Blurring the lines between reality and unreality with magical realism
Expressing the contours of reality in literature.
Part of the allure of creative prose is that authors are not restricted to the limitations of reality, whatever that might be, to construct a compelling narrative. A complete rejection of reality can offer riveting commentary on diverse subject matter. Creative world-building that constructs imaginary worlds is a visionary way to interrogate notions like otherness and our responses towards it—like through le fantastique, the French term for the genre that embraces Gothicism and ghost stories.
Some styles play with reality rather than reject it. Magical realism is a style of writing applied to literature in Latin America that accepts the strange and surreal as compatible with pre-existing understandings of reality. Often, this style explores elements of Latin American culture and history about mystical occurrences. As a result, magical realism serves as an instrument in unsettling Western narratives of history.
Magical realism departs from genres like fantasy because it is rooted in real experiences of the otherworldly, and genres like fantasy depend on breaks from reality being central to the narratives. As such, readers are encouraged to reckon with a different starting point—one that questions notions of reality and objectivity while maintaining a plausible enough basic fabric.
One of the most famous examples of literature that embodies the sparkle and subversion of magical realism is Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. In this novel, the extraordinary is rendered unremarkable through narration, void of censure or surprise. The extraordinary—the magical—is a facet of reality that serves as an instrument to a larger narrative.
García Márquez positions the inhabitants of Macondo, the fictional village that appears throughout the body of his work, as more than mere extensions of European presence in the Global South. He does this by blending myth, history, and folklore—compressing time and engaging in a non-linear, cyclical mode of narration.
In The Fragrance of Guava, a book based on conversations between García Márquez and his friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, García Márquez suggests that the magical text is, in fact, more real than the realist text: “disproportion is part of our reality too,” he contends. And, as literary critic and theorist Robert Scholes argues, the linguistic model that prose employs is insufficient in capturing the complex contours of reality.
Traditional realism seeks to depict life as it appears: externally, physically, and in linear order. But the reality is far more complex than this. It embodies contradiction and confusion and is experienced, whether there is an objective world or not, through subjective interpretation, which is flawed and complex. Magical realism considers this and presents the unreal as part of the collective human experience, as part of our journey through the world. In this vein, magical realism reflects the religious and spiritual experiences we take seriously in a creative new way.
