A literary genre is a category of literature . Genres may be determined by literary technique , tone , content , or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided into more concrete distinctions. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, and even the rules designating genres change over time and are fairly unstable.
158-459: Fantastique is a French term for a literary and cinematic genre and mode that is characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. The concept comes from the French literary and critical tradition, and is distinguished from the word "fantastic", which is associated with the broader term of fantasy in
316-435: A painterly style known as Neue Sachlichkeit ('New Objectivity'), an alternative to expressionism that was championed by German museum director Gustav Hartlaub . Roh identified magic realism's accurate detail, smooth photographic clarity, and portrayal of the 'magical' nature of the rational world; it reflected the uncanniness of people and our modern technological environment. He also believed that magic realism
474-434: A balance between saleability and intellectual integrity. Wendy Faris, talking about magic realism as a contemporary phenomenon that leaves modernism for postmodernism, says, "Magic realist fictions do seem more youthful and popular than their modernist predecessors, in that they often (though not always) cater with unidirectional story lines to our basic desire to hear what happens next. Thus they may be more clearly designed for
632-523: A collection of fantastique short stories that is one of the masterpieces of the genre. The confidence displayed by French Society in the early 1900s was sapped by the slaughter of World War I: the Dadaist and Surrealist movements expressed a desire to break violently with the past. In 1924, the André Breton 's Manifesto of Surrealism , inspired by Freudian discoveries, challenged the realist attitude, contested
790-500: A collection of three important fantastique stories, Histoires incertaines , whose aesthetic is directly influenced by fin de siècle literature. Other notable works of this category include: Victorian England produced few fantastique writers in the strict sense of the term, as the subtle ambiguities inherent in the genre found little echo in the English literary tradition. Thomas de Quincey 's short stories, for example, are more clearly in
948-473: A continent of symbiosis, mutations ... mestizaje , engenders the baroque", made explicit by elaborate Aztec temples and associative Nahuatl poetry. These mixing ethnicities grow together with the American baroque; the space in between is where the "marvelous real" is seen. Marvelous: not meaning beautiful and pleasant, but extraordinary, strange, and excellent. Such a complex system of layering—encompassed in
1106-424: A culturally specific project, by identifying for his readers those (non-modern) societies where myth and magic persist and where Magic Realism might be expected to occur. There are objections to this analysis. Western rationalism models may not actually describe Western modes of thinking and it is possible to conceive of instances where both orders of knowledge are simultaneously possible. Alejo Carpentier originated
1264-534: A definition as well as the rules for its construction. After the time of Aristotle, literary criticism continued to develop. The first-century Greek treatise " On the Sublime ", for example, discussed the works of more than 50 literary writers and the methods they used to influence their audiences' emotions and feelings. The origins of modern Western genre theory can be traced to the European Romantic movement in
1422-552: A discourse of undisturbed realism", citing Kundera's 1979 novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting as an exemplar." Michiko Kakutani writes that "The transactions between the extraordinary and the mundane that occur in so much Latin American fiction are not merely a literary technique, but also a mirror of a reality in which the fantastic is frequently part of everyday life." Magical realism often mixes history and fantasy, as in Salman Rushdie 's Midnight's Children , in which
1580-445: A distinction must be made between the academic definition and the everyday meaning. In everyday language, the word can refer to anything to do with the supernatural. Some people use in French the term médiéval-fantastique to refer to high fantasy, but it is not a term used by academic critics. The fantastique is often considered to be very close to science fiction. However, there are important differences between them: science fiction
1738-636: A genre such as satire , allegory or pastoral might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre (see below), but as a mixture of genres. They are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed. The concept of genre began in the works of Aristotle , who applied biological concepts to the classification of literary genres, or, as he called them, "species" (eidē). These classifications are mainly discussed in his treatises Rhetoric and Poetics . Genres are categories into which kinds of literary material are organized. The genres Aristotle discusses include
SECTION 10
#17333476704451896-428: A gigantic insect.' When I read that line I thought to myself I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago." He also cited the stories told to him by his grandmother: "She told me things that sounded supernatural and fantastic, but she told them with complete naturalness. She did not change her expression at all when telling her stories, and everyone
2054-478: A highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe." The term and its wide definition can often become confused, as many writers are categorized as magical realists. The term was influenced by a German and Italian painting style of the 1920s which were given the same name. In The Art of Fiction , British novelist and critic David Lodge defines magic realism: "when marvellous and impossible events occur in what otherwise purports to be
2212-479: A kind of heightened reality where elements of the miraculous can appear while seeming natural and unforced. She suggests that by disassociating himself and his writings from Roh's painterly magic realism, Carpentier aimed to show how—by virtue of Latin America's varied history, geography, demography, politics, myths, and beliefs—improbable and marvelous things are made possible. Furthermore, Carpentier's meaning
2370-487: A lesson. Says the Post of Lewis, "The fabulist ... illuminates the nature of things through a tale both he and his auditors, or readers, know to be an ingenious analogical invention." Italo Calvino is an example of a writer in the genre who uses the term fabulist . Calvino is best known for his book trilogy, Our Ancestors , a collection of moral tales told through surrealist fantasy. Like many fabulist collections, his work
2528-418: A love story, aesthetic or political meditations, picaresque adventures, a family epic, mystical ecstasies, etc. The theme of madness and solitude is central to both Hoffmann's and Chamisso's work. Hoffmann had a universal and almost continuous influence on the genre. His tales form a veritable repertoire of the fantastique , subsequently adapted by other authors and in other arts (opera, ballet, cinema). From
2686-544: A magical realism." The critical perspective towards magical realism as a conflict between reality and abnormality stems from the Western reader's disassociation with mythology , a root of magical realism more easily understood by non-Western cultures. Western confusion regarding magical realism is due to the "conception of the real" created in a magical realist text: rather than explain reality using natural or physical laws, as in typical Western texts, magical realist texts create
2844-432: A magical realist whatsoever (Ángel Flores), those that call him "a mágicorealista writer with no mention of his 'lo real maravilloso' (Gómez Gil, Jean Franco, Carlos Fuentes)", and those that use the two terms interchangeably (Fernando Alegria, Luis Leal, Emir Rodriguez Monegal). Ángel Flores states that magical realism is an international commodity but that it has a Hispanic birthplace, writing that "Magical realism
3002-415: A major collection, Cycles patibulaires (1892). Two writers helped bring Belgian fantastique to maturity: Franz Hellens and Jean Ray . The former, alternating between symbolism and realism, distinguished himself in a genre that is sometimes described as "magic realism". His main works are Nocturnal (1919) and Les réalités fantastiques (1923). Jean Ray was a true innovator of supernatural literature in
3160-507: A major work, Aurélia (1855), in a more poetic and personal style. He also wrote another text in a similar style, La Pandora (1854). Other notable works at that time include: The end of the 19th century saw the rise of so-called " decadent " literature, whose favourite themes were cruelty, vice and perversity. In the wake of works such as Joris-Karl Huysmans ' À rebours [Against Nature] (1884), Là-Bas [Down There] (1891) and Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly 's Les Diaboliques , fantastique
3318-495: A means to create a collective consciousness by "opening new mythical and magical perspectives on reality", and used his writings to inspire an Italian nation governed by Fascism . Uslar Pietri was closely associated with Roh's form of magic realism and knew Bontempelli in Paris. Rather than follow Carpentier's developing versions of "the (Latin) American marvelous real", Uslar Pietri's writings emphasize "the mystery of human living amongst
SECTION 20
#17333476704453476-493: A nightmare and contrasts it to a positive beginning ... Hoffmann's dream was free, graceful, attractive, cheerful to infinity. Reading his fairy tales, you understand that Hoffmann is, in essence, a kind, clear person, because he could tell a child such things as The Nutcracker or The Royal Bride – these pearls of human fantasy. German magic-realist paintings influenced the Italian writer Massimo Bontempelli , who has been called
3634-412: A novel about a virgin prophetess who knows occult secrets that date back to Ancient Mesopotamia . Also of note by Balzac: Le Centenaire [The Centenarian], about a man seeking higher dimensions, the aptly named La Recherche de l'Absolu [The Search For The Absolute] (1834), whose hero is an alchemist, and Melmoth Réconcilié [Melmoth Reconciled] (1835). A great admirer of Hoffmann, Théophile Gautier
3792-471: A number of works involving the supernatural. They are marked by oppression in Puritan America, and have the recurring theme of curses, in reference to legends of witchcraft. Although fantastique occupies little space in his abundant output, Francis Marion Crawford is the author of a collection of high quality in the genre, Wandering Ghosts (1891). While drawing on this tradition, H. P. Lovecraft gave it
3950-511: A parody of a ghost story, The Canterville Ghost (1887). One British writer, Arthur Llewelyn Jones, also known as Arthur Machen , was born on 3 March 1863 in Wales and died on 15 December 1947 (aged 84) in England. He is particularly associated with fantastique literature, notably with his first novel, The Great God Pan (1894). The Anglo-American writer Henry James regularly tackled fantastique in
4108-580: A particular twist, closer to horror . Lovecraft went on to inspire many twentieth-century authors, including Stephen King. Alexander Pushkin introduced the fantastique genre to Russia with his famous short story The Queen of Spades (1834). From then on, fantastique became a favourite genre in Russian literature, finding its themes in folk tales and legends. Works such as Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy 's The Family of Vourdalak and Nikolai Gogol 's The Frightful Vengeance are examples of fantastique that
4266-432: A piece of narrative in which there is a constant faltering between belief and non-belief in the supernatural or extraordinary event. In Leal's view, writers of fantasy literature, such as Borges , can create "new worlds, perhaps new planets. By contrast, writers like García Márquez, who use magical realism, don't create new worlds, but suggest the magical in our world." In magical realism, the supernatural realm blends with
4424-554: A pragmatic, practical and tangible approach to reality and an acceptance of magic and superstition" within an environment of differing cultures. Magic realism was later used to describe the uncanny realism by such American painters as Ivan Albright , Peter Blume , Paul Cadmus , Gray Foy , George Tooker , and Viennese-born Henry Koerner , among other artists during the 1940s and 1950s. However, in contrast with its use in literature, magic realist art does not often include overtly fantastic or magical content, but rather, it looks at
4582-507: A realistic narrative. However, the supernatural is considered normal, making magic realism a branch of the marvellous rather than the fantastique . Tzvetan Todorov thus defines the fantastique as being somewhere between the uncanny, i.e. a reality whose limits are pushed to the limit, as in Edgar Allan Poe 's The Fall of the House of Usher , in which a rational analysis can be adopted, and
4740-506: A realistic narrative—is an effect especially associated with contemporary Latin American fiction (for example the work of the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez ) but it is also encountered in novels from other continents, such as those of Günter Grass , Salman Rushdie and Milan Kundera . All these writers have lived through great historical convulsions and wrenching personal upheavals, which they feel cannot be adequately represented in
4898-518: A reality "in which the relation between incidents, characters, and setting could not be based upon or justified by their status within the physical world or their normal acceptance by bourgeois mentality." Guatemalan author William Spindler 's article, "Magic realism: A Typology", suggests that there are three kinds of magic realism, which however are by no means incompatible: Spindler's typology of magic realism has been criticized as: [A]n act of categorization which seeks to define Magic Realism as
Fantastique - Misplaced Pages Continue
5056-421: A sense of confusion and mystery. For example, when reading One Hundred Years of Solitude , the reader must let go of pre-existing ties to conventional exposition , plot advancement, linear time structure, scientific reason, etc., to strive for a state of heightened awareness of life's connectedness or hidden meanings in order for the book to begin to make sense. Luis Leal articulates this feeling as "to seize
5214-571: A state of trance . Finally, in 1813, the very strange Le Manuscrit Trouvé à Saragosse ( The Manuscript Found in Saragossa ) was published. Like Vathek, it was written directly into French by a non-French writer, the Polish count and scientist Jan Potocki . The real source of the fantastique genre is the English Gothic novel of late 1785. In addition to the emergence of fantastique themes (ghosts,
5372-407: A strange or supernatural ring to them. Writing in an incendiary style, Bloy was determined to shock his readers with the cruelty of his stories. Another writer who made anything cruel, unhealthy or sordid his favourite source of inspiration was Jean Lorrain , author of Monsieur de Phocas , one of the key works of fin de siècle literature. His many fantastique tales can be found in several collections,
5530-452: A synonym for fantasy fiction . Gene Wolfe said, "magic realism is fantasy written by people who speak Spanish", and Terry Pratchett said magic realism "is like a polite way of saying you write fantasy". Animist realism is a term for conceptualizing the African literature that has been written based on the strong presence of the imaginary ancestor, the traditional religion and especially
5688-491: A trend within Romanticism that contained "a European magical realism where the realms of fantasy are continuously encroaching and populating the realms of the real". In the words of Anatoly Lunacharsky : Unlike other romantics, Hoffmann was a satirist. He saw the reality surrounding him with unusual keenness, and in this sense he was one of the first and sharpest realists. The smallest details of everyday life, funny features in
5846-645: A year, Magic Realism was being applied to the prose of European authors in the literary circles of Buenos Aires." Jorge Luis Borges inspired and encouraged other Latin American writers in the development of magical realism – particularly with his first magical realist publication, Historia universal de la infamia in 1935. Between 1940 and 1950, magical realism in Latin America reached its peak, with prominent writers appearing mainly in Argentina. Alejo Carpentier's novel The Kingdom of This World , published in 1949,
6004-496: A young carpenter is devoted to the eponymous Fairy, who may be the legendary Queen of Sheba . In order to restore her to her true form, he searches for the magical Singing Mandragore . Then several of the greatest names in French literature stated to write in this genre. Honoré de Balzac , author of a dozen fairy tales and three fantastique novels, was also influenced by Hoffmann . Apart from L'Élixir de longue vie (1830) and Melmoth réconcilié (1835), his main fantastique work
6162-489: A young nobleman, Alvare, conjures up a demon who assumes the shape of a beautiful woman, Biondetta. At the end of the story, the young woman disappears, and we don't know if she ever really existed. Another work in the same vein was Vathek , a novel written directly into French in 1787 by English-born writer William Thomas Beckford . A Byronic figure steeped in occult knowledge and sexual perversions , Beckford allegedly wrote his novel non-stop in three days and two nights in
6320-498: Is La Peau de chagrin (1831), in which the main character has made a pact with the Devil: he buys a skin of sorrow that has the power to grant all his wishes but which, symbolising his life, shrinks every time he uses it. Despite the fantastique component, this novel is rooted in realism: Balzac uses description to paint the sights of Paris; he brings in the psychology and social situation of his characters. However, Balzac's fantastique work
6478-556: Is Haruki Murakami . In Chinese literature the best-known writer of the style is Mo Yan , the 2012 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature for his " hallucinatory realism ". In Polish literature , magic realism is represented by Olga Tokarczuk , the 2018 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature. The term first appeared as the German magischer Realismus ('magical realism'). In 1925, German art critic Franz Roh used magischer Realismus to refer to
Fantastique - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-876: Is an international commodity. Some have argued that connecting magical realism to postmodernism is a logical next step. To further connect the two concepts, there are descriptive commonalities between the two that Belgian critic Theo D'haen addresses in his essay, "Magical Realism and Postmodernism". While authors such as Günter Grass , Thomas Bernhard , Peter Handke , Italo Calvino , John Fowles , Angela Carter , John Banville , Michel Tournier , Willem Brakman , and Louis Ferron might be widely considered postmodernist, they can "just as easily be categorized ... magic realist". A list has been compiled of characteristics one might typically attribute to postmodernism, but that also could describe literary magic realism: " self-reflexiveness , metafiction, eclecticism , redundancy, multiplicity, discontinuity, intertextuality , parody ,
6794-602: Is a continuation of the romantic realist tradition of Spanish language literature and its European counterparts." There is disagreement between those who see magical realism as a Latin American invention and those who see it as the global product of a postmodern world. Guenther concludes, "Conjecture aside, it is in Latin America that [magic realism] was primarily seized by literary criticism and was, through translation and literary appropriation, transformed." Magic realism has been internationalized: dozens of non-Hispanic writers are categorized as such, and many believe that it truly
6952-417: Is a development out of Surrealism that expresses a genuinely "Third World" consciousness. It deals with what Naipaul has called "half-made" societies, in which the impossibly old struggles against the appallingly new, in which public corruptions and private anguishes are somehow more garish and extreme than they ever get in the so-called "North", where centuries of wealth and power have formed thick layers over
7110-495: Is a key writer of fantastique literature. Inhabited by fantastique and the desire to escape, his tales are among the most accomplished in terms of storytelling technique. Gautier excels at keeping the reader guessing throughout his stories, and surprising them at the punch line. He wrote a number of masterpieces that regularly feature in anthologies devoted to the fantastique, such as La Cafetière (1831) and La Morte amoureuse (1836). In La Morte Amoureuse , Théophile Gautier told
7268-420: Is a unidimensional world. The implied author believes that anything can happen here, as the entire world is filled with supernatural beings and situations to begin with. Fairy tales are a good example of marvelous literature. The important idea in defining the marvelous is that readers understand that this fictional world is different from the world where they live. The "marvelous" one-dimensional world differs from
7426-426: Is also classification by format, where the structure of the work is used: graphic novels , picture books , radio plays , and so on. Magic realism Magical realism , magic realism , or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. Magical realism
7584-501: Is also remarkable for the ghostly nature of its characters. Other famous writers have penned some fantastique texts, including Robert Louis Stevenson ( Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde , " Markheim ", " Olalla ") and Rudyard Kipling . This period also saw the birth of new genres of popular literature close to the fantastique: mystery fiction with Wilkie Collins , science fiction with H. G. Wells and Mary Shelley , and fantasy with William Morris and George MacDonald . At its birth in
7742-413: Is based on the narrator's possible madness. In Maupassant's work, the blend of realism and fantastique is often driven by the madness of one of the protagonists, bringing his distorted vision of the world into the real world. The Horla, a word coined by Maupassant, most likely means "Out there", implying that this invisible being comes from another world. There are two versions of Le Horla by the same author:
7900-657: Is close to the marvellous, a character of its own in realist works marked by deep concern and greater sincerity than the literary masterpieces that emerged from the fantastique "craze", particularly in France. Such is the case with Gogol's " The Cloak " and Nikolai Leskov 's The White Eagle . This realism was to be found much later in Andrei Biely 's novel Petersburg and in Fyodor Sologub 's The Petty Demon . Encouraged by Pushkin, Nicholai Gogol published some fantastique tales,
8058-405: Is closer to literary fiction than to fantasy, which is instead a type of genre fiction . Magical realism is often seen as an amalgamation of real and magical elements that produces a more inclusive writing form than either literary realism or fantasy. The term magic realism is broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous, and Matthew Strecher (1999) defines it as "what happens when
SECTION 50
#17333476704458216-531: Is commonly accepted that the genre of fiction ("literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation") is not applied to all fictitious literature, but instead encompasses only prose texts (novels, novellas, short stories) and not fables. There are other ways of categorizing books that are not usually considered "genre". Notably, this can include age categories, by which literature may be classified as adult, young adult , or children's literature . There
8374-470: Is created in magic(al) realism works is a fictional world close to reality, marked by a strong presence of the unusual and the fantastic, in order to point out, among other things, the contradictions and shortcomings of society. The presence of the element of the fantastic does not violate the manifest coherence of a work that is characteristic of traditional realist literature. Fantastic (magical) elements appear as part of everyday reality, function as saviors of
8532-474: Is in this simplicity, this innocence, this magic that Şerban finds any hope for contemporary theatre at all." Fantasy and magic realism are commonly held to be unrelated apart from some shared inspirations in mythology and folklore. Amaryll Beatrice Chanady distinguishes magical realist literature from fantasy literature ("the fantastic") based on differences between three shared dimensions: the use of antinomy (the simultaneous presence of two conflicting codes),
8690-399: Is marked by realism, the genre in which he built his reputation, and is firmly rooted in everyday life. His recurring themes are fear, anxiety and, above all, madness, which he fell into shortly before his death. These themes can be found in his masterpiece, Le Horla (1887). In the form of a diary, the narrator recounts his anxieties caused by the presence of an invisible being. The hesitation
8848-484: Is not conceived as an end in itself. At the very least, Balzac does not seek to frighten or surprise the reader, and does not involve vampires or werewolves of any kind. Rather, it is a work of reflection, set within the framework of the Comédie humaine . Through the allegorical power of his characters and situations, Balzac is above all writing philosophical tales. We can mention as well Falthurne (1820) by Honoré de Balzac ,
9006-461: Is not magic literature either. Its aim, unlike that of magic, is to express emotions, not to evoke them." Despite including certain magic elements, it is generally considered to be a different genre from fantasy because magical realism uses a substantial amount of realistic detail and employs magical elements to make a point about reality, while fantasy stories are often separated from reality. The two are also distinguished in that magic realism
9164-507: Is not supernatural, but rational. H. G. Wells's The Time Machine , for example, is a science-fiction novel because the hero travels back in time using a machine designed for the purpose - in other words, using a technological process that, while unknown in the current state of human knowledge, is presented as technological and therefore cannot be described as supernatural. The fantastique narratives also differs from fantasy ones, such as those by J. R. R. Tolkien , when in fact they belong to
9322-474: Is often attributed to the social events that were taking place in the Western world in terms of wars, infighting and overthrown leadership. People felt the need for "escapism" to remove themselves from their respective situations. In 1957 Canadian scholar Northrop Frye published "Anatomy of Criticism," in which he proposes a system of genres and a set of rules to describe the constraints of each genre. In this work, he defines methodological classifications of
9480-480: Is often characterised as an important harbinger of magic realism, which reached its most canonical incarnation in Gabriel García Marquez 's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). García Marquez cited Kafka 's " The Metamorphosis " as a formative influence: "The first line almost knocked me out of bed. It begins: 'As Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into
9638-482: Is often classified as allegories for children. Calvino wanted fiction, like folk tales, to act as a teaching device. "Time and again, Calvino insisted on the 'educational potential' of the fable and its function as a moral exemplum", wrote journalist Ian Thomson about the Italian Fabulist. While reviewing the work of Romanian-born American theater director Andrei Şerban , New York Times critic Mel Gussow coined
SECTION 60
#17333476704459796-469: Is often confused with magical realism as they both explore illogical or non-realist aspects of humanity and existence. There is a strong historical connection between Franz Roh's concept of magic realism and surrealism, as well as the resulting influence on Carpentier's marvelous reality; however, important differences remain. Surrealism "is most distanced from magical realism [in that] the aspects that it explores are associated not with material reality but with
9954-418: Is often linked to a particular ambiance, a sort of tension in the face of the impossible. A good deal of fear is often involved, either because the characters are afraid or because the author wants to provoke fright in the reader. However, fear is not an essential component of fantastique . The French concept of fantastique in literature should therefore not be confused with the marvellous or fantasy (where
10112-593: Is often seen as a predecessor of magical realists, with only Flores considering him a true magical realist. After Flores's essay, there was a resurgence of interest in marvelous realism, which, after the Cuban revolution of 1959 , led to the term magical realism being applied to a new type of literature known for matter-of-fact portrayal of magical events. Literary magic realism originated in Latin America. Writers often traveled between their home country and European cultural hubs, such as Paris or Berlin, and were influenced by
10270-448: Is one of the most famous short stories in the genre: it features a pagan statue that comes to life and kills a young groom on his wedding night. Lokis and Vision de Charles XI are also among his successes. Mérimée also translated Pushkin 's " The Queen of Spades ", and published a study on Nicholas Gogol , the master of Russian fantastique. Guy de Maupassant is clearly one of the greatest authors of fantastique literature. His work
10428-402: Is that Latin America is a land filled with marvels, and that "writing about this land automatically produces a literature of marvelous reality." "The marvelous" may be easily confused with magical realism, as both modes introduce supernatural events without surprising the implied author. In both, these magical events are expected and accepted as everyday occurrences. However, the marvelous world
10586-474: Is the author of an abundant oeuvre which, although it often veers more towards the uncanny than the fantastique, remains largely in the realm of the supernatural. With a pronounced penchant for the macabre, blood and unhealthy eroticism, his works are intended to be provocative and have often been judged immoral. Ewers is best known for his novel Mandragore . He wrote another significant novel, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1909), as well as numerous short stories,
10744-546: Is the most commonly used of the three terms and refers to literature in particular. Magic realism often refers to literature in particular, with magical or supernatural phenomena presented in an otherwise real-world or mundane setting , commonly found in novels and dramatic performances . In his article "Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature", Luis Leal explains the difference between magic literature and magical realism, stating that, "Magical realism
10902-765: Is typically subdivided into the classic three forms of Ancient Greece, poetry , drama , and prose . Poetry may then be subdivided into the genres of lyric , epic , and dramatic . The lyric includes all the shorter forms of poetry e.g., song , ode, ballad, elegy, sonnet. Dramatic poetry might include comedy , tragedy , melodrama , and mixtures like tragicomedy . The standard division of drama into tragedy and comedy derives from Greek drama. This division into subgenres can continue: comedy has its own subgenres, including, for example, comedy of manners , sentimental comedy, burlesque comedy , and satirical comedy. The genre of semi-fiction includes works that mix elements of both fiction and nonfiction. A semi-fictional work may be
11060-483: The Washington Square Review regarding fabulism. "Shouldn't our fiction reflect that?" While magical realism is traditionally used to refer to works that are Latin American in origin, fabulism is not tied to any specific culture. Rather than focusing on political realities, fabulism tends to focus on the entirety of the human experience through the mechanization of fairy tales and myths. This can be seen in
11218-486: The Metamorphoses is supposed to come to a particularly mysterious region of Greece, Thessaly. The witches of this province were renowned, and the protagonist Lucius was transformed into a donkey after using the wrong ointment. A whole section of the novel, from the moment Lucius is metamorphosed to the moment he regains his primitive form, escapes the fantastique and foreshadows the future course of picaresque heroes. Only
11376-464: The baroque by a lack of emptiness, a departure from structure or rules, and an "extraordinary" abundance ( plenitude ) of disorienting detail. (He cites Mondrian as its opposite.) From this angle, Carpentier views the baroque as a layering of elements, which translates easily into the postcolonial or transcultural Latin-American atmosphere that he emphasizes in The Kingdom of this World . "America,
11534-405: The bidimensional world of magical realism because, in the latter, the supernatural realm blends with the natural, familiar world (arriving at the combination of two layers of reality: bidimensionality). While some use the terms magical realism and lo real maravilloso interchangeably, the key difference lies in the focus. Critic Luis Leal attests that Carpentier was an originating pillar of
11692-427: The fantastique is defined as the intrusion of supernatural phenomena into an otherwise realist narrative. It evokes phenomena which are not only left unexplained but which are inexplicable from the reader's point of view. In this respect, Tzvetan Todorv explains that the fantastique is somewhere between the French concept of "marvellous" ( merveilleux ), where the supernatural is accepted and entirely reasonable in
11850-523: The fantastique , they contributed to the emergence of the genre in Europe, since the creatures found in fantastique literature that invade reality often come from marvellous literature. Cazotte is often considered as the creator of the fantastique genre in France with his novel Le Diable amoureux ( The Devil in Love , 1772), sub-titled un roman fantastique , so labeled for the first time in literary history. In it,
12008-401: The story within a story while reading it, making them self-conscious of their status as readers—and secondly, where the textual world enters into the reader's (real) world. Good sense would negate this process, but "magic" is the flexible convention that allows it. Magic realist literature tends to leave out explanation of its magical element or obfuscate elements of the story, creating
12166-409: The "fantastic" (фантастика) encompasses science fiction (called "science fantastic", научная фантастика), fantasy , and other non-realistic genres. When Charles Nodier wants to invent a fantastique history, when Nerval recalls Cazotte as an initiator in spite of himself, they both refer without hesitation to The Golden Ass (also called Metamorphoses ) by Apuleius (1st c. AD). The hero of
12324-506: The "petits romantiques". Pétrus Borel , in Champavert, Contes immoraux (1833) and especially in Madame de Putiphar (1839), was even more provocative than the English writers, particularly in his indulgence in the horrible. The cruelty of Champavert 's stories foreshadows Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam . What's more, Borel wrote a truly fantastique tale, Gottfried Wolfgang (1843). Among
12482-403: The 1830s, Hoffmann's tales were translated into French by Loève-Veimars and met a spectacular success. After Jacques Cazotte's Le Diable amoureux , Nodier was one of the first French writers to write fantastique tales. However, he saw this genre as nothing more than a new way of writing marvellous stories; for him, fantastique was a pretext for dreaming and fantasy. In fact, he wrote a study on
12640-678: The 1920s and 30s that focused on the mystery and reality of how we live. Luis Leal attests that Uslar Pietri seemed to have been the first to use the term realismo mágico in literature, in 1948. There is evidence that Mexican writer Elena Garro used the same term to describe the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann , but dismissed her own work as a part of the genre. French-Russian Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier , who rejected Roh's magic realism as tiresome pretension, developed his related concept lo real maravilloso ('marvelous realism') in 1949. Maggie Ann Bowers writes that marvelous-realist literature and art expresses "the seemingly opposed perspectives of
12798-608: The 20th century. He has the particularity of having considered the fantastique genre as a whole, and devoted himself exclusively to it. He began his career as a pulp writer, using a variety of aliases, and had several stories published in Weird Tales . He is the author of an unbridled fantastique whose greatest success is Malpertuis (1943) and he wrote short stories steeped in the rich, mist-shrouded atmosphere of his native Flanders. Finally, Michel de Ghelderode , in addition to his impressive theatrical work, also wrote Sortilèges (1945),
12956-462: The Devil, vampires), these novels, characterised by a more pronounced atmosphere of horror, introduced the ambiguity characteristic of the genre. Among the most representative works are Horace Walpole 's The Castle of Otranto , Matthew Gregory Lewis 's The Monk (1796), Ann Radcliffe 's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), William Godwin 's Caleb Williams (1794), Charlotte Dacre 's Zofloya, or
13114-458: The English critical literature that discusses fantasti c literature associates the word with a broader meaning related to fantasy as in the works of Eric Rabkin, Rosemary Jackson, Lucy Armitt and David Sandner. The polysemy of the word fantastic and the difference of critical traditions of each country have led to controversies such as the one led by Sanislaw Lem. The word is also polysemous in French:
13272-422: The English literary tradition. According to the literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov ( Introduction à la littérature fantastique ), the fantastique is distinguished from the marvellous by the hesitation it produces between the supernatural and the natural, the possible and the impossible, and sometimes between the logical and the illogical. The marvellous, on the other hand, appeals to the supernatural in which, once
13430-519: The Enlightenment period. The undeniable popularity of the genre was, in great part, attributable to the fact that Fairy Tales were safe; they did not imperil the soul — a serious concern for a nation which had just come out of an era of great religious persecution — and they appropriately reflected the grandeur of the Sun King's reign. Even if fairy tales and marvellous novels don't belong to
13588-491: The Latin-American "boom" novel, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude —aims towards "translating the scope of America". Magical realism plot lines characteristically employ hybrid multiple planes of reality that take place in "inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural, and Western and indigenous". This trait centers on the reader's role in literature. With its multiple realities and specific reference to
13746-544: The Moor (1806) and Charles Robert Maturin 's Melmoth, the Wandering Man (1821). In France, the discovery of English Gothic novels gave rise to a profusion of so-called " frenetic " novels ( roman frénétique ) (also known as "roman noir"). Still strongly influenced by the marvellous, these romantic works of the 1830s introduced a taste for horror and the macabre into the French novel. The frenetic novel reached its apogee with
13904-556: The aim of initiating his readers. His most famous novel, The Golem (1915), was inspired by the Kabbalah. It depicts a degraded and miserable humanity in the Jewish quarter of Prague. His other major fantastique novel was Walpurgis Night (1917). Its theme is violence and collective madness, and it echoes the butchery of the First World War. A more controversial figure, Hanns Heinz Ewers
14062-488: The art movement of the time. Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier and Venezuelan Arturo Uslar-Pietri , for example, were strongly influenced by European artistic movements, such as Surrealism , during their stays in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. One major event that linked painterly and literary magic realisms was the translation and publication of Franz Roh's book into Spanish by Spain's Revista de Occidente in 1927, headed by major literary figure José Ortega y Gasset . "Within
14220-728: The audience they are intended for into: drama (performed works), lyric poetry (sung works), and epic poetry (recited works). Since the Romantic period, modern genre theory often sought to dispense with the conventions that have marked the categorization of genres for centuries. However, the twenty-first century has brought a new era in which genre has lost much of the negative connotations associating it with loss of individuality or excess conformity. Genre categorizes literary works based on specific shared conventions, including style, mood, length, and organizational features. These genres are in turn divided into subgenres . Western literature
14378-515: The beginning, when the witches' magic remains uncertain, could be considered fantastique. Works of fantastique , however, only began to appear in the 18th century, and this type of literature reached its golden age in the 19th century. Baroque (whether in the form of novels , plays or even operas ) was the link between the Merveilleux of the Renaissance and the more formalized fairy tales of
14536-642: The best known of which is The Spider (1907). In 1909, the Austrian writer and illustrator Alfred Kubin published a single fantastique novel, The Other Side , which reflects the nightmarish atmosphere of his drawings. This novel, in which dreams and reality form an inextricable skein, is considered by Peter Assman, Kubin's main biographer, to be "an essential step in the development of European fantastique literature". Other important fantastique works written during this period include Leo Perutz 's The Marquis of Bolibar and Alexander Lernet-Holenia 's Baron Bagge . It
14694-407: The best of which is undoubtedly Histoires de masques (1900). We can mention as well Buveurs d'Âmes [Soul Drinkers] (1893), "Les contes d'un buveur d'éther" and the kabbalistic novel La Mandragore (1899). The Symbolist author Marcel Schwob , hardly unmoved to the deleterious atmosphere of decadent works, managed to reconcile this aesthetic with the vein of the fantastic. Using the marvellous and
14852-852: The children born at midnight on August 15, 1947, the moment of India's independence, are telepathically linked. Irene Guenther (1995) tackles the German roots of the term, and how an earlier magic realist art is related to a later magic realist literature; meanwhile, magical realism is often associated with Latin-American literature , including founders of the genre, particularly the authors Gabriel García Márquez , Isabel Allende , Jorge Luis Borges , Juan Rulfo , Miguel Ángel Asturias , Elena Garro , Mireya Robles , Rómulo Gallegos and Arturo Uslar Pietri . In English literature , its chief exponents include Neil Gaiman , Salman Rushdie , Alice Hoffman , Louis De Bernieres , Nick Joaquin , and Nicola Barker . In Russian literature , key proponents include Mikhail Bulgakov , Soviet dissident Andrei Sinyavsky and
15010-432: The concept of magical realism, each writer gives expression to a reality he observes in the people. To me, magical realism is an attitude on the part of the characters in the novel toward the world", or toward nature. Leal and Guenther both quote Arturo Uslar-Pietri , who described "man as a mystery surrounded by realistic facts. A poetic prediction or a poetic denial of reality. What for lack of another name could be called
15168-459: The context of American theatre. He wrote that the Fabulist style allowed Şerban to neatly combine technical form and his own imagination. Through directing fabulist works, Şerban can inspire an audience with innate goodness and romanticism through the magic of theatre. "The New Fabulism has allowed Şerban to pursue his own ideals of achieving on sage the naivete of a children's theater", wrote Menta. "It
15326-406: The course of his literary career, and more specifically ghost stories. His most accomplished work is The Nutcracker (1898), a benchmark in the art of vacillating between rational and irrational explanations. James's allusive style leads the reader to doubt each of the protagonists in turn, so that the ultimate truth of the story is not revealed at the end; that choice is left to the reader. This book
15484-510: The disconcerting fictitious world". The narrator is indifferent, a characteristic enhanced by this absence of explanation of fantastic events; the story proceeds with "logical precision" as if nothing extraordinary had taken place. Magical events are presented as ordinary occurrences; therefore, the reader accepts the marvelous as normal and common. In his essay "The Baroque and the Marvelous Real", Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier defines
15642-426: The dissolution of character and narrative instance, the erasure of boundaries, and the destabilization of the reader". To further connect the two, magical realism and postmodernism share the themes of post-colonial discourse, in which jumps in time and focus cannot really be explained with scientific but rather with magical reasoning; textualization (of the reader); and metafiction. Concerning attitude toward audience,
15800-439: The early 19th century, American literature was strongly influenced by the English Gothic novel and fantastique. Nathaniel Hawthorne , then Washington Irving and above all Edgar Allan Poe also made the short story and the tale their preferred forms of expression. Poe also played a special role in developing his own aesthetic theory. He was also one of the pioneers of science fiction and detective fiction. Washington Irving, one of
15958-427: The end of the nineteenth century. Symbolism created an atmosphere conducive to the intrusion of the supernatural, whether through allegory, enchantment or allusiveness. The major work of this movement is Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach (1892). Alongside symbolism, a realist and rustic movement developed, whose main representative was Georges Eekhoud . Marked by a realism of excess and hyperbole, his work includes
16116-444: The entertainment of readers." When attempting to define what something is , it is often helpful to define what something is not . Many literary critics attempt to classify novels and literary works in only one genre, such as "romantic" or "naturalist", not always taking into account that many works fall into multiple categories. Much discussion is cited from Maggie Ann Bowers' book Magic(al) Realism , wherein she attempts to delimit
16274-547: The epic, the tragedy, the comedy, dithyrambic poetry, and phallic songs. Genres are often divided into complex sub-categories. For example, the novel is a large genre of narrative fiction; within the category of the novel, the detective novel is a sub-genre, while the "hard-boiled" detective novel is a sub-genre of the detective novel. In the Rhetoric , Aristotle proposed three literary genres of rhetorical oratory: deliberative , forensic , and epideictic . These are divided based on
16432-505: The exterior world and offer direct allegorical interpretations. Austrian-American child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim suggested that fairy tales have psychological merit. They are used to translate trauma into a context that people can more easily understand and help to process difficult truths. Bettelheim posited that the darkness and morality of traditional fairy tales allowed children to grapple with questions of fear through symbolism. Fabulism helped to work through these complexities and, in
16590-496: The fantastique, which shows that for Nodier the line between the marvellous and the fantastique is quite blurred. Populated by ghosts, vampires and the undead, his texts nevertheless possess the hallmarks of the fantastique: ambiguity, uncertainty and disquiet. His best-known tales are Smarra ou les démons de la nuit [Smarra, or The Demons Of The Night] (1821), a series of terrifying dream-based tales, Trilby ou le lutin d'argail (1822), La Fée aux miettes (1832). In this last work,
16748-541: The first great American writers, wrote many tales that were closer to legend than to the supernatural strictly speaking. He is characterised by his realism and ironic tone. His best-known collection is the Sketch Book (1819), which contains the tale of Rip Van Winckle , one of the first two truly original American works of fantastique, along with William Austin 's Peter Rugh , the Missing (1824). Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote
16906-564: The first to apply magic realism to writing, aiming to capture the fantastic, mysterious nature of reality. In 1926, he founded the magic realist magazine 900.Novecento, and his writings influenced Belgian magic realist writers Johan Daisne and Hubert Lampo . Roh's magic realism also influenced writers in Hispanic America , where it was translated in 1927 as realismo mágico . Venezuelan writer Arturo Uslar-Pietri , who had known Bontempelli, wrote influential magic-realist short stories in
17064-461: The genres of myth , legend , high mimetic genre, low mimetic genre, irony , the comic , and the tragic through the constitution of "the relation between the hero of the work and ourselves or the laws of nature." He also uses the juxtaposition of the "real" and the "ideal" to categorize the genres of romance (the ideal), irony (the real), comedy (transition from real to ideal), and tragedy (transition from ideal to real). Lastly, he divides genres by
17222-604: The hesitation that leads to the fantastique . The Fantastique can encompass both works of the horror and gothic genres. Two representative stories might be: The fantastique is sometimes erroneously called the Grotesque or Supernatural fiction , because both the Grotesque and the Supernatural contain fantastic elements, yet they are not the same, as the fantastique is based on an ambiguity of those elements. In Russian literature ,
17380-461: The human against the onslaught of conformism, evil and totalitarianism. Moreover, in magical realism works we find objective narration characteristic of traditional, 19th-century realism." As a simple point of comparison, Roh's differentiation between expressionism and post-expressionism as described in German Art in the 20th Century, may be applied to magic realism and realism. Realism pertains to
17538-596: The imaginary world of a non-realist narrative, and the uncanny ( étrange in French), where apparently supernatural phenomena are explained according to realist precepts and accepted as normal. In an English speaking theoritical perspective, it can therefore been considered as a subgenre of fantasy. Instead, characters in a work of fantastique are, just like the readers, unwilling to accept the supernatural events that occur. This refusal may be mixed with doubt, disbelief, fear, or some combination of those reactions. The fantastique
17696-433: The imagination and the mind, and in particular it attempts to express the 'inner life' and psychology of humans through art". It seeks to express the sub-conscious, unconscious, the repressed and inexpressible. Magical realism, on the other hand, rarely presents the extraordinary in the form of a dream or a psychological experience . "To do so", Bowers writes, "takes the magic of recognizable material reality and places it into
17854-452: The inarguable discourse of "privileged centers of literature". This is a mode primarily about and for "ex-centrics": the geographically, socially, and economically marginalized. Therefore, magic realism's "alternative world" works to correct the reality of established viewpoints (like realism , naturalism , modernism ). Magic-realist texts, under this logic, are subversive texts, revolutionary against socially-dominant forces. Alternatively,
18012-411: The inclusion of events that cannot be integrated into a logical framework, and the use of authorial reticence. In fantasy, the presence of the supernatural code is perceived as problematic, something that draws special attention—where in magical realism, the presence of the supernatural is accepted. In fantasy, while authorial reticence creates a disturbing effect on the reader, it works to integrate
18170-444: The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, during which the concept of genre was scrutinized heavily. The idea that it was possible to ignore genre constraints and the idea that each literary work was a "genre unto itself" gained popularity. Genre definitions were thought to be "primitive and childish." At the same time, the Romantic period saw the emergence of a new genre, the 'imaginative' genre. The reason for this shift
18328-503: The little understood world of the imagination. The ordinariness of magical realism's magic relies on its accepted and unquestioned position in tangible and material reality ." Fabulism traditionally refers to fables, parables, and myths, and is sometimes used in contemporary contexts for authors whose work falls within or relates to magical realism. Though often used to refer to works of magical realism, fabulism incorporates fantasy elements into reality, using myths and fables to critique
18486-555: The magical realist style by implicitly referring to the latter's critical works, writing that "The existence of the marvelous real is what started magical realist literature, which some critics claim is the truly American literature." It can consequently be drawn that Carpentier's lo real maravilloso is especially distinct from 'magical realism' by the fact that the former applies specifically to América (the American content). On that note, Lee A. Daniel categorizes critics of Carpentier into three groups: those that do not consider him
18644-460: The main character sees his portrait age and take on every mark of his vices, while he possesses eternal youth and indulges in every excess. In this text, Wilde develops his thoughts on aestheticism and depicts the conflict between physical and moral decay. Sensuality and homosexuality also permeate the work. Far beyond the realm of fantastique, this novel had a strong influence on French literature, particularly on decadent writers. Oscar Wilde also wrote
18802-399: The marvellous, where supernatural elements are considered normal: the fantastique is this in-between, this moment when the mind still hesitates between a rational and irrational explanation. As a final condition for the appearance of the fantastique , he adds a realistic universe or context: the setting must be perceived as natural in order to introduce the marks of the supernatural, and thus
18960-464: The most famous of which are " The Nose " and The Diary of a Madman , published in the collection of Petersburg short stories. These stories introduced a rather profound change in the nature of the fantastique tradition. Fear played a negligible role, but the absurd and the grotesque became an essential element. This new style was emulated in Russia itself: The Double , one of Dostoyevsky 's first novels,
19118-568: The mundane through a hyper-realistic and often mysterious lens. The term magical realism , as opposed to magic realism , first emerged in the 1955 essay "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction" by critic Angel Flores in reference to writing that combines aspects of magic realism and marvelous realism. While Flores named Jorge Luis Borges as the first magical realist, he failed to acknowledge either Carpentier or Uslar Pietri for bringing Roh's magic realism to Latin America. Borges
19276-400: The mystery that breathes behind things", and supports the claim by saying a writer must heighten his senses to the point of estado limite ('limit state' or 'extreme') in order to realize all levels of reality, most importantly that of mystery. Magic realism contains an "implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite". Especially with regard to Latin America, the style breaks from
19434-531: The narrator as ordinary occurrences; the reader, therefore, accepts the marvelous as normal and common. To Clark Zlotchew, the differentiating factor between the fantastic and magical realism is that in fantastic literature, such as Kafka's The Metamorphosis , there is a hesitation experienced by the protagonist, implied author or reader in deciding whether to attribute natural or supernatural causes to an unsettling event, or between rational or irrational explanations. Fantastic literature has also been defined as
19592-404: The natural, familiar world. This twofold world of magical realism differs from the onefold world that can be found in fairy-tale and fantasy literature. By contrast, in the series " Sorcerous Stabber Orphen " the laws of natural world become a basis for a naturalistic concept of magic. Prominent English-language fantasy writers have rejected definitions of "magic realism" as something other than
19750-493: The other, philosophy, better suited to intellectuals. A singular reading of the first mode will render a distorted or reductive understanding of the text. The fictitious reader—such as Aureliano from 100 Years of Solitude —is the hostage used to express the writer's anxiety on this issue of who is reading the work and to what ends, and of how the writer is forever reliant upon the needs and desires of readers (the market). The magic realist writer with difficulty must reach
19908-577: The outstanding works of the French Gothic period are novels which, having been written with the aim of parodying the tales of Lewis and Radcliffe, have become authentic roman noir. The literary critic Jules Janin wrote L'âne mort et la femme guillotinée (1829). Similarly, Frédéric Soulié's Les mémoires du Diable which combined the roman frénétique with the passions of the Marquis de Sade . Notable works in that category include: Fantastique literature in
20066-483: The people around him with extraordinary honesty were noticed by him. In this sense, his works are a whole mountain of delightfully sketched caricatures of reality. But he was not limited to them. Often he created nightmares similar to Gogol's Portrait . Gogol is a student of Hoffmann and is extremely dependent on Hoffmann in many works, for example in Portrait and The Nose . In them, just like Hoffmann, he frightens with
20224-414: The playwright Nina Sadur . In Bengali literature , prominent writers of magic realism include Nabarun Bhattacharya , Akhteruzzaman Elias , Shahidul Zahir , Jibanananda Das and Syed Waliullah . In Kannada literature , the writers Shivaram Karanth and Devanur Mahadeva have infused magical realism in their most prominent works. In Japanese literature , one of the most important authors of this genre
20382-399: The power of allegory, he wrote two collections of tales, Cœur Double (1891) and Le Roi au masque d'or (1892). The collection Histoires magiques (1894) by another symbolist writer, Rémy de Gourmont , in which the influence of Villiers de L'Isle-Adam is undeniable, is also worth mentioning, and is the only one by its author to contain fantastique tales. In 1919, Henri de Régnier wrote
20540-567: The presuppositions of a magical world have been accepted, things happen in an almost normal and familiar way. The genre emerged in the 18th century and knew a golden age in 19th century Europe, particularly in France and Germany. Three major critical sources in French literary theory give the same fundamental definition of the concept: Le Conte fantastique en France de Nodier à Maupassant of Pierre-Georges Castex, De la féerie à la science-fiction of Roger Caillois and Introduction à la littérature fantastique of Tzvetan Todorov. In these three essays,
20698-502: The purpose of the orator: to argue for future policy or action (deliberative), discuss past action (forensic), or offer praise or blame during a ceremony (epideictic). In the Poetics , Aristotle similarly divided poetry into three main genres: the epic , tragedy , and comedy . In the case of poetry, these distinctions are based not on rhetorical purpose, but on a combination of structure, content and narrative form. For each type, he proposed
20856-440: The reader constructs a world using the raw materials of life. Understanding both realism and magical realism within the realm of a narrative mode is key to understanding both terms. Magical realism "relies upon the presentation of real, imagined or magical elements as if they were real. It relies upon realism, but only so that it can stretch what is acceptable as real to its limits." Literary theorist Kornelije Kvas wrote that "what
21014-404: The reader's world, it explores the impact fiction has on reality, reality on fiction, and the reader's role in between; as such, it is well suited for drawing attention to social or political criticism. Furthermore, it is the tool paramount in the execution of a related and major magic-realist phenomenon: textualization . This term defines two conditions—first, where a fictitious reader enters
21172-443: The real world provides the basis for magical realism. Writers do not invent new worlds, but rather, they reveal the magical in the existing world, as was done by Gabriel García Márquez , who wrote the seminal work One Hundred Years of Solitude . In the world of magical realism, the supernatural realm blends with the natural, familiar world. Authorial reticence is the "deliberate withholding of information and explanations about
21330-778: The reality of life". He believed magic realism was "a continuation of the vanguardia [or avant-garde ] modernist experimental writings of Latin America". The extent to which the characteristics below apply to a given magic realist text varies. Every text is different and employs a smattering of the qualities listed here. However, they accurately portray what one might expect from a magic realist text. Magical realism portrays fantastical events in an otherwise realistic tone. It brings fables, folk tales, and myths into contemporary social relevance. Fantasy traits given to characters, such as levitation , telepathy , and telekinesis , help to encompass modern political realities that can be phantasmagorical . The existence of fantastic elements in
21488-480: The realm of the marvellous. It should also be noted that in the English-speaking world, fantastique literature is not considered a separate genre, but rather a sub-genre of low fantasy. The fantastique then combines the same characteristics as intrusion fantasy as defined by Farah Mendlesohn. The fantastique is also related to magic realism , a genre based as well on the insertion of supernatural elements into
21646-414: The reign of logic and called for imagination and dreams to regain their rights. Breton, however, said little about fantastique. Indeed, the surrealism generally favours the marvellous over the fantastique even if it influenced the genre. A non-literary influence on the fantastique writers was that of Sigmund Freud . Literary genre Genres can all be in the form of prose or poetry . Additionally,
21804-468: The retelling of a true story with only the names changed; at the other end of the spectrum, it may present fictional events with a semi-fictional protagonist, as in Jerry Seinfeld . Often, the criteria used to divide up works into genres are not consistent, and can be subject to debate, change and challenge by both authors and critics. However, some basic distinctions are widely accepted. For example, it
21962-503: The second version ends with the main character being committed to a psychiatric hospital. In 1839, Gérard de Nerval collaborated with Alexandre Dumas on L'Alchimiste [The Alchemist]. Mentally unhinged after a lover's death, Nerval developed an interest in mystical beliefs, especially in his book Les Illuminés . After writing fantastique texts influenced by the German Romanticism of Goethe and Hoffmann, Gérard de Nerval wrote
22120-520: The socially-dominant may implement magical realism to disassociate themselves from their " power discourse ". Theo D'haen calls this change in perspective "decentering". In his review of Gabriel Garcia Márquez 's novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold , Salman Rushdie argues that the formal experiment of magic realism allows political ideas to be expressed in ways that might not be possible through more established literary forms: "El realismo mágico" , magic realism, at least as practised by Márquez,
22278-456: The story of a young priest who falls in love with a beautiful female vampire. In it, the vampire is not a soulless creature, but a loving and erotic woman. Gautier's Avatar (1856) and Spirite (1866) are roman spirites which deal with the theme of life after death. Prosper Mérimée wrote only a very small number of fantastique works (a few short stories at most), but they are of the highest quality. La Vénus d'Ille (1837), in particular,
22436-450: The strict sense of the terme was born in Germany in the early 19th century, with Adelbert von Chamisso ( Peter Schlemihl ), then Achim von Arnim and E.T.A. Hoffmann . Hoffmann's fantastique is characterised by exaltation, chaos and frenzy. The novel The Devil's Elixirs , which claims to be a descendant of Lewis's The Monk , often incoherently accumulates episodes of very different kinds:
22594-552: The supernatural into the natural framework in magical realism. This integration is made possible in magical realism as the author presents the supernatural as being equally valid to the natural. There is no hierarchy between the two codes. The ghost of Melquíades in Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or the baby ghost in Toni Morrison 's Beloved who visit or haunt the inhabitants of their previous residence are both presented by
22752-466: The supernatural is posited and accepted from the outset), with science fiction (which is rational) or with horror, although these genres can be combined. However, the English term "fantastic" can sometimes be used in the French sense as in the Literary Encyclopedia, since the term was translated as above in the English translation of Todorov's essay. This is nonetheless a minority use and much of
22910-402: The surface of what's really going on. In the works of Márquez, as in the world he describes, impossible things happen constantly, and quite plausibly, out in the open under the midday sun. Mexican critic Luis Leal summed up the difficulty of defining magical realism by writing, "If you can explain it, then it's not magical realism." He offers his own definition by writing, "Without thinking of
23068-421: The term lo real maravilloso (roughly 'the marvelous real') in the prologue to his novel The Kingdom of this World (1949); however, some debate whether he is truly a magical realist writer, or simply a precursor and source of inspiration. Maggie Bowers claims he is widely acknowledged as the originator of Latin American magical realism (as both a novelist and critic); she describes Carpentier's conception as
23226-473: The term "The New Fabulism". Şerban is famous for his reinventions in the art of staging and directing, known for directing works like "The Stag King" and "The Serpent Woman", both fables adapted into plays by Carl Gozzi . Gussow defined "The New Fabulism" as "taking ancient myths and turn(ing) them into morality tales", In Ed Menta's book, The Magic Behind the Curtain , he explores Şerban's work and influence within
23384-424: The terms "history", " mimetic ", "familiarization", "empiricism/logic", "narration", "closure-ridden/reductive naturalism", and " rationalization / cause and effect ". On the other hand, magic realism encompasses the terms "myth/legend", "fantastic/supplementation", " defamiliarization ", " mysticism /magic", " meta-narration ", "open-ended/expansive romanticism ", and "imagination/negative capability". Surrealism
23542-405: The terms magic realism and magical realism by examining the relationships with other genres such as realism, surrealism, fantastic literature, science fiction and its African version, the animist realism. Realism is an attempt to create a depiction of actual life; a novel does not simply rely on what it presents but how it presents it. In this way, a realist narrative acts as framework by which
23700-507: The tradition of the Gothic novel than that of fantastique. The Irishman Sheridan Le Fanu wrote Carmilla (1871), a Gothic novel whose originality lies in the character of the homosexual female vampire. It inspired the famous Dracula by his compatriot Bram Stoker (1897), the undisputed masterpiece of vampire stories. Oscar Wilde also wrote one of the most famous Anglo-Saxon fantastique novels, The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1891), in which
23858-460: The two have, some argue, a lot in common. Magical realist works do not seek to primarily satisfy a popular audience, but instead, a sophisticated audience that must be attuned to noticing textual "subtleties". While the postmodern writer condemns escapist literature (like fantasy, crime, ghost fiction), he/she is inextricably related to it concerning readership. There are two modes in postmodern literature : one, commercially successful pop fiction, and
24016-628: The words of Bettelheim, "make physical what is otherwise ephemeral or ineffable in an attempt ... of understanding those things that we struggle the most to talk about: loss, love, transition." Author Amber Sparks described fabulism as blending fantastical elements into a realistic setting. Crucial to the genre, said Sparks, is that the elements are often borrowed from specific myths, fairy tales, and folktales. Unlike magical realism, it does not just use general magical elements, but directly incorporates details from well known stories. "Our lives are bizarre, meandering, and fantastic", said Hannah Gilham of
24174-435: The works of C. S. Lewis , whose biographer, A.N. Wilson, referred to him as the greatest fabulist of the 20th century. His 1956 novel Till We Have Faces has been referenced as a fabulist retelling. This re-imagining of the story of Cupid and Psyche uses an age-old myth to impart moralistic knowledge on the reader. A Washington Post review of a Lewis biography discusses how his work creates "a fiction" in order to deliver
24332-533: Was also during this period that Franz Kafka wrote " The Metamorphosis ", often considered to be a fantastique short story. The development of a particular kind of fantasy literature in Belgium in the 20th century is a curious but indisputable fact. It is all the more important to mention it because fantastique plays a central role in Belgian literature in general. Belgian fantastique emerged from symbolism and realism at
24490-508: Was directly inspired by Gogol's work. The beginning of the 20th century saw the rise of dark, pessimistic fantastique in German-speaking countries. The works published during this period became sources of inspiration for the expressionist cinema that was developing in Germany. Gustav Meyrink (1868-1932) was one of the greatest fantastique writers of the period. A great lover of the occult, he distilled occultist theories in his novels with
24648-917: Was no longer an end in itself, but a means of conveying a provocation, a denunciation or an aesthetic desire. During this period, there were no longer any "fantastique writers", but many authors who wrote a few fantastique texts. Tales became more mannered, descriptions became richer, and exoticism and eroticism became important elements. Finally, the fantastique tale provided an opportunity for social criticism, often directed against bourgeois materialism, as in Villiers de L'Isle-Adam 's Contes cruels [Cruel Tales] (1883) and Tribulat Bonhomet (1887) . The decadent Symbolists also made extensive use of fantastique in their tales, which were not far removed from fable and allegory. Léon Bloy wrote two collections of stories, Sueurs de sang (1893) and Histoires désobligeantes (1894). Although not all his stories are fantastique, they do have
24806-402: Was related to, but distinct from, surrealism , due to magic realism's focus on material object and the actual existence of things in the world, as opposed to surrealism's more abstract, psychological, and subconscious reality. 19th-century Romantic writers such as E. T. A. Hoffmann and Nikolai Gogol , especially in their fairy tales and short stories, have been credited with originating
24964-492: Was surprised. In previous attempts to write One Hundred Years of Solitude , I tried to tell the story without believing in it. I discovered that what I had to was believe in them myself and them write them with the same expression with which my grandmother told them: with a brick face." The theoretical implications of visual art's magic realism greatly influenced European and Latin American literature. Italian Massimo Bontempelli , for instance, claimed that literature could be
#444555