What is Magical Realism? A Beginner's Guide to the Literary Genre
The world, to me, is very strange. It’s outlandishly beautiful, and at times, impossibly sad. We drive cars and can mail objects across the globe. We cook noodles, and we start wars, and some of us grow babies inside our bodies. We will all die, and none of us can know what that will be like until we get there. We have mothers and fathers who are amazing and who fail us. We are capable of falling in love and of killing each other. What is all of that if not some kind of magic? Yet, it’s also very real. And that is how we can define the book genre magical realism: A reminder of both the enchantment and ominousness of the every day, nestled inside a delicious novel.
Most mythology throughout the world could be read as magical realism. Much of Western thought and society is based on a book about angels and devils and bushes that burst into flame, and seas that were parted and plagues that rain down. We as a species want—and even need—to tell stories this way. They are part of how we survive, create a moral code, and make sense of a world that is real, yes—but also outlandish in its heartache and its miracles. If you're curious to learn more about this genre, here you can find a guide to all things magical realism.
What are the characteristics of magical realism—and how is it different from fantasy?
The borders between magical realism (which is also sometimes called fabulism or fantastical fiction) and fantasy are mushy. Magical realism as a genre can be thought of as a subset of fantasy, but in true fantasy novels, the larger outer world does not look like ours. Think of the entirely separate universes of Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. In those stories, we have departed to another world altogether.
In a magical realist story, on the other hand, we are in a mundane, familiar place that is inhabited or imbued with something not of this world. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” for example, an angel shows up in a small town after a big rainstorm. But the angel is not ethereal and lovely and glowing with celestial light—he’s toothless, has bugs in his wings, and smells funny. Since he brings no special message from God, the people put him in a chicken coop.
That story isn’t about the angel at all, but about human expectation—and ignorance and bureaucracy. In that way, it’s a true story, even though there’s this creature that does not happen to exist. Marquez himself once explained: "Surrealism runs through the streets. Surrealism comes from the reality of Latin America."
In other words, magical realism can be defined as stories rooted in reality—with a touch of, well, magic. They are fictional tales probable enough that they could actually happen, with a bit of whimsy—like the appearance of an angel in Marquez's story, perhaps, or a woman's ability to infuse her cooking with her emotions, like in the 1992 novel Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.
Did magical realism begin with Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
Marquez is often credited with the invention of magical realism, and he does loom large—as to many other Latin American authors—but the genre has existed for a long time. Nikolai Gogol’s story “The Nose” is about a politician whose nose goes off to start its own career. In “The Metamorphosis,” Kafka wrote about a guy who woke up as a cockroach; he, like Marquez, was writing not about bugs or magic but about the drudgery of the life of a salesman, and a particular and exact family and all its failings. He was writing about very real despair—with magical elements.
What are some examples of magical realism—are there books I should read?
If you've now learned enough and want to explore this glorious genre, here are some seminal works—along with a few of my personal favorites.
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