Magic mode: magic(al) realism and the author

If you are confused by the term ‘magic realism’, you’re not alone. The wide variety of novels and short stories all claiming to be magic realism can be bewildering, ranging as they do across romance, family saga, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, surrealist, fabulist, slipstream, absurdist and weird fiction. How can this be? In literature, […]

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Magic(al) Realism: the Magic of Myth

Zeus, father of the gods, transformed his love, Io, into a cow for fear of discovery by wife, Hera. She, knowing her husband well, saw through his ruse and begged Zeus for the cow, exclaiming how beautiful it was. Hera bade Argus of the hundred eyes to watch over the cow. Desperate, Zeus sent Hermes […]

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Magic(al) Realism

What it is, what it’s not, its origins, characteristics and exponents Magic Realism is a mode of literature most often associated with Latin American authors, in particular, Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez, and is taken to mean the incorporation of mythical and/or fantastical elements in an otherwise realistic narrative. But this definition doesn’t tell […]

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