Paper details:
One way to understand “magical realism” is as a kind of pleasant joke on “realism,” suggesting as it does a new kind of fiction, one that manages to combine the “truthful” and “verifiable” aspects of realism with the “magical” effects we associate with myth, folklore, and the tall tale. But more seriously, magical realism also challenges the status quo, or dominant way of looking at things. Normal notions about time, place, identity, and even the laws of physics are challenged, suspended, lured away from certitude. Sometimes, the intersection between realism and the magical in “magical realism” depends upon a colliding of cultures or civilizations, one so-called “primitive” and hence more in touch with magic, and the other “civilized” and supposedly “realistic” by being grounded in science, and wary of illusion and superstition. Compare and contrast two of the magical realist texts this week and describe how the narrative uses elements of the “magical” to resist or challenge our basic sense of what’s real. By suspending our grasp on “reality,” how do the stories make us think differently about time (playing with an understanding of the past and present), or place (what is physically and imaginatively near and what is far), or identity (our acceptance of social or cultural norms). Comment especially on how the texts force us to consider our basic assumption that “reality” can always be explained by making rational, provable distinctions between the “real” and the so-called “magical”. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-09-20-bk-8868-story.html
