|
Author
|
Comment
|
723
Unregistered User
(3/9/03 3:03:36 am)
|
Are the H.P. Books considered in Magical realism?
I want 2 know if J.K. Rowling ( Author of Harry Potter) is a magical
realism author. you know, are her stories the magical realism type???
confused...
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(3/9/03 9:19:21 am)
|
Magic Realism
I wouldn't consider HP books as Magic Realism--for two reasons: first as a literary term, MR was really coined to describe the unique blend of fantasy and realism in Latin American literature--which is about as different from the HP books as one can get. But secondly, MR is about the combination of the ordinary and the fantastic--the commonplace world we know merging seamlessly with the fantastic--without any apparent need for explanation. It is not about creating an alternative world where magic has an internal logic and system--such as HP--which is really juvenile fantasy world building. Yes, it touches on the real world--sort of--but it constructs an alternative world--which Magic Realism doesn't do. In Marquez's short story "A Very Old Man with Wings"--an old man with wings (he never says "angel"--and quite intentionally) appears in a poverty stricken couple's chicken coop after the night of a huge storm. The story is about their response to this creature--and the carnival that erupts around his presence. The reader never really knows who/what the old man with wings is--that is not as important as the response (to make money from him, to make guesses as to whether he is an angel, a devil, an omen, a gift) and in due time, the interest in this creature is replaced by a new carnival that has a woman with the head of a girl and the body of a spider. Inexplicable really...but there all the same.
|
723
Unregistered User
(3/11/03 4:07:04 am)
|
:)
Thanks Midori....
that will help me lots in school
my classmate asked that question so i decided to ask it here...
|
Gregor9
Registered User
(3/11/03 10:10:26 am)
|
Re: HP vs MR
Yes, everything Midori said.
Greg
|
Helen
Registered User
(3/12/03 9:21:12 am)
|
Magical Realism in other locales ...
Motion carried ... Midori's definition is perfect. There are some authors from other regions whose work seems closest to magical realism in terms of genre - Mark Helprin, Nicholas Christopher, and occasionally Alice Hoffman come popping to mind - but the application of the term to their writing is usually fairly problematic, because it is tightly aligned in most people's minds with Latin American literature. This has always struck me as being fairly unusual in terms of "movements" as they are generally understood: after all, Pre-Raphaelite has become a descriptive term for a style of art as well as a reference to a specific group of nineteenth century artists. It'll be interesting to see if the meaning broadens with time ... Artists of this type can also be classified under the interstitial heading. However, though much of my own favorite interstitial work involves elements of fantasy, it's not a a necessary component: the interstitial label could just as fairly be applied to a piece set entirely in the "mundane" world, which crosses cultural boundaries, or genres. Magical realism really *is* the handiest term for tales that are set in a world filled with the marvelous and inexplicable which can't wholly be described as fiction, fantasy, or even urban fantasy... and it seems somewhat silly to coin an entirely new catch phrase - Marvelous Normalcy? Fantastic Mundanity? - for a thematically similar though physically distant field. North American Magical Realism (or British Magical Realism, or what have you) seems like the ... neatest ... compromise, and I've seen it used for authors such as Charles de Lint with a fair amount of success. But, inevitably, just as modern artists who work in older styles are initially described as "modern Pre-Raphaelites," or other such things, are typically eventually just referred to as possessing a "Pre-Raphaelite style," in all likelihood, the descriptions will probably end up being contracted to their most condensed forms. And we'll be right back at the original sticking point ... Sorry for rambling on: this has been on my mind a lot recently.
Just Musin'
Helen
|
Gregor9
Registered User
(3/12/03 1:02:59 pm)
|
Re: Magical Realism in other locales ...
Helen,
Agreed, others have applied the MR slant to their fiction. TC Boyle (who was reading Borges and Cortazar and Fuentes in Spanish when he was at U of Iowa) is a prime example, and Louise Erdrich and others. It's the American way--taking pieces of other cultures works (there are whole tomes on how we absconded with everyone else's architecture) and applying them liberally. I'd say it's an aspect of post-modernism, except I don't subscribe to our being in a post-modernist time, but rather agree with Anthony Giddens that we're in a "late" modern time, and what we're "post" is traditional society. But that of itself is a whole 'nuther thread of discussion and maybe better done off the board, too.
Academia picked up the term "magical realism" in the early 70s and then went about applying it to anything that moved. I had an instructor at Iowa who argued for there being "magical realism" in the (godawful) novel on which the film Jeremiah Johnson was based. He needed to have two bricks smashed together with his head inbetween 'em. The application of the term has blown all the boundaries till only those who remember its original application (like those on this board) can make sense of the hash, I think.
Greg
|
|
