Monday, March 16, 2009

"Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature" by Luis Leal

Leal writes this essay in response to Angel Flores' "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction," specifically to repudiate a number of Flores' points including his definition of magical realism, the authors Flores includes in the movement, and the movement's inception in the year of 1935.

Leal beings with recapping a number of definitions of magical realism, including Roh's statement that "the mystery does not descend to the represented world but rather hides and palpitates behind it;" Arturo Uslar Pietri who states that it is the "consideration of man as a mystery surrounded by realistic facts. A poetic prediction or a poetic denial of reality;" and Carpentier's statement that the marvelous "begins to be unmistakably marvelous when it arises from an unexpected alteration of reality (the miracle), from a privileged revelation of reality" (120).

Leal then launches into descriptions of what, for him, magical realism is not:
"Magical realism cannot be identified either with fantastic literature or with psychological literature, or with surrealist or hermetic literature that Ortega describes. Unlike superrealism, magical realism does not use dream motifs; neither does it distort reality or create imagined worlds, as writers of fantastic literature or science fiction do; nor does it emphasize psychological aspects of characters since it doesn't try to find reasons for their actions or their inability to express themselves. Magical realism is not an aesthetic movement either, as was modernism, which was interested in creating works dominated by a refined style; neither is it interested in the creation of complex structures per se.

"Magical realism is not magic literature either. Its aim, unlike that of magic, is to express emotions, not to evoke them. Magical realism is, more than anything else, an attitude toward reality that can be expressed in popular or cultured forms, in elaborate or rustic styles, in closed or open structures.... In magical realism the writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it, to discover what is mysterious in things, in life, in human acts" (121).

For Leal, Kafka does not qualify because his characters "find the situation intolerable and they don't accept it" and Borges fails because his "principle trait is the creation of infinite hierarchies" and not "the discovery of the mysterious relationship between man and his circumstances" (121-2).

Leal then concludes his essay with a few more statements to show what he finds essential to the magical realist work: "In magical realism key events have no logical or psychological explanation. The magical realist does not try to copy the surrounding reality (as the realists did) or to wound it (as the Surrealists did) but to seize the mystery that breathes behind things.... Let us keep in mind that in these magical realist works the author does not need to justify the mystery of events, as the fantastic writer has to. In fantastic literature the supernatural invades a world ruled by reason. In magical realism 'the mystery does not descend to the represented world, but rather hides and palpitates behind it.' In order to seize reality's mysteries the magical realist writer heightens his senses until he reaches an extreme state [estado limite] that allows him to intuit the imperceptible subtleties of the external world, the multifarious world in which we live" (123).

What complicates Leal's position is his failure to then place writers like Kafka and Borges. Do Kafka or Borges ever "justify the mystery of events" as fantasists should? Clearly, neither "wound" reality as the Surrealists did. I assume Leal would want to categorize Kafka as a fantasist and Borges as a science fiction writer, based on "The Metamorphoses" and "The Garden of Forking Paths" or "The Library of Babel," respectively; yet what would Leal do with Kafka's "Report to an Academy" or "The Judgement," and Borges' "Funes, the Memorius" or "The Alepth"?

The act of definition necessitates the inclusion and exclusion of certain works based on the criteria set forth; for Leal, I presume, the classification of works that do not fill within his definition of magical realism is not his concern. Yet this is unsatisfying for a number of reasons; just because Leal wants a definition of magical realism that is unique to Latin America doesn't mean we have to accept it. For instance, who is to say that Kafka did not reach an extreme state that allowed him to "intuit the imperceptible subtleties of the external world" and found them intolerable? Leal also does not quote Carpentier's statement that the marvelous need not be beautiful, only extraordinary. In order to buy into Leal's definition, one must be content to reject a number of works encompassed by broader definitions of magical realism and, of course, find a category for them. Would Leal be willing to say that all of these works could live together under the wide umbrella of postmodern technique, but keep only the small Latin American subset as specifically magical realist?

5 comments:

  1. Hi Trent. Very interesting your blog. I studied these issues of Magic Realism for my undergraduate degree (17 years ago) and I am trying to refresh my knowledge, because I describe some of my work as having "magical" elements, and I wanted to clarify what do I mean with it. It happens too that I am Colombian, and I was convinced that statements like the one made by Leal " an attitude toward reality that can be expressed in popular or cultured forms..." make sense to me. Also, that Magic Realism is not something that is attached only to literature. In our dissertation we were analysing a Colombian TV Program that had elements of Magic Realism. I think that in fact, it cannot reduced just to a Latinoamerican reality, but probably it's experienced with more strenght in our reality for multiple conditions (mixed culture, economy, politics, history). I have lived in Europe and now I live in the UK. When I visit my country I can perceive Magic Realism, that I cannot in other places in an easy manner out of Latinoamerica. It's part of our daily life. However I think it's possible to stimulate this attitude in certain spaces and situations in many different cultures and that are part of our contemporary condition. Well, these are my thoughts now... thanks for your blog.

    The best in your PhD,

    Ximena

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  2. Hi Ximena, thanks for writing. I am primarily a fiction writer myself and my works tend to feature some non-realistic element, and I too am trying to get to the bottom of why I write what I do, and how this works with (or against) definitions of magic realism and the fantastic.

    Many of the essays I've read (I'm a bit behind on posting summaries) explain magic realism as a major component of postmodern literature, but predictably the next problem comes in trying to define the postmodern! However your comment about our "multiple conditions" fits right in with the idea that there isn't a single reality all people from all cultures (and all times) have experienced, and this kind of fragmentation is a major part of most definitions of the postmodern. Anytime there is a pushback against the purely rationalistic, white, Eurocentric, Judeo-Christian worldview, a hint of magical realism is often present. Thanks again for writing and I hope to get some new content up soon. I think you would like the Farris and Zamora book, too.

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  3. I appreciate this post, Trent. Like you, I've long been interested in work that has a strange, magical, or surreal element to it, and I'm interested in reading all I can about it. My question for you: would you be as adverse to Leal's scholarship if he had suggested categories for Kafka and Borges? Do you dislike the idea of sub-categorizing magical realism or speculative fiction, or do you simply wish Leal had gone into more detail about these different sub-genres?

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  4. Trent, do you by any chance have the source of Carpentier's quote "the marvelous need not be beautiful, only extraordinary?"
    Have been perusing the prologues of his books with no luck.

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