![]() ![]() Tomb of Jorge Luis Borges by Jorge Antonio Leoni de León, via Wikimedia Commons Other treasured works by Borges include the short story collection El Aleph and Other Stories, as well as various collections of literary criticism and poetry. These 17 short stories are full of magic, mischief, and wonder that continue to enchant readers around the world. This collection of short stories tells of criminals and vagabonds from a wide variety of times and places, and it represents one of Borges’ early forays into the literary world of Argentina.Īlthough this 1935 text was one of Borges’ first mature works, he really made his mark on the literary world with the publication of Ficciones in 1944. The famous critic Ángel Flores classifies Borges as the first “official” magical realist, pinpointing the start of the genre with his monumental publication of Historia Universal de la Infamia ( A Universal History of Infamy) in 1935. It was not until Argentina’s Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) that this new Latin American literature gained global fame. Many Latin American authors drew inspiration from these European giants in formulating their own unique style of literature. It took many years before Latin American authors saw themselves as “magical realists.”Īctually, one could argue that the very first literary forays in this genre came from Europeans like Massimo Bontempelli, Franz Kafka, and G. The development of magical realism didn’t happen overnight. Literary precursors in Europe and Latin America Just as Roh saw painting forming kind of Hegelian synthesis between Impressionism and Expressionism, so too did Latin American artists believe they could form a synthesis out of literary realism and escapist fantasy literature. The term instantly became fashionable in Buenos Aires literary clubs. ![]() But the term did catch the eye of many Latin American intellectuals after Roh’s book, Nach-Expressionismus (Magischer Realismus), was translated into Spanish in 1927. Interestingly, Roh’s term fell out of favor in painting circles pretty quickly. Roh saw these new Post-Expressionists as exemplars of what he dubbed (in German, of course), “ Magischer Realismus.” He used this term to try to express the new generation’s interest in painting images drawn from nature yet also imbued with a sense of the otherworldly. Artists at the time like Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, and George Grosz represented for Roh a total departure both from Impressionism, which was still faithful to images in the outside world, and Expressionism, which actively rebelled against nature. Interestingly, Roh was not describing literature at all but rather a new phenomenon in German painting. It was actually the German art critic Franz Roh who first put these terms in print in 1925. ![]() Many people who know a bit about Latin American literature assume that the term “magical realism” must have come from somewhere in South America. So where did magical realism start? From German tableaux to Buenos Aires cafés Magical realism novels do not contain the elves and wizards of a Tolkien tale -instead they explore the strangeness, horror, and awe of the real world. In contrast to pure fantasy, magical realism in literature sought to re-invigorate the ordinary with the sublime. One of the famous literary “-isms” to arise in this time, especially in Latin America, was called magical realism. Never before had there been so many dynamic philosophical, aesthetic, political, sociological, and psychological schools of thought: from Freudianism to Keynesianism to Cubism. The 20th century was a century of “-isms” in the West. Today we’re exploring magical realism, one of the most interesting literary movements in recent history.
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