Is Magical Realism Only From Latin America? | Literature Video Essay

[@prof.valeri7919]

One fundamental concept that distinguishes Magical Realism from other similar genres is that the magic is part of the everyday reality and it is a kind of thing that Latin American readers would understand, and not something that was fully explored in this video. First, it's important to understand the permanent presence of the violence of war, colonization, and dictatorship and all the horrors that for many is the every day reality, and to put that side by side with the absolute and unflinching faith in the indigenous practices. These are not "beliefs" - they are reality. I only understand it because my grandmother, who saw a war fought in her own country, also would talk to me the same way Garcia Marquez' grandmother talked, with absolute certainty in things like ghosts and magic, something that I think it's very hard for those outside of those kind of environments to understand. Neil Gaiman is absolutely not a magical realist. He is a fabulist, and it is incorrect that fabulism is ONLY based on fables and myths. A lot of it is, but it is not exclusively that. And the big difference here is that unless you can understand the magical and indigenous practices as real and see them as real then you do not understand or are not part of the audience of Magical Realism. That is why I'm of the camp that Magical Realism is only the literature of the people who have experienced the absurdity and unconscionable surreality of war, slaughter, and relentless oppression and also simultaneously find that just as real and just as tangible as magic, folklore and mircale. As for Toni Morrison, she's an Afro-Surrealist, which is a genre that many still don't know about or do not understand. It's a similar concept that also incorporates the fact that for many marginalized people in America "reality" is already surreal but it's a lot more than that, too. So no, Toni Morrison is not a magical realist. She's an Afro-surrealist. And most non latinx writers like Kafka are not magical realists (nor is Borges, for that matter, and he was right to resist it) because the two essential elements of the horrific slaughter and oppression next to the miraculous and the magical are not present in Borges and Kafka, and Gogol, and as for Toni Morrison, she's an Afro Surrealist, which is a genre that adds other elements to the marginalization and surreal reality. (Moreover, Surrealism was originally an African movement, so it is fair and right to associate Black writers with Surrealism, since they were the ones who first invented it).

[@prof.valeri7919]

I don't know if I was clear enough, but the main distinction between writers like Angela Carter, Karen Russell, Carmen Maria Machado, and Neil Gaiman, often billed incorrectly as magical realists (they are all fabulist) vs. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier and others is that while Marquez himself may not have necessarily believed that a cup of hot chocolate can make people levitate or that a woman can ascent to heaven he knew and was certain nonetheless that many of the people who read his book do understand that as real, or close to real, or if not them, than their aunt or grandfather or cousin. So treating magic as reality is not just for the characters in the story, but it's expected of the audience to recognize that as real in their own lives as well, or if they themselves do not believe those things, they know people who do. Neil Gaiman is not expecting his audiences to believe that there is an ocean at the end of the lane or that the Sandman is real or to know people who treat it as if it is. And Kafka was not expecting anyone who read his story to claim that people turn into cockroaches. It's political, yes (isn't all literature?) but it's not intended to be seen as someone's reality, even if not the author himself. To the contrary, Marquez was treading very closely to the actual experience of people in Latin America. The famous interviewed always quoted is how Magical Realism is Latin America's reality - because folklore, magic, miracle is part of the lives of a lot of people as much as oppression and slaughter is. Whereas in Gaiman's or Carer's or even Carmen Machado's stories, people in the story may treat magic as commonplace and normal but the audience is never expected to because we "westerners" or at least most of us cannot associate any of that with our own reality. To the contrary for people who live in places where Santeria or Yoruba religion are dominant, such supernatural occurrences are part of the every day. I do not think it's geographical in terms limited to boundaries but it does address a very specific type of audience that is quite familiar with those types of "extremes" and has witnessed it firsthand or knows of family members or close friends who have. Thus for me, I'm Italian, and my grandmother told stories that are exactly like that: she was not crazy but she would talk about ghosts and curses and monsters with the same sobriety and matter of factness that she would talk about paying her bills and talking to the grocer. It was just her reality - and she witnessed a horrible war and saw her husband murdered by fascists so that horror and violence was just as surreal as ghosts and curses, so to her it was all one reality. I would agree that Leslie Marmon Silko fits in the magical realist category although I would want to give Native Americans their own genre and I hope that someone comes up with one, but yes, I do believe that we are expected to accept the magical in Ceremony as part of the same reality as Vietnam and colonization - or to at least understand that to many in the intended audience, that kind of magic is reality. And that's the difference.

[@KL0098]

Africans invented surrealism? André Breton was African, was he?

[@KL0098]

@@prof.valeri7919 "Whereas in Gaiman's or Carer's or even Carmen Machado's stories, people in the story may treat magic as commonplace and normal but the audience is never expected to because we "westerners" or at least most of us cannot associate any of that with our own reality." You never heard of McOndo, did you? The Latin American movement that challenged magical realism because its members tired of magical realists depicting all Latin Americans as primitive savages who still believed in miracles and the supernatural?

[@prof.valeri7919]

​@@KL0098 Although my job is not to write dissertations on KZbin or to study the history of literature, I am quite aware of the controversies surrounding the various labels that scholars like you liberally apply to writers like me. My point is that Toni Morrison, Neil Gaiman, etc. are not magical realists. There is a huge difference between them and in their philosophy and intention.Toni Morrison squarely belongs in the AfroSurrealist movement. .African/Caribbean writers did not write the Surrealist manifesto, but their culture, writing, and perspectives were a HUGE influence on all Surrealists, even as the textbooks later whitewashed them away. In the US, especially Black Surrealism was the first Surrealism. As far as I know Richard Wright is considered the first American Surrealist. If anything you're just proving my point. Also, incredible to call Marquez "primitive". So you're saying that experiencing esoteric phenomena that don't fall under the white canon (such as sightings of Jesus or the Virgin Mary) is tantamount to being primitive? I find that really offensive, actually. In any case, it totally misses the point of my post, which is that those movements are showing the surreality of oppression, the hypocrisy of unjust systems, the disassociations that arise out of systemic racism and systemic oppression. If you reduce that to "primitivism" you are only showing the racism that inspired the movement to being with. I am also aware that those who want to preserve the status quo resent those who make literature out of oppression. So I would not be so quick to quote those movements.

[@prof.valeri7919]

@@KL0098 Nope. I got a little loose with my language there if I said they "invented" surrealism. But I'm not even sure you can use the word "invent" in the context of a literary movement. You can invent a literary label however. You can invent a political movement and slap it on art. Andre Breton wrote the Surrealist manifesto but art movements aren't born out of a vacuum. Writers have influences. There were a lot of Caribbean writers in the Surrealist movements. I'm sure you know this, so this comment is petty and mean spirited and certainly pointless int he context of the post which is thatToni Morrison is an Afro Surrealist and in the US, the Surrealist movement began with Black writers. Not that it matters. Most people are happy to slap the Magical Realist label on everything that has magic and feels literary, but since you got academic about it in a public forum, I think it's fair to say that there are differences here that aren't being acknowledged. And maybe it doesn't matter to you, but I sure as hell know it matters to my Black students, and probably to all Black Americans. It certainly seems to matter to Black critics. We've white washed a lot of things already. Maybe we should just be a bit more respectful without picking at one another over who knows more and has the biggest PhD. I'm a writer not a literati. I make it my business to understand genres. And on this, the discipline backs me. I'm sure you can throw other movements to discredit me, but I notice you don't discredit the main point.

[@natalybasora9769]

Something I found interesting when I came to the states is how many people don’t know much or have never even heard of Magical Realism. I found this strange since it’s such a well known subject in Spanish class. I’m from Puerto Rico and during Spanish class we would read all sorts of books and discuss their literary movements. Here we also got an in depth lesson about Magical Realism, including its history, well known authors and famous works, just like you explain in this video but more in depth. We learn how it was such a big literary movement and we get to know and understand it very well. I never confused it with fantasy. If someone were to ask me how it relates to fantasy, I would say, none at all. It’s like sprinkling a little magic in the real/mundane world and seeing it as something completely normal, to the point that we don’t question it, we just accept it as it is. One of my favorite books in Spanish is “Como Agua Para Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel. There’s an English translated book “Like Water For Chocolate”, but idk how well those magical realism notes are explained and idk if it did it any justice to the original Spanish text. But one of my favorite things they mention at the beginning of the book is how the main character, when she was born, she cried for days, so much that all her tears flooded the kitchen where she was born. And days later, all her tears dried up and turned into salt, which they then used to cook for months. I just love that, it sounds fantastical in an unexplainable way but you just accept it as it is without questioning it. There are many more examples that come to cooking (which is the main theme of the book), and that’s why this is one of my all time favorite Spanish books!! ❤️

[@elizgranada]

When I tell you I RAN to this when I saw you posted another video essay! These are my favorite!

[@RoisinsReading]

Thank you! I hope you enjoyed

[@fc1984fc]

This must be the best content out there taking the initiative to explain what Magical Realism is without only using the terms "difficult to explain" or "Gabriel Garcia Marquez". One thing I disagree with is the geographic constraint of the genre. It did not originate solely in Latin America-check the writings of Bruno Schulz and Massimo Bontempelli, to name a few who were based in Europe and were active before the Latin American boom. Latin America is where Magical Realism blossomed.

[@illustratorsam]

🙌 Great essay! I liken Magical Realism to Latin American literature exclusively because there is something special in the narrative voice that makes it stand apart from North American (non-indigenous) and European texts. I didn’t know it was sometimes argued to be linked to a specific period. I recommend Eartheater by Dolores Reyes, though it was translated/published in the past year.

[@RoisinsReading]

Thank you, I'll look that one up!

[@NewYorkNevada]

This is HANDS DOWN the very best explanation of Magical Realism I've ever heard. I have given the genre a try just twice and didn't understand it at all and gave up. You pointed out that the magical exists as the ordinary in the world we are living in, without further explanation. 🤯 That's the very key I did not understand! I kept waiting and wanting to be clued in and never was. Also, I now understand the Oscar winning movie The Shape of Water. Holy hell, my mind is blown. Thank you so much!!

[@jessierosales1039]

Very good presentation. Thank you.

[@bettychoibooks]

This was such an interesting video. I remember having to write a little bit about Magical Realism for part of an an essay on something, and I ended up shying away from it in the essay just because it was so hard to pin down. It was the sort of things were essay writing deadlines squashed my creative interests and what I actually wanted to research into... so I really enjoyed this video!

[@RoisinsReading]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@jola-xl9xi]

Thank you! To be honest, despite the fact that I read one of the Marquez's books, it was difficult to me to understand the term of magical realism. All the points you discussed helped me organise my thoughts. Especially the section where you compare magical realism to similiar terms is very helpful. Also, I like the fact that you mention different approaches to this term and rather than deciding the matter, you present us with arguments on both sides. Such a well-thought and informative video essay!

[@RoisinsReading]

Thank you so much, I'm glad you found this helpful!

[@AuthorElliot]

This was great! I love this video and you present the info so clearly!! I'm making a video on decolonizing literature, and now I can just, BLIP, link this video and let you do the talking about Magical Realism! Also, I'm realizing these are called "Video Essays." I've been making quite a few video essays without knowing what they're called so I'm very excited to have stumbled upon this series and finally have a word for it! Might be to go back through my playlist and rename things!

[@RoisinsReading]

Thank you, good to hear!

[@ThirrinDiamond]

I think a thing i don't like about this particular divide is that it inherently erases the history of so many poc cultures, especially the ones of the oral tradition where magical realism has existed for literal millenia. It's frustrating and confusing that we are deciding this exists only past this point and this author and ignoring all the rich and varied history that used the same methods. A more applicable example i can think of is indigenous storytelling on turtle island. From what little i've heard of the stories indigenous creators share, this tradition seems older than the colonialism done on turtle island and the rest of the continents. I can understand if this aspect isn't considered but treating latin american culture as a derivate/representative of indigenous culture as if indigenous people don't live there still is a very big problem and i can't help but see the similar feeling of erasure of history and fact here. I won't draw a conclusion myself because i think certain culture's perspectives that are directly affected by any official consensus isn't being considered as of right now. Aka, i don't think there is enough info from all people affected by this at the moment for me personally. Can't wait to see how the discussion continues though and hopefully more people who this affects will chime in ^__^ Definitely a fun new concept to google/research and learn about to try and get the full picture

[@ailtonsilva3314]

Yes to all this.

[@prof.valeri7919]

I think that indigenous storytelling has been ignored by white culture for a long time, and true, those kind of non-Newtonian realities have existed in Narrative for a very long time. In terms of Magical Realism, which did not start in Latin America but became associated with Latin America to the point of becoming a distinctively Latin American movement, the point was to portray a reality that was quite different from the white-centric writing of the French Surrealists. Magical Realism was about the disassociative realities caused by oppression, and specifically, about the oppression of indigenous populations (which, yes, live there still, as the literature represents). Because there is so much more to Magical Realism than the magic, in other words. So, yeah, there was indigenous literature, but this movement was about the social reality of living in a colonialized and systemically racist culture where the indigenous and the colonial coexist, not peacefully, and that turbulent coexistence creates realities that are different from the ones understood in Europe and the US. Now, it's problematic to try to reduce it to a few words. I'm sure that this reductive explanation misses a lot. For me, the only motivation in posting is that there is this general misuse of the word magical realism that fails to take into account other genres, and the history and reason for being of the movement, and while in some instances it probably doesn't matter, in others it does, very much. I'm regretting ever having said anything. I don't mean to troll fight. But the Afro-Surrealist movement deserves to be acknowledged, at least, not just assimilated as "magical realism" whatever that label means.

[@ThuTran-uy4fi]

Hi, i'm from Vietnam and i love your video, but my teacher gave me a question in my Western Literature: What's the different between Magical Realism of USA and Latin America? The point of Magical Realism of USA? Idk about it :( help me pls

[@billyalarie929]

absolutely love love LOVE magical realism.

[@billyalarie929]

i would pose a question, however: as a person with a physical (and visible) disability, i am likely to be considered someone who is "on the fringes of society". though i am from the US, and not from the Americas at large, and though i have concerns about said disability and how it, too, is "colonized" in various ways, i wonder about, if not the very validity of writing about this under the designation of "magical realism", then at least what i COULD term something that adheres very closely to MR, but is not from the appropriate region to qualify as such. i would love to know if you have any thoughts on this. thanks!

[@RoisinsReading]

Me too

[@AuthorElliot]

@@billyalarie929 Hi I think you would call it decolonizing! And then you can add other words, decolonizing speculative fiction, decolonizing fantasy, etc.

[@jajaman7839]

Thanks!!

[@RoisinsReading]

You're welcome!

[@MrSwilson13]

I consider my debut novel The Nephilem by SE Wilson to be magical realism and I market it as such, though lots of readers call my book urban fantasy. Which goes to show the cinsudjon on identifing the genre. My next next will also be the same. But I'll let you be the judge #thenephilem @exquilofficial