptiness, a departure from structure or rules, and an "extraordinary" plenitude of disorienting detail (citing Mondrian as its polar opposite). From this angle, Carpentier views the baroque as a layering of elements, which translates easily into the post-colonial or transcultural Latin American atmosphere that Carpentier emphasizes in The Kingdom of this World.[15] "America, a continent of symbiosis, mutations...mestizaje, engenders the baroque,"[16] made explicit by elaborate Aztec temples and associative Nahuatl poetry. These mixing ethnicities grow together with the American baroque; the space in between is where the "marvelous real" is seen. Marvelous: not meaning beautiful and pleasant, but extraordinary, strange, excellent. Such a complex system of layering—encompassed in the Latin American "boom" novel, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude—has as its aim "...translating the scope of America."[17]


Magical realism plot lines characteristically employ hybrid multiple planes of reality that takes place in "...inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural, and Western and indigenous."[18][19] For example, as seen in Julio Cortázar's "La noche boca arriba," an individual experiences two realistic situations simultaneously in the same place but during two different time periods, centuries apart.[20]

His dreamlike state connects these two realities; this small bit of magic makes these multiple planes of reality possible.[21] Overall, they establish "...a more deep and true reality than conventional realist techniques would illustrate."[18][22]



Authorial reticence

Authorial reticence is the "...deliberate withholding of information and explanations about the disconcerting fictitious world."[24] The narrator does not provide explanations about the accuracy or credibility of events described or views expressed by characters in the text. Further, the narrator is indifferent, a characteristic enhanced by this absence of explanation of fantastic events; the story proceeds with "logical precision" as if nothing extraordinary took place.[25][26]

In this, explaining the supernatural world would immediately reduce its legitimacy relative to the natural world. The reader would consequently disregard the supernatural as false testimony.

Sense of mystery

Something that most critics agree on is this major theme. Magic realist literature tends to read at an intensified level. Taking the seminal work of the style, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, the reader must let go of preexisting ties to conventional exposition, plot advancement, linear time structure, scientific reason, etc., to strive for a state of heightened awareness of life's connectedness or hidden meanings. Carpentier articulates this feeling as " seize the mystery that breathes behind things,"[27] and supports the claim by saying a writer must heighten his senses to the point of "estado limite" [translated as "limit state" or "extreme" [28]] in order to realize all levels of reality, most importantly that of mystery.[29]

Collective consciousness

The Mexican critic Luis Leal has said, "Without thinking of the concept of magical realism, each writer gives expression to a reality he observes in the people. To me, magical realism is an attitude on the part of the characters in the novel toward the world," or toward nature. He adds, "If you can explain it, then it's not magical realism."[30]

Political critique

Magic realism contains an "...implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite."[31] Especially with regard to Latin America, the style breaks from the inarguable discourse of "...privileged centers of literature."[32] This is a mode primarily about and for "ex-centrics": the geographically, socially and economically marginalized. Therefore, magic realism's ‘alternative world’ works to correct the reality of established viewpoints (like realism, naturalism, modernism). Magic realist texts, under this logic, are subversive texts, revolutionary against socially dominant forces. Alternatively, the socially dominant may implement magical realism to disassociate themselves from their "power discourse."[33] Theo D’haen titles this change in perspective, "decentering." Upon consideration, Latin America is the ideal locale and starting place for such literary subversions to a dominant power, from the colonizers to the dictators.

Major topics in criticism

Ambiguities in definition

Determining who coined the term magical realism (as opposed to magic realism) is controversial among literary critics. Maggie Ann Bowers argues that it first emerged in the 1955 essay "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction" by critic Angel Flores. She notes that while Flores names Jorge Luis Borges as the first magical realist (some critics consider him a predecessor, not actually a magical realist), he fails to acknowledge either Alejo Carpentier or Arturo Uslar-Pietri for bringing Roh's magic realism to Latin America.[8] However, both Luis Leal and Irene Guenther, (referencing Pietri and Jean Weisgerber texts, respectively), attest that Pietri was one of the first, if not the first, to apply the term to Latin American literature.[34][35] Leal and Guenther both quote Pietri, who described " as a mystery surrounded by realistic facts. A poetic prediction or a poetic denial of reality. What for lack of another name could be called a magical realism." [36] It is worth noting that Pietri, in presenting his term for this literary tendency, always kept its definition open by means of a language more lyrical and evocative than strictly critical, as in this 1948 statement. When academic critics attempted to define magical realism with scholarly exactitude, they discovered that it was more powerful than precise. Critics, frustrated by their inability to pin down the term's meaning, have urged its complete abandonment. Yet in Arturo Uslar-Pietri's vague, ample usage, magical realism was wildly successful in summarizing for many readers their perception of much Latin American fiction; this fact suggests that the term has its uses, so long as it is not expected to function with the precision expected of technical, scholarly terminology."

Guatemalan author William Spindler's article, “Magic realism: a typology,”[37] suggests that there are three kinds of magic realism, which however are by no means incompatible: European ‘metaphysical’ magic realism, with its sense of estrangement and the uncanny, exemplified by Kafka’s fiction; ‘ontological’ magical realism, characterized by ‘matter-of-factness’ in relating ‘inexplicable’ events; and ‘anthropological’ magical realism, where a Native worldview is set side by side with the Western rational worldview.[38] Spindler’s typology of magic realism has been criticized as “ act of categorization which seeks to define Magic Realism as a culturally specific project, by identifying for his readers those (non-modern) societies where myth and magic persist and where Magic Realism might be expected to occur. There are objections to this analysis. Western rationalism models may not actually describe Western modes of thinking and it is possible to conceive of instances where both orders of knowledge are simultaneously possible.”[39]

Lo real maravilloso


Alejo Carpentier



Latin American exclusivity

Criticism that Latin America is the birthplace and cornerstone of all things magic realist is quite common. Ángel Flores does not deny that magical realism is an international commodity but articulates that it has a Hispanic birthplace, writing that, "Magical realism is a continuation of the romantic realist tradition of Spanish language literature and its European counterparts."[46] Flores is not alone on this front; there is argument between those who see magical realism as a Latin American invention and those who see it as the global product of a postmodern world.[47] Irene Guenther concludes, "Conjecture aside, it is in Latin America that [magical realism] was primarily seized by literary criticism and was, through translation and literary appropriation, transformed."[35] Magic realism has taken on an internationalization: dozens of non-Hispanic writers are categorized as such, and many believe that it truly is an international commodity.[48]


Taking into account that, theoretically, magical realism was born in the 20th century, connecting it to postmodernism is a logical next step. To further connect the two concepts, there are descriptive commonalities between the two that Belgian critic Theo D'haen addresses in his essay, "Magical Realism and Postmodernism." Authors Günter Grass, Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, Italo Calvino, John Fowles, Angela Carter, John Banville, Michel Tournier, Giannina Braschi, Willem Brakman and Louis Ferron are widely considered postmodernist, but might "just as easily be categorized...magic realist."[49] A list has been compiled of characteristics one might typically attribute to postmodernism, but which also could describe literary magic realism: "...self-reflexiveness, metafiction, eclecticism, redundancy, multiplicity, discontinuity, intertextuality, parody, the dissolution of character and narrative instance, the erasure of boundaries, and the destabilization of the reader."[50] To further connect the two, magical realism and postmodernism share the themes of post-colonial discourse, in which jumps in time and focus cannot really be explained with scientific but rather with magical reasoning; textualization (of the reader); and metafiction [more detail: under Themes and Qualities].


Comparison with related genres







Prominent English-language fantasy writers have said that "magic realism" is only another name for fantasy fiction. Gene Wolfe said, "magic realism is fantasy written by people who speak Spanish,"[59] and Terry Pratchett said magic realism "is like a polite way of saying you write fantasy."[60]



In Leal's view, magical realism has a tropical (or llano [plains] or desert) context,[64] but he says that the fiction of Julio Cortázar contains only "the fantastic," not magical realism.[65] In Leal's view, "In fantastic literature—in Borges, for example—the writer creates new worlds, perhaps new planets. By contrast, writers like García Márquez, who use magical realism, don't create new worlds, but suggest the magical in our world."[66] Even Cortázar's short story "Casa Tomada," about a brother and sister whose house is taken over by someone or something mysterious, for Leal is an example of the fantastic and not magical realism.[65]

Science fiction


Major authors and works

Although critics and writers debate which authors or works fall within the magical realism genre, the following authors represent the narrative mode. Franz Kafka, writing in the 1920s, is the genre founder. Within the Latin American world, the most iconic of magical realist novelist is Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, whose novel One Hundred Years of Solitude was an instant worldwide success.

Plaque of Gabriel García Márquez, Paris

García Márquez confessed: "my most important problem was destroying the line of demarcation that separates what seems real from what seems fantastic."[68] Isabel Allende was the first Latin America woman writer recognized outside the continent. Her most well-known novel, The House of the Spirits, is arguably similar to García Márquez's style of magical realist writing. Another notable novelist is Laura Esquivel, whose Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of the domestic life of women living on the margins of their families and society. The novel's protagonist, Tita, is kept from happiness and marriage by her mother. "Her unrequited love and ostracism from the family lead her to harness her extraordinary powers of imbuing her emotions to the food she makes. In turn, people who eat her food enact her emotions for her. For example, after eating a wedding cake Tita made while suffering from a forbidden love, the guests all suffer from a wave of longing. Among Latin American writers, Jorge Luis Borges is also regarded as a major exponent of magical realism.

In the English speaking world, major authors include British Indian writer Salman Rushdie, African American novelist Toni Morrison, English author Louis de Bernières and English feminist writer Angela Carter. Perhaps the best known is Rushdie, whose "...language form of magical realism straddles both the surrealist tradition of magic realism as it developed in Europe and the mythic tradition of magical realism as it developed in Latin America."[citation needed] Morrison's most notable work, Beloved, tells the story of a mother who, haunted by the ghost of her child, learns to cope with memories of her traumatic childhood as an abused slave and the burden of nurturing children into a harsh and brutal society.[8]

For a detailed list of authors and works considered magical realist please see Category:Magic realism novels

Visual art

Historical development


New Objectivity saw an utter rejection of the preceding impressionist and expressionist movements, and Hartlaub curated his exhibition under the guideline: only those, "...who have remained true or have returned to a positive, palpable reality,"[72] in order to reveal the truth of the times,"[73] would be included. The style was roughly divided into two subcategories: conservative, (neo-)classicist painting, and generally left-wing, politically motivated Verists.[73] The following quote by Hartlaub distinguishes the two, though mostly with reference to Germany; however, one might apply the logic to all relevant European countries. "In the new art, he saw"[73]


Both sides were seen all over Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, ranging from the Netherlands to Austria, France to Russia, with Germany and Italy as centers of growth.[75] Indeed, Italian Giorgio de Chirico, producing works in the late 1910s under the style arte metafisica (translated as Metaphysical art), is seen as a precursor and as having an "influence...greater than any other painter on the artists of New Objectivity."[76][77]


Magic realism that excludes the overtly fantastic




Alexander Kanoldt, Still Life II 1922



  • A return to ordinary subjects as opposed to fantastical ones.


Later development: magic realism that incorporates the fantastic

Paul Cadmus, The Fleet's In! 1934


Occupying an intermediate place in this line of development, the work of several European and American painters whose most important work dates from the 1930s through to the 1950s, including Bettina Shaw-Lawrence, Paul Cadmus, Ivan Albright, Philip Evergood, George Tooker, even Andrew Wyeth, is designated as "magic realist." This work departs sharply from Roh's definition, in that it (according to "is anchored in everyday reality, but has overtones of fantasy or wonder." [85] In the work of Cadmus, for example, the surreal atmosphere is sometimes achieved via stylized distortions or exaggerations that are not realistic.

Recent "magic realism" has gone beyond mere "overtones" of the fantastic or surreal to depict a frankly magical reality, with an increasingly tenuous anchoring in "everyday reality." Artists associated with this kind of magic realism include Marcela Donoso[86][87][88][89][90] and Gregory Gillespie.[91][92][93]

Artists such as Peter Doig and Will Teather have become associated with the term in the early 21st century.



Magical realism is not an officially recognized film category; it is a literary film genre. It is presented matter of factly and occurs without explanation.[94] Critics have recognized magical realism features in many films by applying the magical realism characteristics. Many films have magical realist narrative and events that contrast between real and magical elements, or different modes of production. This device explores the reality of what exists.[95] Fredrick Jameson, "On Magic Realism in Film" advances a hypothesis that magical realism in film is a formal mode that is constitutionally depended on a type of historical raw material in which disjunction is structurally present.[96] Like Water for Chocolate begins and ends with the first person narrative to establishing the magical realism storytelling frame. Telling a story from a child point of view, the historical gaps and holes perspective, and with cinematic color heightening the presence, are magical realism tools in films.[97]

See also

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  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Bowers, Maggie A. Magic(al) Realism. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.
  14. ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 3rd ed., 2008
  15. ^ Carpentier, Alejo, El Reino de este Mundo
  18. ^ a b "Post Colonial Studies at Emory". 1998. Retrieved June 18, 2009. 
  27. ^ Carpentier, Alejo, "The baroque and the marvelous real," from MR: Theory, History, Community
  28. ^
  30. ^ García, Leal, p. 127–128
  64. ^ García, Leal, p. 90
  65. ^ a b García, Leal, p. 93.
  66. ^ García, Leal, p. 89.
  72. ^ Hartlaub, Gustav, "Werbendes Rundschreiben"
  80. ^ a b [6]
  83. ^ [7]
  84. ^ [8]
  85. ^ [9]
  90. ^
  92. ^ [10]
  94. ^ Hurd, Mary (November 30, 2006). Women directors and their films. Praeger. pp. 73. ISBN 978-0275985783. 
  96. ^ Zamora, Lois Parkinson; Faris, Wendy B (November 30, 1995). Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Duke University Press Books. pp. 426. ISBN 978-0822316404. 
  97. ^ Hegerfeld, Anne (January 13, 2005). Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism Seen through Contemporary Fiction from Britain (Costerus NS 155). Rodopi. pp. 147. ISBN 978-9042019744. 

External links

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • magic realism — magic realist. a style of painting and literature in which fantastic or imaginary and often unsettling images or events are depicted in a sharply detailed, realistic manner. [1925 30] * * * or magical realism Latin American literary phenomenon… …   Universalium

  • magic realism — n. a style in 20th cent. literature and art that depicts fantastic or magical characters or occurrences in an otherwise realistic presentation: also magical realism …   English World dictionary

  • magic realism — noun a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative or meticulously realistic painting are combined with surreal elements of fantasy or dreams • Hypernyms: ↑genre * * * ˌmagic ˈrealism f19 [magic realism] (also ˌmagical ˈrealism …   Useful english dictionary

  • magic realism — also magical realism N UNCOUNT Magic realism is a style of writing or painting which sometimes describes dreams as though they were real, and real events as though they were dreams …   English dictionary

  • Magic Realism — Magic Real|is|m n [U] a style of imaginative novel writing connected especially with 20th century writers from Latin America, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, and Isabel Allende, in which impossible events are described as if… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • magic realism — noun Date: 1933 1. painting in a meticulously realistic style of imaginary or fantastic scenes or images 2. a literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • magic realism — (also magical realism) noun a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy. Derivatives magic realist noun & adjective …   English new terms dictionary

  • magic realism — noun a literary style or genre that combines naturalistic details and narrative with surreal or dreamlike elements Syn: magical realism …   Wiktionary

  • magic realism — UK / US noun [uncountable] cinema, literature a type of literature or cinema in which very strange things happen in ordinary situations, as they do in dreams …   English dictionary

  • magic realism — mag′ic (or mag′ical) re′alism n. fia lit. an artistic style in which often fantastic images or events are depicted in a sharply realistic manner …   From formal English to slang

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