Mini writing workshop: What is magical realism?

in #fiction6 years ago (edited)

This mini fiction writing workshop dives into one of the genre's: magical realism. I was unfamiliar with it, until one of my fellow Write Club members recently posted a writing prompt that described the genre:

A literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction.
In other words, the setting and storytelling in magical realism stories is realistic, but the events can be fantastic — things that would never happen in real life. Let's explore this!

Magical Realism Image

When I first read the story prompt, it was with a sense of dread. I can't write fantasy stories. I'm solidly in the literary genre.

But I was wrong about a few things.

Magical realism vs. fantasy


The first thing I was wrong about was that magical realism is the same as fantasy. In fact, they are two distinctly different genres. I found some helpful descriptions in an article from Luna Station Quarterly:
Tsvetan Todorov, a literary theorist famous for his treatment of the fantastic, said that magic realism disrupts the reader’s sense of reality whereas fantasy creates another completely enclosed reality.

Whereas fantasy “imposes absolute closure” and “implies complicity on the part of the readers,” the literary fantastic seeks reader hesitancy.” The story begins in the “real world” and when something unreal happens and the reader is never sure if the cause is supernatural or natural, such as a psychotic break or a drug induced hallucination.

To put it even more simply, whereas fantasy stories typically create a whole alternate world, magical realism sits solidly in reality and introduces elements that are not possible.

Writing in the magical realism genre

The second thing I was wrong about was that I can't do it. I perused my story collection, and realized that I actually have done it. Here are three examples, all written for Steemit contests: I think with anything we do in life, we just have to try things. Especially when it comes to creativity. Experiment. See what works. I wrote all three of these stories when I felt I needed some sparkle — a little something beyond the norm. They are not fantasy stories by any stretch of the imagination, but they all have magical elements.

And yesterday, I wrote this 250 word micro-fiction story: On the way home. The story is very real. It's just the story of an old man walking along a road and talking to a young girl. Nothing unusual at all. Until the very last line.

If I can do it, you can too


But how? Well, if it feels foreign, try writing a micro-fiction story first. Write a very short piece that is about a moment or event that is realistic — something that could happen in real life. And then add a element that is odd and not quite believable. Or even incredibly strange.

A boy is walking in a forest. He hears the sound of a brook nearby, crickets, birds warbling. Then from far off there is another sound. Hooves. Many of them, perhaps hundreds. As he crouches behind thick bushes, a herd of stampeding satrys runs by.

Play with it. See what you come up with.

Magical realism in published literature


In case you are as unfamiliar with the genre of magical realism as I was, there are plenty of examples from well-known writers, and in fact you may have read some of them, as I have!

Here's another quote from the Luna Station Quarterly article that provides several great examples:

Magic realism is often the intersection of culturally competing definitions of reality and that creates an inherent tension. In the case of [Gabriel García Márquez's], 100 Years [of Solitude], it’s the intersection of indigenous and Catholic culture. This is the kind of tension you find in Toni Morrison’s Beloved (the tension between White and Black culture) and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (the tension between Native American and White culture), even Karen Russel’s story, Reeling for the Empire, about Japanese women sold into slavery and turned into human silk worms by poisoned tea.
What do you think? Will you try it? Or have you, in fact, written stories in this genre? I would love to hear from you.

Oh! And if you do enjoy writing micro-fiction, please check out my weekly contest. Last week's prompt is here. I issue a new prompt each week, with the #microfiction tag.

Thanks for reading!

Want to work with writers and editors to improve your writing? @tanglebranch runs "writers workout" workshops each week in The Writers' Block on Discord.

The writing workshop collection


You can browse my entire collection of writing workshop posts in the links below.

Mini workshop series


Short posts on specific writing topics:









Sort:  

What a great exploratory post about one of my fav genres.

I absolutely love magic realism... and write in that genre loads. My latest story for themarkymarks writing contest is most definitely MR.

The author I enjoy most in the genre is Haruki Murakami. His flowing prose, set in modern day Japan with a surreal Kafka-esque undercurrent, is sublime. 1Q84 is a trilogy of his which is well worth a read and an absolute master piece of magic realism.

Sorry to mention this but I caught a typo in your article.

7th paragraph:

The first thing I was wrong about was the that magical realism is the same as fantasy.

Hope you're well @jayna
I'm missing the excitement of travel and wistful memories of Steemfest 🙂

Posted using Partiko Android

That’s so neat to hear, @raj808! I’m glad you shared your favorite author. I will add that trilogy to my recommended reading list. And I would love to read one of your magical realism pieces.

Yes I think so often of that wonderful week in Krakow. I was such a magical time. It still warms my heart to remember all the people we met, the great activities, sessions and amazing conversations, not to mention the incredible day at the concentration camp, as difficult as it was. Could it only have been a few months ago? To Steemfest 4!

Thank you so much for catching my typo. I write so much and try to proof everything, but it’s easy to miss your own mistakes. I welcome your watchful eye!

Posted using Partiko iOS

No worries on the typo, I do the same and it is always with prepositions like 'the', 'than', 'at' etc

They are the easiest to have a brain fart over lol

And I would love to read one of your magical realism pieces.

In regards to that, I think that this one I wrote 6 months ago is the best magic realism I have written on steem :-)

https://steemit.com/celfchallenge/@raj808/the-albatross-short-story

It's a bit long though ;-) The one I wrote a week ago is much shorter at 800 words but not as good an example of the genre.

such a magical time. It still warms my heart to remember all the people we met, the great activities, sessions and amazing conversations, not to mention the incredible day at the concentration camp, as difficult as it was.

Yeah I feel the same and am currently getting my hustle on to see if I can afford to travel to the dtubeforum in Barcelona in may. The piggy bank may have to be emptied :-)

Darn piggy banks! They do tend to run try when travel is involved. When they finally invent time machines I’m going to go back and do everything differently in my 20’s and 30’s where fiscal matters are concerned!

Thank you for the links to your stories. Much appreciated. I will definitely read them.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Ha ha. Give me a time machine now and I'd go back teen years and buy 10000 BTC at $0.05 😂

A friend of mine advised me to buy some then and I didn't. He mined a load and has paid off his mortgage and retired early. Grrrr lucky bigger 😉

Posted using Partiko Android

I think many of us have similar missed opportunities in our past. Mine was the opportunity to go work for Google back in the early days. They were hiring like mad, but just as I was going to explore that opportunity I received an offer from another startup. Oh well! I try not to live in regret! I have a great life. 😊

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.16
TRX 0.15
JST 0.028
BTC 54819.76
ETH 2295.81
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.31