Magical realism was a literary movement of Latin American origin that had Gabriel García Márquez among its greatest exponents.
The notion of magical realism was used for the first time by the German art critic Franz Roh , who devised that expression to refer to a painting that reflected a modified reality .
However, the concept gained greater significance when the Venezuelan Arturo Uslar Pietri used it to describe the work of certain authors of Latin American origin. Since then, magical realism is considered to be a literary genre with a wide artistic scope that had its peak in the middle of the 20th century .
Magic realism concept
Among the main characteristics that usually appear in magical realism novels is content with fantastic or magical elements that are perceived as normal by the characters. On the other hand, the presence of the sensory as part of the perception of reality stands out.
Magical realism also encompasses myths and legends , which can be presented by multiple narrators (combining first, second, and third person).
One cannot talk about Latin American literature without mentioning magical realism, because from the Latin American Boom to the present day, it has been nourished by elements belonging to fantasy. However, it is necessary to clarify that talking about fantasy is not the same as talking about magical realism, because for a work to be contained in the latter it must not be exclusively fantastic, but rather contain elements of fantasy in a realistic story, where said elements are taken as natural for the characters.
Magical realism works present fantastical elements in a realistic setting.
Main features
The texts that belong to magical realism meet certain conditions that make them characteristic.
*It has a theme with realistic characteristics but that has unreal elements that have to do with Latin American memory, the search for identity and sensitivity.
*A particular, minimal space where all the actions take place that has an atmosphere of intimacy where the figures that give life to the story unfold.
*Characters un poco «locos», con una visión casi onírica de la vida y que planifican y realizan viajes de tiempo y espacio sin moverse del lugar. Estados de trance que les permite vivir intensos acontecimientos y resolver conflicts que cargan desde la infancia. Son seres que siempre se encuentran a la vanguardia de los acontecimientos políticos y sociales de su época.
* Time is perceived in this framework as cyclical or appears distorted, so that the present can be repeated or similar to the past. As for the scenarios, they are usually related to the Latin American reality , which is why poverty and social marginality appear.
References of magical realism
Among the main exponents of magical realism are two authors who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature : the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez and the Guatemalan Miguel Ángel Asturias .
Magical realism was the ideal response for authors who, living in countries where dictatorship and censorship corrupted all areas of society, were able to express themselves fluently, allowing through fantasy to explain those elements of reality that with the exact words They would have been sentenced to death.
It should be noted that the main book of magical realism is "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by García Márquez , a work that during the IV International Congress of the Spanish Language was chosen as the most outstanding in Spanish after the always remembered "Don Quixote of La Mancha." » .
Finally we want to make it clear that when analyzing a work belonging to this genre we must keep in mind that the main objective of the author is to know the truth , to instigate until we find the origin of life or understand certain issues that arise in the lives of his characters or the society to which it belongs; In this search for truth, supernatural elements appear, because superstition, the landscape of dreams and fantasy are part of reality, they enrich everyday life and allow it to gain a sense of transcendence .