MAGICAL REALISM:
CHARACTERISTICS:
- the setting is the real world, not a created world.
- the heroes are not surprised by the fantasy twist given to the reality. They accept it as part of their world.
- magical elements draw on fable, folktale and myth
- the hero gains magical powers or discovers an object that will grant her wishes.
- heightened mystery
- metafiction (presence of a story within a story)
- metaphors can be treated as reality (verbal magic)
- metamorphoses occur, but they are perceived as normal
- the real world or our reality becomes surreal or unreal
- it is hard to separate the mundane from the magical
- the real world may obey new rules, but it is still recognizable
- ordinary world with realistic details
- the story gives the impression of being inside a puzzle
- presence of Contradictions, inconsistencies and ambiguities
- there are usually no creatures, but of they appear in the story (genie, ghost), they are part of the real life and are not surprising.
- ghostly and dreamlike.
- Look for changing our viewpoint on the world.
- critique of the world (political or social)
QUOTE:
Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something 'too strange to believe'".
-- Alejo Carpentier defines magic realism as "an unexpected alteration of reality (the miracle)." (El reino de este mundo).
EXAMPLES:
FICTION:
Skellig by David Almond
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Middle-Grade authors Laurel Snyder and Wendy Mass.
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid Banks
Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman (the main character makes things grow magically as in "The Good Witch")
Alan Edgar Poe's short stories
MOVIES:
"Twilight"
"The Good Witch"
"Fields of Dream"
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Eureka" Series
"Warehouse 13" Series
RESOURCES:
Sellman, Tamara K and Susan Deefholts. “Magical Realism. Your Guide to Gabo's Genre.” Oprah.com. January, 20, 2004. <http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Magical-Realism-Distinguishing-Features/1>
MCWeeny, Drew. "40 films that manage to get magical realism right where 'Winter's Tale' failed." Feb 14, 2014. <http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/40-films-that-manage-to-get-magical-realism-right-where-winters-tale-failed>
CHARACTERISTICS:
- the setting is the real world, not a created world.
- the heroes are not surprised by the fantasy twist given to the reality. They accept it as part of their world.
- magical elements draw on fable, folktale and myth
- the hero gains magical powers or discovers an object that will grant her wishes.
- heightened mystery
- metafiction (presence of a story within a story)
- metaphors can be treated as reality (verbal magic)
- metamorphoses occur, but they are perceived as normal
- the real world or our reality becomes surreal or unreal
- it is hard to separate the mundane from the magical
- the real world may obey new rules, but it is still recognizable
- ordinary world with realistic details
- the story gives the impression of being inside a puzzle
- presence of Contradictions, inconsistencies and ambiguities
- there are usually no creatures, but of they appear in the story (genie, ghost), they are part of the real life and are not surprising.
- ghostly and dreamlike.
- Look for changing our viewpoint on the world.
- critique of the world (political or social)
QUOTE:
Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something 'too strange to believe'".
-- Alejo Carpentier defines magic realism as "an unexpected alteration of reality (the miracle)." (El reino de este mundo).
EXAMPLES:
FICTION:
Skellig by David Almond
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Middle-Grade authors Laurel Snyder and Wendy Mass.
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid Banks
Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman (the main character makes things grow magically as in "The Good Witch")
Alan Edgar Poe's short stories
MOVIES:
"Twilight"
"The Good Witch"
"Fields of Dream"
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Eureka" Series
"Warehouse 13" Series
RESOURCES:
Sellman, Tamara K and Susan Deefholts. “Magical Realism. Your Guide to Gabo's Genre.” Oprah.com. January, 20, 2004. <http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Magical-Realism-Distinguishing-Features/1>
MCWeeny, Drew. "40 films that manage to get magical realism right where 'Winter's Tale' failed." Feb 14, 2014. <http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/40-films-that-manage-to-get-magical-realism-right-where-winters-tale-failed>