What Is Magic Realism?
Briefly, the concept of Magic Realism has to do with the concept of "heightened reality"
or the addition of another dimension of reality through a symbolic or metaphoric
structure. It gives us a new way of perceiving the world, as if through a child looking at
the world for the first time. The term has its origin in "lo real maravilloso" which means
literally, "The Marvelous Reality."
The original definition of magical realism fiction is fiction where the magical or
distinctly uncommon occurs frequently, but is seen and treated by the characters as an
everyday occurrence. A good example of this might be telling a story from the point of
view of someone who sees figurative things literally. So for a male character, if he sees a
"blond goddess," he won't see a beautiful blond woman like the other characters, but he'll
actually see a goddess, with terrifying deity powers and probably a bright glowing halo.
Instead of seeing a hairy bearded man, he might actually see Sasquatch. Is he an atheist?
Maybe when he walks into a church he sees sheep, and a ram spewing from the pew.
This adds a very strange, and sometimes very magical, quality to the story which can be
played with in a lot of ways. This is what drives some people nuts about magical realism,
and what also causes other readers to love this genre.
Magical Realism has its strongest roots with the Latin American authors, a large number
of whom started the movement by creating stories of very contemporary and normal
settings, but having the characters see the world through very mystical and spiritual eyes.
While normal people went about a normal day, angels and devils would appear, floods
would last for 100 years, and a whole bevy of strange folklore-like things would happen
while everyone in the story would just take it in stride.
A most important influence is certainly the natural landscape of Latin countries. The
variety of terrain, from lush vegetation to high desert, the variety of unique animal
species, brightly colored and wildly variable flora, its volcanoes, waterfalls, snow-capped
Andes, and Amazon basin: the land itself presents an extravagance and intensity of
experience. Combine its variety with its grandiose scale, beside which the European
shrinks and pales.
The author most associated with magical realism is Gabriel García Márquez, who is the
author of One Hundred Years of Solitude (one of Ms. G’s favorite books). This is the
most common work of magical realism that is consistently taught on the college and
graduate level. Many of the best works of magical realism have a normal literary
background and setting, but with a strange perception on reality.
Recent movies have had a major impact on public awareness about Magic Realism. The
most well known movie is probably Like Water for Chocolate. Other more recent movies:
What Dreams May Come, The Truman Show, Pleasantville, and the fabulous American
Beauty. Much earlier, The Twilight Zone had many episodes which could rightly be
described as Magic Realism including the stunning An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
based on a story by Ambrose Bierce (aired February 28, 1964).