magic realism

Magical realism, magic realism, or marvellous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while also incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. Magical realism is the most commonly used of the three terms and refers to literature, in particular, with magical or supernatural phenomena presented in an otherwise real-world or mundane setting, and is commonly found in novels and dramatic performances. In his article "Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature", Luis Leal explains the difference between magic literature and magical realism, stating that, "Magical realism is not magic literature either. Its aim, unlike that of magic, is to express emotions, not to evoke them." Despite including certain magical elements, it is generally considered to be a different genre from fantasy because magical realism uses a substantial amount of realistic detail and employs magical elements to make a point about reality, while fantasy stories are often separated from reality. The two are also distinguished in that magical realism is closer to literary fiction than to fantasy, which is instead a type of genre fiction. Magical realism is often seen as an amalgamation of real and magical elements that produces a more inclusive writing form than either literary realism or fantasy.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Magical realism”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

magic realism is style of literary fiction and art, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 37 external registers, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶