My understanding is that it’s the idea of having magic (or other supernatural phenomena) in an otherwise ordinary world. Lots of current media do this, actually. Supernatural, Twilight, anything from Marvel or DC. They all take place in worlds that mostly look like ours, except the people have “powers” or ghosts/vampires exist etc.
My favourite play on this idea is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel series. In that series, the magic itself is portrayed as perfectly ordinary and things that are common in the “real world” of you and I are seen as fantastical 🙂
From what I’ve seen, Magical Realism is closer to Dream Logic or poetry? Elements happen that don’t make logical/realistic sense, but have symbolic meaning.
People might come into being that threaten you in ways related to repressed memories. Finding peace within yourself, after being kidnapped and beat up by these people, would defeat them.
Or walking on a beach transitions into visiting with your grandma in the mountains without explanation.
Basically, plot and logic aren’t the focus. Mood, language, artistry, or something else ephemeral, is more important.
I agree with another commenter, who says that your description is closer to Urban Fantasy. Which is another term that doesn’t really describe what it is.
Thanks for this! Very well explained. The replies on this ask are great too so anyone who wants to know more should definitely check them out
I agree with what’s been said in the notes, but I’m just gonna add:
Magical Realism, as a genre, really emerged in colonized countries, especially Latin America with the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges. There are some works that could be considered magical realism that came before them from other places, but generally speaking they’re the guys who formed it.
Okay so magical realism, in its simplest definition, is a story where magic literally exists in the real world and is part of mundane life of every single person. It’s not like Harry Potter or Supernatural where the protagonists come and go from the magical world, or something like LoTR where the setting itself is fantastical so everything about it is fantastical. Magic in magical realism is treated as mundane and, almost boring. And it happens in this world, not an alternate history, not a different universe altogether, but this world.
Question is why? And also you’re probably asking: what do you mean? Well, you remember how I said that magical realism emerged from colonized countries? Well, this is the part where that’s relevant. Because when the West set out to take over the world, they brought with them their school of thought, which is reason and logic. The Scientific Method. The belief that everything can be explained. This belief is almost completely incongruous with the school of thought that existed with a lot of places they colonized, where people literally believed in the magical, and where it’s part of their everyday lives. Colonization forced those people to adopt that Western school of thought, but at the same time, they couldn’t entirely kill the other school of thought which believed in magic.
It’s hard to explain to people who are not really part of this kind of culture. For example, here in the Philippines, we’re taught about science and the scientific method and it’s really part of our everyday lives, but almost everyone has also encountered a ghost at some point. Everyone has a story of how they met a ghost once, or how a ghost tried to kill them, and it’s a really normal thing. The most common reaction to it is: “Oh. Neat.”
So magical realism really fits with this kind of culture. It becomes a literature of subversion now. After centuries of pillaging, and their cultures being forced to be inferior or erased, those cultures are now reclaimed. Their school of thought is made reality instead of superstition or falsehood. It’s a refusal to conform to what has been forced upon them by colonization. Magical realism because for a lot of writers and the cultures where they come from magic is real. What is real for these cultures is just as valid as anything else.
(Note: obviously magical realism has evolved a lot and it’s no longer just Latin American lit, or postcolonial lit, but that is its history and it is still a huge part of what the genre is.)
For sample works: One Hundred Years of Solitude, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin (I’m like 90% sure this is on the net somewhere), “The Tower of Babylon” by Ted Chiang (This I’m less sure, but I have a copy if you want).
Thank you
kiragecko 