1. Magic(al) Realism Definition Origin Functions Reading Agreement
Possibilty vs plausibility

2. Magic(al) Realism - Definition
The introduction of magical devices or magic in general within a believable (realist) story, without any disruption of the logic of the story.

3. Magic(al) Realism - Definition
Magic has to be presented as a normal aspect of this somewhat « normal » universe, not a phenomenon but an integral part of it.

4. Magic(al) Realism - Definition
Characters of the story consider magic as some usual possibility of their world. Its occurrences might be rare or even almost forgotten, but magic is nonetheless as serious a topic in these fictions as chemistry or quantum physics in our world.

5. Magic(al) Realism - Definition
Characters of the story consider magic as some usual possibility of their world. Its occurrences might be rare or even almost forgotten, but magic is nonetheless as serious a topic in these fictions as chemistry or quantum physics in our world.

6. Magical Realism vs Fantasy
In fantastic literature, a new universe is introduced to the reader, with its laws (natural as well as artificial), its regularities, its objects, its people, its forces, etc. This world is completely different from ours, or has enough differences so that we (readers) need explanations to understand it correctly.

7. Magic Realism vs Fantasy
In magic realist literature, the world depicted is ours, with one major new component: magic is a possibility (and an actuality) within it. There shouldn’t be any need to explain what is going on in this world, its laws, its people, etc. We already know that since it is a fictional reproduction of our world.

8. Examples of fantastic worlds
Star Trek: Far future, new worlds, new races, new laws that have to be explained.
Spock (Vulcans)
Data
Numerous amazones wearing miniature latex skirts capable of mind control, ...

9. Examples of fantastic worlds
Myst
Lord of the Rings
Different world
Different species (elves, etc.)
Different technologies.
Etc.

10. Examples of magical realism
Short stories:
« The Nose », Gogol
« The Metamorphosis », Kafka
« The Enormous Radio », Cheever
Fictions, Borges
Novels:
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez
The Alchemist, Coehlo

11. Gogol’s “The Nose”
HOC=
NOS
COH=
SON
(dream)

12. John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” 1957

13. Marquez’s 100 Hundred Years of Solitude

14. Magical Realism Imagery In Everyday Objects….
100 Years of Solitude -the ice, the magnets--are described as magical, and are endowed with inner lives. The ice mentioned in the justly famous first sentence of the novel is later described as ". . . an enormous, transparent block with infinite internal needles in which the light of the sunset was broken up into colored stars" (18). And when José Aracadio becomes overly enthusiastic about the magical capacity of Melquíades' magnets, with which he hopes ". . . to extract gold from the bowels of the earth," Melquíades calms him down by assuring him that "Things have a life of their own It's simply a matter of waking up their souls" (11).

15. Examples of magical realism
Films:
Like Water for Chocolate, Alfonso Arau (1992)
Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson (1999)
Being John Malkovich, Jonze (1999)
Pleasantville (1998)

16. Origin of magical realism
1925: Franz Roh, German Art critic. New form of painting. New way to look at the paintings, new techniques as well, not the content of the painting per se.
1949: Alejo Carpentier, South American author: term « marvelous reality » to describe the type of fiction produced by new authors (Borges (Ficciones, ), especially).

17. Franz Radziwill "Strike," 1931

18. American Magical Realism Michael Parkes

19. Origin of magical realism
Proliferation of magic realist texts from the 40s onward
Cortazar, Marquez, Fuentes, Llosa, Allende.
Rushdie, Suskind, etc.

20. Function of magical realism
Response to colonialism (post-colonialism) In reaction to the dominant, European culture, which imposed on South America its laws, its rules, its ways and customs, its logic and its discourses, South American writers began subverting « scientific » and « logical » literature by letting minor voices compete with the major ones.

21. Function of magical realism
Response to colonialism (post-colonialism) These minor voices could be:
folklore
myths
Indian tales
urban legends
etc.

22. Function of magical realism
South America has always been fractured by wars, by conflicts, by changing frontiers, by miscegenation, by political uncertainties, … Magical realism was a way to grasp more adequately the complexity of South American oppositions while using local discourses.

23. Function of magical realism
South America has always been fractured by wars, by conflicts, by changing frontiers, by miscegenation, by political uncertainties, by a multitude of spiritual and religious beliefs, … Magical realism was a way to grasp more adequately the complexity of South American oppositions while using local discourses.

24. Function of magical realism
Giving a forum where their pagan gods, cleansed by the European conquerors, can « express themselves ».
A way to show South America’s unicity, its major differences with the « Mother Country », i.e. Spain (or Portugal).

25. Function of magical realism
Primarily, a way to displace the Power of the voice (or of the discourse) away from the primary authority.
A way to become a voice of its own.
Normally done in conjunction with political and economical nationalism.

26. Reading Agreement
For magical realism to function, there needs to be some implicit agreement, between the author and the reader, stating that the reader has to accept some incongruities (reality-wise).
Reading Agreement: Status of the text, how it is supposed to be read.

27. Reading Agreement Examples:
In Maus, you have to accept the use of animals to represent humans. It will determine the way you will be looking at the text. If you don’t « sign » the agreement, there will be a space of friction between the fiction and yourself as reader.
In Magnolia, a new element arises and you have to incorporate it. How do you do so? (Magnolia clip).

28. Possibility vs Plausibility
Everything that can happen according to the laws of a universe of reference.
Plausibility:
within the bounds of credibility and of probability. Ex: Ex: students in class (Girlfriend, son, daughter).

29. Possibility vs Plausibility
Trust you put in the narrator (reasons for lying, for playing games, etc.)
Amount of knowledge you acquired about the world of reference.
Reading agreement.

30. Possibility vs Plausibility
Examples:
Arlington Road
Alien
James Bond movies
« The Metamorphosis », by Kafka.

31. Workshop question
Are the books read for the « Magic » section magical realist works of fiction ? Would they rather be fantastic or science-fiction novels? Use examples from the books/films to support your argumentation.
How is magic (or supernatural) introduced in the novel?
Is there a gap between users and non-users of magic ?
How are users of magic considered by the non-users?
How does someone become a user of magic (genealogy, genetics, random, part of a species, …)?
What can you say about the possibility/plausibility status of the novel?
What kind of reading agreement has to be established between the author and the reader?

32. The House of the Spirits
Analyze text for possibility vs plausability and magical realism elements,
Be prepared to discuss and add’l work and/or film that represents these concepts.