Magical Realism: Theory and History

Magical Realism: Theory and History

While reading Franz Roh, Angel Flores, Amaryll Chanady, and Luis Leal, I have learned many things about magical realism. I also learned that there are many different definitions for magical realism. I have learned that magical realism is not considered a

fairy tale. Amaryll Chanady feels that magical realism is focused more toward reality. However, Luis Leal feels that magical realism is used to express emotions. While reading these essays and finding some research on magical realism, I found that many people have many different views on what magical realism is. By doing research, I have found that it can mean many different things, and it is exciting to learn about something as interesting as magical realism is.

Learning about magical realism has been very interesting for me. When reading Franz Roh, I learned a lot about Post- Expressionism and Expressionism. Expressionism involved a painting. It involved animals walking in the sky, and it also showed heated heads popped like corks from overflowing bottles, while Post- Expressionism dealt with painting and pictures with frames (Roh 16-17). On the other hand, Angel Flores was a little hard fro me to understand at first. I found myself asking questions such as "Will I understand what I am reading?" "Is this going to make sense to me?" "What am I suppose to see in this American Fiction?" I did learn that magical realism has to deal with fantasies written in Spanish (Flores 110-111). Then looking at Amaryll Chanady, I learned that Flores stated that, "practitioners of magical realism clings to reality as if to prevent their myth from flying off, as in fairy tales, to supernatural realism." Luis Leal also has many different opinions toward magical realism. However, I did not agree with a few of them. I did understand and agreed with a few, though. In Luis Leal's essay, I learned that Roh explained the origin of the term by saying that with the word "magical," as opposed to "mystical," he wanted to emphasize that the mystery does not descend to the represented world, but rather hides and palpitates behind it (120-121). I agreed with what he wanted to emphasize. It was also mentioned that magical realism is not magic literature. Magical realism is used to express emotions not to evoke them (120-121). I feel that magical realism is definitely used to express emotions, not to evoke them.