Magical realism
Magical realism is a literary and pictorial movement of the mid-20th century and is defined by its stylistic concern and interest in showing the unreal or strange as something everyday and common.
History
The term was used by an art critic, the German Franz Roh, to describe a painting that demonstrated an altered reality, and came into Spanish with the translation in 1925 of the book Magical Realism (Revista de Occidente, 1925). Later, in 1948, he was introduced to Spanish-American literature by Arturo Uslar Pietri in his essay Letras y hombres de Venezuela (1948). Uslar points out:
What came to predominate in the story and to mark his footprint in a lasting way was the consideration of man as a mystery in the midst of realistic data. A poetic divination or a poetic denial of reality. What in the absence of another word can be called a magical realism.
Venezuelan critic Víctor Bravo Cuba (1904-1980). He was a writer, journalist and musicologist. He introduced the notion of the marvelous real and the Latin American neo-baroque. His works include: The kingdom of this world; Los pasos perdidos and Baroque concert. he points out that the notion of & # 39; magical realism & # 39; It was born almost simultaneously with that of 'real marvelous': "The initial formulation of both notions —as a reference to a mode of Latin American literary production— is done almost simultaneously. In 1947, Arturo Uslar Pietri introduced the term "magical realism" to refer to Venezuelan short stories; in 1949 Alejo Carpentier talks about "the marvelous real" to introduce the novel The kingdom of this world, and some consider it to be the initiating novel of this literary trend. That same year, Miguel Ángel Asturias published his novel Hombres de maíz, in Buenos Aires, also considered a precursor of magical realism. In the case of Chile, the writer, poet and playwright, Mario Jorquera, was one of the largest contributors to magical realism, mainly with his work & # 34; El Bananero & # 34; [citation needed], published 1923; while the surrealist works of the Chilean writer María Luisa Bombal also had an influence on the movement.
As a literary reference prior to the use of the term magical realism by Uslar Pietri, Massimo Bontempelli should be cited who, in 1919, "conquered great popularity by publishing his novels from the cycle la 'Intense life', beginning in a literature —according to a note by Nino Frank in the 'Dictionnaire des Auteurs', by Laffont-Bompiani- that sacrifices the conventional current of the time, in the manner of Anatole France, becoming a kind of apostle of what became known as magical realism".
Magical realism developed in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of discrepancies between two visions that coexisted in Latin America at that time: the culture of technology and the culture of superstition. However, texts of this type have existed since the 1930s in the works of José de la Cuadra, in his nouvelles, for example, La tigra, and this style of writing would also be developed in depth by Demetrio Aguilera Malta (Don Goyo, The Virgin Island). In 1942 the novel Pedro Arnáez by José Marin Cañas was published, which according to the philosopher Constantino Láscaris is a fundamental work for the movement.
Exponents
There have been many artists who have used this style to express emotions through the written word, however it is essential to name the Venezuelan Arturo Uslar Pietri as the greatest exponents, who is considered the undisputed father of this literary avant-garde who gives life to Magical Realism with his novel Las lances redadas published in (1931), since he himself mentions looking for a name that would explain and reflect the needs that were lived at the time. The person who would continue 36 years later with his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude would be the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Also noteworthy are authors such as the Mexican Carlos Fuentes with his novel Aura, the Brazilian Jorge Amado with his novel Doña Flor and her two husbands, although many hail Juan Rulfo as the fathers of magical realism with Pedro Páramo, Arturo Uslar Pietri with his novel Lanzas Coloradas (1931), and the Guatemalan Miguel Ángel Asturias. Other important representatives of Magical Realism were José de la Cuadra with Los Sangurimas, and Elena Garro with Los recuerdos del porvenir. Some authors with emblematic works of the genre are the Cuban-American Mireya Robles with Hagiography of Narcisa la Bella, Laura Esquivel with Como agua para chocolate and the Chilean Isabel Allende with The House of the Spirits, among others.
Also the Argentine Manuel Mujica Lainez, with Bomarzo (1962), and the Ecuadorian Demetrio Aguilera Malta, with Siete lunas y siete serpientes (1970), could be incorporated into the cluster. In the XXI century, the works of the Mexicans Rodolfo Naró and Felipe Montes stand out.
This current is not exclusive to Latin America, although this region is considered its point of origin and subsequent development. In contemporary Japanese literature, for example, Haruki Murakami is its most recognized exponent. The German Gunther Grass, the Indo-British Salman Rushdie, the Czech Milan Kundera and the Portuguese José Saramago have been, on numerous occasions, cataloged within this trend by specialized critics.
Characteristics of magical realism
The following elements are present in many magical realist works, but not necessarily all of them. In addition, some works belonging to other genres may also present very similar characteristics:
- Predominant of "impasible shooter." The narrator presents the facts generating an atmosphere of normality even if it is extraordinary events.
- Contents of magical/fantastic elements perceived by the characters in general as part of the "normality".
- Magical elements perhaps intuitive, but (usually) never explained.
- Presence of the sensory as part of the perception of reality.
- Presence of landscape and/or climates reinforcing the emotions of the characters.
- Allusion to socio-cultural references of the most popular and/or poor areas of communities.
- The facts are real but have a fantastic connotation, as some have no explanation, or it is very unlikely to happen.
- The truth: certain precise events in Latin America are part of unreality and constitute the basis of many narratives.
- Characters can suffer certain metamorphosis as they do in wonderful tales.
Time
We found four positions:
- Chronological time: The actions follow the logical course of time.
- Breakdown of temporary plans: mix of present time with past time (regressions) and future time (rights). In addition, the text is fragmented in sequences that do not match in time or space.
- Static time: chronological time stops, it's as if it didn't transcend. Instead, the thoughts of the characters flow.
- Time spent: It is the most contradictory. The course of time is changed and the natural sequence of the day is changed to the night or vice versa. For example, "It was dawn, it was night."
Magical realism and fantastic literature
Both are the product of the transgression of the limit between the real and the unreal. Magical realism is part of fantastic literature and at the same time it is different. It is part of it because many of the procedures it uses are the same: metamorphosis, treating the unknown as real, the subjective vision of facts, the irruption of the implausible, etc. That is to say, the fantastic is the irruption of the unreal in the real and works as a warning; magical realism is the unreal in the real world as spectacle.
It differs from fantastic literature because it has its powerful romantic manifestation in the last century in Europe; in Latin America it has its own characters. Magical realism does not have its greatest references in Europe, it is almost exclusive to Latin America and especially the Caribbean. We could also consider that fantastic literature, with Rulfo, Borges and Cortázar, is urban; magical realism belongs to the villages, to the countryside, to the mountains.