Week of 2006-07-22 17:00 to 2006-07-29 16:59

Magic realism (or magical realism) is a literary genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. As used today the term is broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous. The term was initially used by German art critic Franz Roh to describe painting which demonstrated an altered reality, but was later used by Venezuelan Arturo Uslar-Pietri to describe the work of certain Latin American writers. The Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier (a friend of Uslar-Pietri) used the term “lo real maravilloso” (roughly “marvelous reality”) in the prologue to his novel The Kingdom of this World (1949). Carpentier’s conception was of a kind of heightened reality in which elements of the miraculous could appear without seeming forced and unnatural. Carpentier’s work was a key influence on the writers of the Latin American “boom” that emerged in the 1960s….

c.f. New Weird and Speculative fiction

In some contexts, it has been used as an inclusive term covering a group of fiction genres that speculate about worlds that are unlike the real world in various important ways. In these contexts, it generally includes science fiction, fantasy, horror fiction, supernatural fiction, alternate history, and magic realism. The term is used this way in academic and ideological criticism of these genres, as well as by some readers, writers, and editors of these genres. In these contexts, the term does not imply an opinion about the relative merits of any of the genres it includes.[…]

In other contexts, the term has been used to express dissatisfaction with what some people consider the limitations of science fiction per se. For example, in Harlan Ellison’s writing, the term may signal a wish not to be pigeonholed as a science fiction writer, and a desire to break out of science fiction’s genre conventions in a literary and modernist direction. Some readers and writers of science fiction see the term as insulting towards science fiction, and therefore as having negative connotations.

c.f. New Weird and Magic Realism

The core idea of the New Weird is that literature should transcend the genre in which it is written. Writers are encouraged to blur the borders between genres. The genres most frequently used in New Weird writings are science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Opponents of New Weird note that the divisions of genre are built for a reason and that the traditional divisions of genre are based on which types of ideas work best together. Other opponents claim the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy have always been one genre. Supporters speculate that the New Weird will become an important part of literary tradition.

c.f. Speculative fiction and Magic Realism