Magic Realism: Let’s Talk Genre
I have been reluctant to call magic realism a genre. I would call it a literary style. I often compare magic realism to the gothic, but gothic too is a style, even if it also happens to be a genre.
Lately though, magic realism has come across my Goodreads dashboard one too many times to ignore. A few times I’ve even picked up books under the magic realism category, only to realize, these are often not at all examples of magic realism. Often they are urban fantasy or even gothic. This becomes even more problematic when writers come to me saying that they write magic realism (and I get all excited and want to talk about it) until I find out that what they thought was magic realism is not magic realism. So today, I’m going to try to explain it.
Magic realism is a literary style that originated in Latin American Literature. It was popularized by the writer Gabriel García Márquez. A great contemporary example of this style in use is in pieces of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The key characteristic of magic realism is that magic is normalized. It exists in everyone’s normal day to day life, whether it be in the form of curses or talking animals and so on. It isn’t suddenly discovered. Magic is not the conflict, though it can create situations for conflict (eg: “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez). It exists and is real and most importantly, magic in itself is not feared - this is the biggest thing I emphasize.
In a gothic, magic is scary. Magic or the belief in magic is often the conflict. It can be questionable whether the magic is real or not, but it causes fear regardless (eg: “The Thorn” a gothic poem by William Wordsworth). Curses are also common in gothics and animals too often play significant roles, but the difference is that these things will likely be the central conflict for these characters. Magic is still pretty believed by characters in these stories, but it is not normalized. In fact, magic is abnormal and that is why it is so frightening. Gothic is a genre that was popularized in the 19th century. Often gothic influence creep into today’s literature and that is more of a style than it is fitting with that historic genre. Stylistically, gothics and magic realism tend to fit more within the literary genre than they do horror or fantasy.
Urban fantasy is a genre that is more recently popular. It commonly includes hidden worlds or the discovery of magic whether it be positive or negative. The point is that in urban fantasy, magic is not part of the every day. Curses and talking animals are also present in this genre. Magic has to be discovered. Characters need to convince someone to believe in it. Magic can be fun and uplifting, but still, it is not part of the norm, or at least normal for the entire world as we know it. Urban fantasy books can be very lyrical and fresh and are most often what I see people mistake for instances of magic realism. Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres and unfortunately, it’s one that a lot of new writers are very hesitant to identity with.
Due to lots of questions and criticism, I should note, magic realism is not the same as the fantasy genre. They exist separately. I cannot say the I have read a fantasy story I would say includes magic realism, because nearly all examples I’ve named and others I am aware of tend to be literary fiction. I will not say that all are because I have not read everything and I believe that it’s a popular style that has a lot of room to grow. In fact, I would love to see it grow and expand. If you want to become more familiar with magic realism, I highly recommend reading some of the examples I’d mentioned.
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