Magical realism: authors and representative works

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In different Latin American countriesIn the early twentieth century, we find a literary revolution which made a huge impact on universal letters. We refer to magical realism, a new movement that drinks from the influence of culture and heritage Latin American that was inspired by landscapes, traditions and legends of the cultures pre-Columbian. Authors of the boom American such as Alejo Carpentier, Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel García Márquez are just some of the best known names in this literary movement, however, there are many more. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to discover you authors and works of magical realism more prominent so that, thus, you know in detail what this current of the early twenties consisted of.

Index

1. What was magical realism in literature?
2. Gabriel García Márquez, the highest representative of magical realism
3. The fathers of magical realism
4. Jorge Luis Borges
5. Julio Cortazar
6. Juan Rulfo, literary realism in Mexico

Before getting to know the authors and works of magical realism in depth, it is important that we let us pause briefly to discover what this movement consisted of and what were its main features.

It is about a new way of doing and understanding literature and that was inspired by the realism movement. However, in these narratives "magical" and "fantastic" elements were added that intermingled with reality thus creating a totally different and renovating new plane. In the literature of fantastic realism we find everyday stories that are full of extraordinary situations that, however, do not seem to miss the characters. A reality-unreality mix that it worked perfectly and that it gained many followers all over the world.

The first time the term "magical realism"to designate this new way of understanding art was in 1925 when Franz Roh, German critic, he used this word to talk about a pictorial current. That is, it did not refer to the literature that was flourishing in Latin America, but rather spoke on a new aspect of German Expressionism that began to mix traces of reality with fantasy. However, this term expanded and was the one that ended up being used to refer to these new works that were appearing in different Latin American countries.

Main characteristics of magic realism

• Works in which a situation of apparent realism but that is full of fantastic or surreal situations and events
• Characters They are unaware that there is this duality between reality-unreality in their lives and they live as if nothing strange happened
• There is a clear presence and influence of literary surrealism, as well as realism. In fact, many critics consider that magical realism is a mixture of both currents and peppered with exotic and folkloric motifs typical of Latin American cultures.
• The figure of the storyteller he is key in these novels since he is in charge of presenting surrealism to the reader as something that is a natural part of our life
• In these works, the truth is relative and it is not possible to speak of absolute concepts but, always, they will be treated from more humble and simple cousins
• Presence of the metaphysics in the works. Many of these works deal with metaphysical themes and position man in a situation of total misunderstanding of our world and nature.
• Great presence of traditions and customs typical of different Latin American cultures. Depending on the author's country of origin, the writing will be bathed in one color or another.

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We are already beginning to talk about the authors and works of magical realism to mention one of the most internationally recognized writers: Gabriel García Márquez. It can be considered as the highest representative of said movement but he was not the father or the precursor of it.

Márquez was born in Colombia in 1928 and his career as a writer began with the publication of his first novel "La Hojarasca" with which he achieved some success. However, the work that elevated him and made his name become one of the essentials of contemporary literature was "One hundred years of solitude", a work that is totally embedded within magical realism and all the characteristics that this movement contains.

In this novel we find that the characters move in a town that, today, has become an unforgettable place: Macondo. This town is where the adventures and misfortunes of different generations of the same family take place. Stories that are full of fantastic elements although the base always drinks from reality and customs and tradition. The such detailed descriptions they make this novel seem like a realistic novel, however, magic appears everywhere and the protagonists live with it as if nothing extraordinary happened.

For this reason, García Márquez has become one of the best known authors of magical realism and, in fact, today he is considered one of the most important authors of the twentieth century. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature and he passed away at the age of 87.

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Although García Márquez is one of the most internationally recognized authors, the truth is that the parents of magical realism were other authors. To this day there is still a dispute to know exactly who is the father of this movement, however, in a PROFESSOR we are going to talk to you about the 3 essential names that are related to the beginning of this artistic trend and that, all of them, can be considered as the "parents".

Alejo Carpentier, Miguel Ángel Asturias and Arturo Uslar Pietri they were the three young Latin Americans who met at the literary gatherings in Paris. All three were influenced by surrealism, the American independence movements, psychoanalysis, and indigenism. From here, they began to create and cultivate a new literary trend that was baptized as "magical realism."

Arturo Uslar Pietri

He was a writer from Venezuela who is considered the first to use the word "magical realism" to speak of a literary movement. This he did in an essay that talked about "The Venezuelan story" and put it into practice in his novel "The red spears".

Miguel Angel Asturias

This was another of the fathers of the movement. It is about a writer from Guatemala who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967. He is considered as a precursor of said movement when publishing a novel titled "Mr. President" in 1933. However, this work was banned in his country because it spoke about the dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera.

Alejo Carpentier

It is another of the key names of magical realism. In fact, in his novel "The kingdom of this world", the author writes a prologue in which he includes said text within the context of "the real marvelous". His way of writing was very particular since, in Carpentier, we find a great influence of indigenous and African myths and traditions. It uses a more baroque and elaborate language, so it has a unique and unmistakable style.

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We continue this lesson to learn about other authors and works of magical realism speaking, now, of Jorge Luis Borges. This Argentine author is one of the essential names in Hispanic American literature of all time. He was widely recognized for his production of short stories and for his poetic work And to this day, he remains one of the highest-rated writers of the 20th century.

He won many awards and recognitions throughout his career, such as the National Literature Prize in 1957, the Cervantes Prize in 1979 or the Balzán Prize in 1980. In June 1986 he passed away, thus leaving an irreplaceable hole within Hispanic literature.

He is an author closely linked to magical realism because his style draws from the sources of the Fantastic literature. His texts invite the reader to think and reflect; He is an author with a great interest in metaphysical issues but he raises them from a flat prism and close to the author. In his stories and his texts we always find elements of the Dreamworld such as dreams, desires, destiny, and so on.

Among the most outstanding works of him we must mention his work "The Aleph", "Fictions" or his successful story "The maker".

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And we could not talk about the authors and works of magical realism without mentioning one of the writers most loved by fans of this movement: Julio Cortazar. It is about an Argentine author who lived for much of his life in Paris and who offers a different type of literature, original, innocent and with a lot of presence of magical realism.

In Cortázar's production we find a large presence of surreal situations and wonderful elements that, however, do not affect the protagonists of his stories. The author manages to enter us into a climate of mundane reality, credible and close to all of us so that, at the moment in which we are comfortable in it, take a total turn and introduce some surprising element that will excite us, make us smile or make us will captivate.

Cortázar was well known for his extensive work of stories where we highlight his "Bestiary"in which we discover unforgettable fantastic beings like the cronopios and the famas. In addition, one of the most emblematic stories of his production and literary style is "Axolotl " or "Taken house". He also wrote a novel and one of his most applauded works was "Hopscotch", a literary experiment in which play, jazz and street metaphysics are the main protagonists.

Another of the maximum representatives of magical realism in Latin America was Juan Rulfo, a Mexican author who greatly influenced the literary production of the continent. The recognition of him in the literary field began thanks to the publication in 1953 of "The Burning Plain" and, two years later, with "Pedro Páramo", the only novel written by the author. Juan Rulfo is one of the most important authors of the 20th century in the Spanish language and is originally from Apulco, Jalisco.

The first issue that we have mentioned, "El llano en Llamas", is a storybook and the second is the only novel by him. Although it is a very short literary production, the truth is that it is very intense and has a great quality, for that reason, it is known as one of the essential names of the literary production of Latin America.

The characteristic of Juan Rulfo's style is that it combines in a masterly way reality with fantasy thus creating a magical realism that presents us with the reality of the Latin American rural world. And it is that his works are set in rural settings in Mexico with characters that represent those people who They lived in villages and that, therefore, show us some of the most problematic problems and situations at the social and political.

Pedro Paramo, the novel by Juan Rulfo

It was the only novel he wrote but, despite this, it has earned him one of the most prominent places in the history of literature in the Spanish language. With this work, Juan Rulfo managed to break the traditional schemes of the novel and propose an innovative and different work where the reality of the country is internalized in the very structure of history.

"Pedro Páramo" is a very disturbing and very profound work that presents us with a universe in which they live real and fantastic situations. Juan Preciado is the protagonist of this work, a man who is looking for his father, Pedro Páramo, a feared cacique that he is getting to know thanks to the confessions of the villagers.

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