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Definition: magic realism from Philip's Encyclopedia

Twentieth-century literary form, particularly associated with post-1945 Latin American novelists. It is characterised by realistic and fantastical elements coherently interwoven into a highly subjective worldview. The fantastical is treated as matter-of-fact while everyday elements are described as if miraculous or extraordinary, creating a heightened sense of reality. Originally only highly formal works were described as magical realism, but recently the use of the term has broadened. Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) is a classic example of the form.

Magical Realism

From Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literature: The Encyclopedia of the Novel
In a conversation with novelist Cormac McCarthy, filmmaker Ethan Coen asks McCarthy whether he ever rejects ideas because they are too outrageous. McCarthy replies: “I don't know, you're somewhat constrained in writing a novel, I think. Like, I'm not a fan of some of the Latin American writers, magical realism. You know, it's hard enough to get people to believe what you're telling them without making it impossible. It has to be vaguely plausible” (L. Grossman, 2007, “What Happened When,” Time , 29 Oct.). This quotation neatly catches an equivalence that has come to exist between the most commercially successful works of Latin American literature and magical realism, a concept contested by Latin American writers since it was first imported from German art criticism in the late 1920s. A concept that was for a time (mostly in the 1960s and 1970s) used to sell some forms of Latin American writing is now a straitjacket, resented by most Latin American writers, because it constrains a vast…
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Full text Article Magic realism

From Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
A style of fiction writing in which the realistic and everyday are blended with the unexpected or inexplicable. The term was adopted in this sense in the 1970s by a number of young British writers, such as Emma Tennant (b.1937), Angela Carter (1940-92) and Salman Rushdie (b.1947). The latter's…
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Full text Article magic realism

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Latin-American literary phenomenon characterized by the matter-of-fact incorporation of fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. The term was first applied to literature in the 1940s by the Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980), who recognized the tendency of his…
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Full text Article magic realism

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
primarily Latin American literary movement that arose in the 1960s. The term has been attributed to the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier , who first applied it to Latin-American fiction in 1949. Works of magic realism mingle realistic portrayals of ordinary events and characters with elements of…
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Full text Article magic realism

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
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Full text Article magic realism

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary
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Full text Article Magic Realism

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms
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Full text Article magic realism

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article magic realism

From The Macquarie Dictionary
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Full text Article magical realism; magic realism

From A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms
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