Magic realism is a 20th-century style of fiction and literary genre.
An eponymous German painting style influenced the terms in the 1920s.
Magic realism depicts the modern world as realistically as possible.
It also adds magical elements dealing with fantasy and reality.
It refers to literary works presenting magic or supernatural element as part of a real-world setting, such as a novel or a dramatic performance.
In contrast, fantasy stories are often separated from reality.
The concept of magical realism combines real and magical elements to produce a more inclusive writing style than literary realism or fantasy.
Magic realism is more of a descriptive term than a critically rigorous one.
It can be described by Matthew Strecher (1999) as what happens when an unreal or bizarre element invades a realistic, highly detailed setting.
Originally applied to a group of painters in the 1920s, magic realism today describes the prose fiction of: Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Isabel Allende, Günter Grass, Italo Calvino, John Fowles.
With sharp etchings of realism, they interweave ordinary events.
It describes details with fantastic and dreamlike elements.
It is derived from myth and fairy tales in an ever-shifting way.
Characteristics of Magic Realism:
Magical realism depicts fantastical events using a realistic style.
Fables, folk tales, and myths have become relevant to contemporary life. Magical realism is based on fantastic elements in the real world.
The authors do not invent new worlds but unveil the existing world's magic.
Gabriel Garcia Márquez invokes this style in his One Hundred Years of Solitude.
With magical realism, the natural world is blended with the supernatural.
The plotlines of magical realism are frequently set in inharmonious arenas of incompatible opposites, such as urban, rural, Western, and indigenous.
The reader plays a vital role in the plots of magical realism.
This is due to its multiple realities and references to the reader's world.
It is well suited for drawing attention to social or political criticism.
It explores how fiction shapes fact, reality shapes fiction, and the reader's role.
Critics consistently emphasize this significant theme.
The level of intensity in magical realist literature is high.
Specifically, magical realism contains an implicit criticism of society and the elite.
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