Magical realism, anyone?

"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 is a derivation of "lo real maravilloso" which means literally, "The Marvelous Reality." Alejo Carpentier (l904-l980), a Cuban historian, is credited with coming up with this term in l949."  Bruce Taylor, author

Where reality has a bit of the mystical, the magical, the mystery bus-- Okay, I'll stop now. 

Magical realism is, as I understand it, more a literary fiction in that it has elements of the surreal or fantastic, but that isn't the focus of the novel.  Lovely Bones, The Ten People You Meet in Heaven, The Time Traveler's Wife,  Like Water for Chocolate, or even Life of Pi are Magical Realist books, as I understand the term.  And you wouldn't find them on the science fiction and fantasy shelves. 

If the trend toward the fantastic is so pervasive, how come this sub-genre is literary and not speculative fiction?  Speaking of bizarre stories, how bizarre is that?

MARGIN (A site dedicated to "exploring modern magical realism"--they even have a reading list) defines magical realism a little more broadly, via questions of all things.  Of particular note are two that seem to clarify my impression: that the world of the magical realistic story is basically the real world with fantastic elements:

• "Does my fictional world clearly resemble my own real world? Does it share the same historical and/or cultural realities?"
• "Do I achieve a sense of enchantment without using fantastical devices and creatures -- i.e. crystal balls, dragons, magic spells, elves -- in favor of realistic objects and characters?"

So magical things just happen because they happen and you thus have a magically realistic book.  (Whew. Glad we cleared that  up.)

But if you have one of those odd little stories that just doesn't seem to fit into a square OR a round hole, you might consider if it sounds at all mainstream fiction or literary and maybe meets the criteria for this sub-genre.  If so, you can try submitting to Periphery.Online ezine, but it's not accepting submissions until "late 2009."

Comments

[laughingwolf]

makes sense to me... NOT :O lol