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Magical Realism

Magical Realism. Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima. Magical Realism. Literary genre & movement Franz Roh (1925) German art critic Arturo Uslar-Pietri Applied to literature Latin American writers. Magical Realism. “The ordinary as miraculous and the miraculous as ordinary.”

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Magical Realism

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  1. Magical Realism Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima

  2. Magical Realism • Literary genre & movement • Franz Roh (1925) • German art critic • Arturo Uslar-Pietri • Applied to literature • Latin American writers

  3. Magical Realism • “The ordinary as miraculous and the miraculous as ordinary.” • Magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting • Combination of physical reality & psychological reality

  4. Different from Fantasy • Remains grounded in the real world • UnlikeNarnia or Middle Earth • Stretches the definition of realism & reality • Not so much a belief, but a “lack of disbelief” • Power lies not in answers, but in questions

  5. Common Literary Conventions • Juxtaposes opposite elements: • Dreaming/waking • Life/death • Civilized/wild • Hyperbole • Exaggeration until it becomes “magical” • Childlike look at the familiar • “charm of the object” • Reimagining the mundane • Engages reader into text • Mirror • Forces questioning

  6. Latin America • Landscape • Vast, mysterious terrain • Snow capped mountains to volcanoes & Amazon waterfalls • Native influence • Blend of old, mystical culture with colonization & Christianity

  7. Famous Magical Realism Authors • Gabriel G. Marquez • One Hundred Years of Solitude • Love in the Time of Cholera • Laura Esquivel • Like Water for Chocolate • Isabel Allende • House of the Spirits

  8. Rudolfo Anaya October 30, 1937 - • Born in Pastura, Mexico • Rural village • Moved to Albuquerque, NM • High School & College • Currently a college professor at University of New Mexico • Father of Chicano literature

  9. Bless Me Ultima • Bildungsroman • German for “novel of self-cultivation” • Coming-of-age • Many similarities between Anaya & Antonio Marez • Six yrs. old @ start of novel • Father: vaquero culture; richly connected to land • Mother: Catholic, modern, city dweller • Struggle between two worlds: • Rich, mystical, pagan family ties & traditional Roman Catholicism • Ultima • Curandera • Healer: akin to shaman

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