Do you “Really” Believe in Magic? An Introduction to Magical Realism

Elements of Magical Realism Transformation of the common and the everyday into something awesome and unreal.

Elements of Magical Realism Elements of dreams, fairy story, or mythology combined with the everyday.

Elements of Magical Realism The frame or surface of the work may be conventionally realistic. Has a strong narrative drive.

Magical Realism, Authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Columbia, 1928 - Jorge Luis Borges – Argentina, 1899-1986 Octavio Paz – Mexico, 1914-1998 Pablo Neruda – Chile, 1904-1973 Isabel Allende – 1942-

Gabriel Garcia Marquez He lived in Aracataca, Colombia, a banana town by the Caribbean. His grandparents were his most important relatives, and influenced him and his writing later on.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez His grandfather was a general, a hero and a great story teller. His grandmother was very superstitious. She filled the house with stories of ghosts and premonitions.

Elements of Magical Realism Transformation of the common and the everyday into the awesome and the unreal. Examples: An angel is found in a mud puddle of the courtyard. The angel’s wings have parasites.

Jorge Luis Borges Argentina, 1899-1986 one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. Borges was reared in the then-shabby Palermo district of Buenos Aires, the setting of some of his works. His family, which had been notable in Argentine history, included British ancestry, and he learned English before Spanish.

Jorge Luis Borges Argentina, 1899-1986 taught at home until the age of 11 bilingual, reading Shakespeare in English at the age of twelve. The family lived in a large house with an English library of over one thousand volumes; Borges would later remark that "if I were asked to name the chief event in my life, I should say my father's library”

Jorge Luis Borges Argentina, 1899-1986 Some ideas obsessed him: Destiny, Hope, the existence of God, Redemption, a man’s life reflected in other man’s life, writing, Paradoxes, Conjectures, Universe, randomness, Guilt.

Isabel Allende Novelist, translator, journalist, political activist, daughter, mother, and wife. Born in 1942 in Lima, Peru. attended British and US private schools.

Isabel Allende worked for the United Nations in Santiago and in Europe. went to Venezuela on exile founder of The Isabel Allende Foundation, which focuses on programs that defend and support women’s and children’s rights.

Elements of Magical Realism Elements of dreams, fairy story, or mythology combine with the everyday. Examples: Some townspeople thought the angel should be named mayor of the world or at least a 5-star general. A man couldn’t sleep because the noise of the stars disturbed him.

Elements of Magical Realism The frame or surface of the work may be conventionally realistic. Example: Townspeople, village, flood, chicken coop.

Elements of Magical Realism Have a strong narrative drive. Example: Wings are not the most important difference between a hawk and an airplane. They are even less important in recognizing an angel.

Social Realism Social Realism, is an international art movement, refers to the work of writers and artists who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions. While the movement's artistic styles vary from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of descriptive or critical realism.