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Magical Realism
 Origin of Magical Realism 
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• Mainly Latin-American narrative strategy 
• Characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical
elements into seemingly realistic fiction. 
• Appears in the literature of many cultures across many ages  
• The term magical realism is a relatively recent, first applied in the 1940s by
Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, who recognized this characteristic in
much Latin-American literature.
• Some of the well-known Latin-American magical realists is the Colombian
 Gabriel García Márquez, the Brazilian Jorge Amado, the Argentines Jorge
Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, and the Chilean Isabel Allende.
 Elements of Magical Realism
• Characters who seem ordinary in seemingly ordinary situations
ordinary details of everyday life
• Realistic settings that include
• Something being "off" about the situation
• Fantastic or strange events that intrude upon the situation
• Characters who seem unimpressed or undisturbed by fantastic
events
• An accepting or unimpressed narrative tone/attitude that
presents the fantastic events as logical parts of life
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