This paper examines magic realism as a literary and artistic movement, tracing its origins to Franz Roh's coinage of the term and exploring how it differs from surrealism, science fiction, and straight realism. The paper outlines the genre's three defining components — lyrical and fantastic writing, examination of human existence, and implicit social criticism — and discusses the challenges of translating magic realism to visual art. It also addresses ongoing debates about whether the form can be contained within a strict academic definition, with particular attention to its Latin American cultural context.
Literature has endured a plethora of movements that have been used to both expand the literary base and to explain a specific culture or set of cultures. For novels, it has been said that there are very few plots, which are continuously recycled by authors who are bound by those elements yet can expand their use beyond what has been known previously. A plot based on a love story is not owned by Shakespeare, and death is not the sole domain of Hemingway. No known author originated these plots, and different schools of writing are similarly difficult to pin down. However, the same cannot be said for the literary movements that have reinvented the means of delivering simple plots. Much like the authors who adhere to them, literary movements seem to be typical of a particular moment in time and a group of authors who wish to move outward.
This is the case with magic realism. Most credit Franz Roh with coining the term, but there are many interpretations of the form that differ from what Roh originally intended. Magic realism differs from surrealism, science fiction, realism, and other similar schools of writing in that it looks at everyday occurrences and perceives the magic behind them. It has been defined as:
"A narrative technique that blurs the distinction between fantasy and reality. It is characterized by an equal acceptance of the ordinary and the extraordinary. Magic realism fuses (1) lyrical and, at times, fantastic writing with (2) an examination of the character of human existence and (3) an implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite" (Cowan, 2002).
This explanation of magic realism offers the various components that most recognize as central to the form. People have emotions, desires, and other inner experiences that can be described using simple language but can also be imagined as something beyond the ordinary. In Poe's imagination, fear was a black cat (in "The Black Cat"), a heartbeat (in "The Tell-Tale Heart"), and the appearance of a dead woman (in "The Fall of the House of Usher"). It is the third element, however, that also feeds magic realism from most perspectives: the emotion made magical will speak to some real human condition that is exacerbated by a societal ill.
The form has been used in the visual arts as well as in literature. It has proven a difficult art form to translate to canvas because the visual vocabulary artists use is often confined to what can literally be seen. On a canvas, what is meant to be perceived as something mundane with a concurrent magical meaning may be viewed as simply mundane. Artists who paint with a magical realist intent do not necessarily depict the fantastic in the way surrealists such as Salvador Dalí do, so the subtlety often obscures the work's actual intent. For example, a bridge may signify promise because on one side sits a stark, poor little town while on the other lies a bright country setting with cavorting unicorns and smiling fairies. Many Latin American artists tried to paint pictures of how poor villagers lived and the promise that proper government and economic prosperity could bring. Unfortunately, the vision an artist has for a picture may fall short because every viewer sees symbolism differently. Literature, by contrast, is a perfect medium for magic realism because writers can illuminate symbolism without compromising the realism of the portrait they are trying to paint.
"Scholarly controversy over defining the genre"
"Multiple viewpoints as magic realism's core principle"
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