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Understanding Magical Realism in Literature

This document defines and provides elements of magical realism. It explains that magical realism is a modern genre of fiction that combines very detailed realistic settings and characters with extraordinary, magical, or unbelievable elements that are treated as ordinary occurrences. Some key conventions are that something strange happens to change the realistic setting, magical events are never explained, stories depend on ambiguity and raising questions rather than explanations, and time is depicted as changeable and inconsistent. Examples of authors that exemplify magical realism are provided.

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Alex yang
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409 views6 pages

Understanding Magical Realism in Literature

This document defines and provides elements of magical realism. It explains that magical realism is a modern genre of fiction that combines very detailed realistic settings and characters with extraordinary, magical, or unbelievable elements that are treated as ordinary occurrences. Some key conventions are that something strange happens to change the realistic setting, magical events are never explained, stories depend on ambiguity and raising questions rather than explanations, and time is depicted as changeable and inconsistent. Examples of authors that exemplify magical realism are provided.

Uploaded by

Alex yang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Magical Realism

World Literature
Grade 10
Essential Questions

• Why do humans tell stories?

• How does a person’s cultural background in uence his/her


imagination?

• How do writers use magic to explain reality?

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Elements of
Magical Realism

Magical Realism

• A modern genre of ction (1940s and onward)

• Combines very detailed, realistic settings and characters with an


element of the extra-ordinary, unbelievable, and often magical

• Extraordinary occurrences appear as ordinary parts of daily life

• Ordinary events are sometimes given extraordinary explanations

• The goal of magical realism is to ignore the line between


believable and fantastic in order to make more profound
statements about life, death, love, sadness, isolation, etc.
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Conventions of Magical Realism
(What we should expect)
• The setting is realistic and ordinary, almost boring.

• Something strange happens to change the setting into something that should be unusual or unreal.

• Something magical happens or some impossible character shows up.

• Sometimes this “magical thing” is just hinted at, and one needs to decide if it is real or not.

• The magical part of the story is never explained and is often ignored or overlooked by the other characters in varying degrees.

• The fact that the characters do not react to the weirdness can be frustrating or astonishing. It is meant to raise more
questions.

• The story depends on ambiguity (a lack of clear details); the plot is never explained entirely or clearly
• Leaves the reader to decide what is going on or what is important.

• Time is changeable and inconsistent; it is often di cult to tell how much time has passed during the story.

• The story will often add details that can feel distracting or o -topic; but those details serve speci c purposes:

• They make the passage of time seem unnatural and mystical.

• They help the reader focus on the topic the author is REALLY writing about.

• It is also just freakish, which is fun and annoying and astonishing

• Most of the stories are open-ended, meaning that they do not have a distinct end or directly explain anything.

• Often the ending raises even more questions

• Like life, each reader has to decide what really happened and what it means.
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Readings
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (short story)

• Arti cial Roses (short story)

• Handsomest Drowned Man in the World (short story)

• Haruki Murakami

• Second Bakery Attack (short story)

• Birthday Girl (short story)

• The Elephant Vanishes (short story)

• Franz Kafka

• The Metamorphosis (a novella)


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