I recently raised the question as to why Europeans often ignore the genre of magical realism as a European phenomena. They often study it as a form of comparative study, i.e. not as a European based phenomena. That is, Europeans often study primarily writers from other regions of the world when looking at the horrible reality and magic of realism, like that of Gabriel García Márquez. On the European continent, readers of a variety of works of magical realism often only include an elite group of regional reviewers.
As Gabriel García Márquez has recently passed away, I would like to ask to what degree either Latin American or European magical realism has been accepted or prominent in the various countries on various continents around the globe. Moreover, has this genre been popular in your region or home country for a long time or only recently? In short, does a book like 100 Years of Solitude affect you or resonate with you more than a novel of similar genre from your own culture?
One upon a time, I wrote:
"Is Europe only currently ready to take from the rest, like Latin American Magical Realist literature, while still not giving back any more of its wealth, its education and its sciences of peace (not war) to Latin America and the other continents? Whatever happened to real lovers of Latin America, like the Humboldt brothers? It is time for Europeans to reorganize and rescrambled their histories in time."
from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236340911_Why_the_words_of_Gabriel_Garcia_Marquez_in_100_years_of_Solitude_Need_to_be_read_better_especially_by_European_readers
Actually, European literatures have birthed many global genres. However, in recent years analyses of other genres have dominated the literary scene. Little attention is being placed on current literary genres, like magical realism, that need to be employed more often to engage the continent in deeper analysis of what is happening at this time.
While everything these days seems global or international in its identity, Europe has been trying to create a new identity of nation, state and people to a greater degree than ever before. I would like to see more from Europe--a tiny continent with many strong languages and old self identity.
As an American with ancestors from Europe, I think also that American authors need to use magical realism to link their histories to their ancestors much better than has been the case. As husband of a Filipino wife, I think the Asian, American and European nexus needs to be discussed through magical realism promoted by Gabriel García Márquez. I have lived in Japan and Taiwan, these lands need to make similarly story telling more public and globally popular.
Do you (from Asia, the Americas, Europe, Australia, and even Africa) have books that would fit in with the magical realism genre promoted through Gabriel García Márquez's many works?
Article Why the words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 100 years of Soli...
For obvious reasons, in Spain the 'magical realism' has been very appreciated, not only by the works of G. García Márquez, but also by the other authors such as Juan Rulfo, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Isabel Allende or Julio Cortázar. Nevertheless, only a very reduced number of Spanish authors can be adscribed to that, the most prominent of them being Ramón J. Sender ("Epitalamio del prieto Trinidad", "La aventura equinoccial de Lope de Aguirre"), who was exiled in Mexico and USA after the Spanish Civil War.
In one website, which purported to focus on defining magical realism, it was stated that magical realism had made its way into art and literature in certain corners or even dominated in some areas of the world--but that there was a dearth of it in cinema--other than movies based on novels.
I was surprised by this because I knew that Gabal (Marquez) had worked in cinema in Mexico and that this had had a cyclical backwash affect on his writing and his conception of story telling.
On the other hand, it seems to me that (in fact) a great deal is produced in the way of magical realism in film. Perhaps the majority of movies could be construed in someways as magical in their impressions. or so I think. What about you?
I have a narrow and specific view of magical realism. Having taught most of the major figures of the genre in undergraduate and graduate classes I became more and more convinced that what I was reading and teaching was unlike other works in Latin America and Europe. The only thing they had in common was the use of fantastic elements. There is already, and for quite a while, a genre of that nature called fantasy or fantastic(al) literature. Some prefer not to use fantasy, reserving that term for works about dragons and the like.
The Latin American literature that seems fantastic is reality (realismo) in the eyes of the non-Western person. Read by a person of Western (European) heritage the fantastic elements seem magical (magico). Hence, realismo magico. The elements of myth, legend, and folklore--largely from indigenous and Afro-Latino cultures--that inform some Latin American narratives are what makes them magical realism. What is myth to "us" (Westerners) is theology to "them" (non-Westerners).
The difference between the two genres (fantastic and magical realism) lies in cultural differences and different world views. Incorporating (fantastic) elements from another culture and presenting them as real is magical realism. Presenting elements that are fantastic in the author's and reader's own culture is fantastic literature (assuming the author and reader share the same world view).
The best and most representative works of Latin American magical realism to me are: Alejo Carpentier, "Kingdom of This World"; Juan Rulfo, "Pedro Paramo"; Miguel Angel Asturias, "Hombres de maiz" and "Mulata de tal," among others; Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cien anos, and other works that refer to Afro-Caribbean world views. I customarily assigned the above in my classes and added Borges and Cortazar. When finished I always had the students discuss thematic differences between the former group and the latter two authors. Most of them came to the same conclusions I did and many of them wrote their final papers on the topic. Borges and Cortazar wrote fantastic literature but not magical realism. I know that will be "heretical" to some, just as it was many years ago when I first broached the notion. I'm sorry but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
Kevin, sorry but I don't believe magical realism started in Germany. Maybe fantastic literature did, I don't know. But if my narrow definition holds up magical realism could only have started in Latin America (or Africa, or Asia, etc.) but not in Europe or the US.
"Magischer Realismus or magic realism, was coined in Germany in the 1920s in relation to the painting of the Weimar Republic that tried to capture the mystery of life behind surface reality. Lo real maravilloso or marvellous realism, was introduced in Latin America during the 1940s as an expression of the mixture of realist and magical views of life in the context of the differing cultures of Latin America expressed through its art and literature. Realismo mágico or magical realism was introduced in the 1950s in relation to Latin American fiction, but has since been adopted as the main term used to refer to all narrative fiction that includes magical happenings in a realist matter-of-fact narrative, whereby, 'the supernatural is not a simple or obvious matter, but it is an ordinary matter, and everyday occurance - admitted, accepted, and integrated into the rationality and materiality of literary realism.'"
—Zamora and Faris qtd. in Bowers
I forgot to cite the source of the quote above from Zamora and Faris.
http://www.magicalrealism.info/p/background.html
I liked John Wilhite's writing above on magical realism and delineating the written form in Euorpe vs. Latin America. However, the quote below offers another but related perspective (and source), I'd like to share here, especially as art comes in many forms as do poetry and literature.
http://www.magicalrealism.co.uk/view.php?story=101
"The focus of German magic realists on objects and scenes from the real world partly reflected how, in their era, 'reality' was hard to ignore. As in many Latin American countries where the literary genre of magical realism later took root, historical reality in Germany intruded into everyday life with an uncompromising brutality. The painters grew up in an era of death and destruction, the horrors of World War I haunting them. They later found themselves amidst the political and economic instabilities of the post-war Weimar Republic, with its weak government, soaring inflation and, eventually, rise of Fascism. Not all magic realists addressed historical realities directly, but Otto Dix and George Grosz offered a socially engaged art, depicting, in almost grotesque caricature, scenes from modern German life, using modernist aesthetic techniques like the distortion of form. In Dix's The Match Seller I, 1920, an amputee (perhaps a war veteran) with a face the size of his body, sits begging on the pavement, but is urinated on by a dog. In Grosz's Eclipse of the Sun, 1926 (Figure 2), an artwork the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has said possesses qualities analogous to his own work, an oversized General sits at a table while a smartly dressed man holding a cachet of guns whispers in his ear. Around the table suited men hold pens and paper but have their heads missing; and on the table stands a blinkered mule with a manger full of discarded documents. The symbolism of the work is complex, but generally it is said to be a scathing indictment both of the powerful military-industrial complex within Weimar Germany and of capitalism/materialism more generally—the characters are assembled under a sun obscured by a dollar sign. While the fantastic elements of this work are considerably more accentuated than in much German magic realism, the picture illustrates a general feature of magic realist art: it retains a foothold in the real world whilst pointing towards a realm beyond surface appearance—in this case, a sinister one of greed and political corruption."
Some of the readers here may be laymen, in terms of Magical realism and understandably have trouble defining it, especially in its differences and similarities ot surrealism which partially has inspired it.
Characteristics of
"Magical realism is a literary genre that has sometimes frustrated critics who have been unable to define the style with any precision. However, certain traits are singled out as being typical of the genre. Magical realism, as the name would imply, is a story that is set in a mostly realistic setting, but with some magical elements. Often, magical realism features social or political commentary. Finally, the narrator, if there is one, takes a tone toward the fantastical elements that would indicate that she finds them completely normal."
Read more: http://www.ehow.com/info_8732795_magical-realism-literature.html#ixzz33Yz9u9ws
The abundant definitions and descriptions of realismo mágico invariably refer to the inclusion of mysterious, magical, fantastical, surreal, and similar elements in the narrative. As is obvious, these assertions focus on the literary devices used by an author to present a story, more often than not, about people. People comprise cultures and they are very different, particularly in certain areas of the world. The lack of attention given to culture in a discussion of magical realism leads to an incomplete, even erroneous, conception of what magical realism is, or at least as it is manifested in Latin America.
For the purpose of including culture in a discussion of magical realism I do not mean general or surface culture which includes that which is tangible--food, dress, traditions, celebrations, music, dance and the like. I am referring to what I call cultural vital--the intangible, world view, concepts, values, and so forth that make up the essence of a cultural group.
In Latin America the African and Indian populations each have a cultura vital that is vastly different than Spanish (Western, European) cultura vital. But as these non-Western cultures are, to varying degrees depending on the country and even region, integrated into the mainstream, so too are the different world views. The integration of these world views into a single reality in a work of literature makes everything that transpires in the work a normal part of the narrative. The elements that are "unreal" to some of us only appear that way because they reference a story, a world, a world view, a cultura vital of a people with whom we are not familiar.
As cited in the comment above, "the narrator, if there is one, takes a tone toward the fantastical elements that would indicate that SHE finds them completely normal." This is close to a good description except that it's not just the narrator who finds the elements normal; all the characters do as well. And I would use "mythical" rather than "fantastical," at least in the case of Latin American magical realism. I don't like the term "mythical" either because it implies "not real." But I'll have to use it until I come up with one word to replace "narrative events derived from or describing the cultura vital of one culture integrated with the world view of a second culture and presented as a single, normal reality." Ha! Don't think I'll have much luck with that!
(Side note: Why do so many writers insist on writing "she" instead of he (him, his)? He and its variants are both gender specific and generic, in the latter case used when no specific person or gender is intended. She is gender specific and causes me to look at previous sentences or the paragraph again in search of a mention of the female being referred to.)
"Magical realism . . . is a story that is set in a mostly realistic setting, but with some magical elements." It can't be "mostly" realistic because the authors intend for all of it to be real(istic)--just not real to Western readers.
Magical realism has come to refer to "all narrative fiction that includes magical happenings in a realist matter-of-fact narrative, whereby, 'the supernatural is not a simple or obvious matter, but it is an ordinary matter, and everyday occurrence - admitted, accepted, and integrated into the rationality and materiality of literary realism.'" I don't understand this: "not a simple or obvious matter, BUT it is an ordinary matter"--all three adjectives mean the same thing so the "but" throws me off.
Other than that confusing sentence this is coming close to a viable definition.
Alejo Carperntier, El reino de este mundo (The Kingdom of This World), 1949
Miguel Angel Asturias, Hombres de maiz (Men of Maize), 1949 "is a complete (Maya) Indian cosmography." "We are in the realm of portents and miraculous cures. Time is circular. The past and present, the actual and the imaginary, coexist in the minds of the protagonists. . . . events recur at irregular and unpredictable intervals. The voice of the landscape is ever-present." Also by Asturias, Mulata de tal (A Certain Mulata),1963. Asturias: "I think I have come close to fulfilling my lifelong ambition of achieving a satisfying synthesis of the material and mythical worlds of my people" (specifically Guatemalans--Spanish, Indian, and African--and by extension Latinos in general).
Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo, 1955, where the living, if there are any, are indistinguishable from the dead in the village of Comala, made of voices and echoes.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), 1967.
Luis Harss and Barbara Dohmann, Into the Mainstream, 1967.
Sorry, my eyes are getting very tired! One of the pains of aging! I'll have to continue this another time.
Kevin, keep up the good work. This is good stuff!
Thanks for your thoughts, JFW. (I am busy with exams otherwise I'd comment lengthily too today.) You lift up appropriately the images and narrations/metaphors/symbols of native american and African-Carribean writings and writers of magical realistic and fantastic bents or frames.
However, as a person of German, Dutch, Jewish and Isle of Man heritage, one finds in Marquez's classics "Erendira..." and 100 Years enough European images to realize that that an homage to European fantasies and events or persons cannot be ignored.
For example, in Erendira the obvious allusion is to ancient classic of Ulysses and the fact that this Ulysses is of dutch heritage is obvious. Likewise, various scenes alluding to the Holocaust and Death trains in 100 Years is almost unforgettable.
In short, an homage to Europe is constantly played with in such literature while the newly created myths may play in a new land. In contrast, in Orhan Pamuk''s writings in Turkey, for example in RED, look west to the west--not to the East as Latin Americans do. that means his tales are embedded in Turkish, Arab, Persian and other regional caricatures, myths, images . Yet, without Europe employing an alternative or related vision of life in present and future, Pamuk's stories would fail in the need to add multicultural and cosmopolitan elements--essential for Magical Realistic works.
Note: In some ways, the Spanish classic, DON QUIXOTE, is a basis for much of Latin American work in its design and material, especially as it lays the groundwork for Magical Realism as experienced or employed by writers today.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/441074
http://books.google.com.om/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Zzs_cLhfd9wC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=don+quixote+as+magical+realism&ots=Ti2FitN3gQ&sig=9erP241FR01lKXvR2GqdCxo9lZs&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=don%20quixote%20as%20magical%20realism&f=false
This would place the earliest concepts of the genre in Spain or Europe--when the first great modern novel was written.
I have been rereading what JFW has written above (on June 5). My fascination with magical realism in Latin American books and film dovetailed with my fascination with cultural memory. So, without a doubt, one has to dig into cultural memory and how authors of magical realism fight over who controls the narrative(s) in a society. Manuel Puig was particularly effective in discussing cultural memory in this way.
This is an aside to some degree but does anyone know of either a short story or novel that includes the issues of indigenous peoples taking on oil companies or the political economy of petroleum or natural resources in a way similar to what we are observing this past week in the great indigenous populations involved in the March concerning Climate Change in NYC.
The next climate conference is in Lima, by the way.
Tiago, are the works you refer to quoted or cited in something like this? what year?
http://www.revlet.com.br/artigos/84.pdf
By the way, for others unaware of magical realism in German language an Europe in early 20th Century, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, even as it is widely known as an
existential novella can demonstrate the roots of Magical Realism in the
Metamorphosis.
http://www.worldlitonline.net/july-06/confluence.pdf
Die Verwandlung was first published in 1915.
As far as novels go, there are elements of "magical realism" and many other styles and forms dating back to Don Quixote, but "magical realism" as a literary response indirectly to realism possibly began in writings of the likes of Stephen Crane in Red Badge of Courage.
http://www.enotes.com/topics/red-badge-of-courage
Ze Carlos--
What about the dates or years when published or written?
Kevin
p.s. Mariano Azuela González (January 1, 1873 – March 1, 1952) wrote the classic Los de Abajo (1915), and this work, similar to Crane in his Red Badge of Courage, also introduced elements that mixed realism with a sense of fantasy and magic. Some Latin Americanists claim his work to be the earliest form of Magical Realism in the Latin Americas.
You should read Alejo Carpentier's prologue to The Kingdom of This World, published in Spanish in 1950, in which he expounds on the difference between surrealism and magical realism.
Iraida,
That would be great. (1) Do you have a link?, (2) or a quote from the prologue to share? or a link to another author who has reviewed the prologue to see if others agree with the distinctions made?
or--all 3?
The date of 1950 is many decades after either terms origin in the early ages of art deco--and earlier periods dating to the Blue Rider in art and the Red Badge or Courage, Los de Abajo, and Kafka.
[I should note that I live and work in what might be derogatorily termed an LDC. We have no access to JSTOR nor to other sources here. So, links and photocopied sent material is welcome by me.]
http://pocolitandanticolonialactivism.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2014/08/carpentier-marvelous.pdf
and here, https://instruct.uwo.ca/english/785a/Prologue.html
You should also review García Márquez's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which you'll find here http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-lecture-sp.html
Read Earlie Realism from Boris Shukov, He talks about something that he calls ''Fantastic Realism ''
Thanks for the reading Lorenzo--and I needed this to dig into it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_architecture
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