Magical Realism: Locating its Contours in Postmodern Literature

Aug 20, 2026

Magical realism emerges as a mode, style, and politics that broadens literary representation amid postmodern uncertainty and globalizing change. The paper examines how this discursive heterogeneity captures reality through multiple perspectives and considers its contours in postcolonial literature. It traces conceptual debates among theorists, explaining how the magical and the real sustain tension rather than form imbalance. The study also highlights how magical realism challenges positivism, enables decolonizing re-imaginings, and provides alternative ways to present heterogeneous, hybrid realities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Magical realism in postmodern literary history

Globalization and the boundary between postmodernism and postcolonialism

Theoretical conceptualization

Resistance, hybridity, and discursive heterogeneity

Perspectives of literary theorists

Locating the mode in literary history

Synthesis of the magical and the real

Relation to realism and decolonizing projects

Munich Personal RePEc Archive Magical Realism: Locating its Contoursin Postmodern Literature Stephen, Nevil St. Paul’s College, Kalamassery, Ernakulam, India 2015 Online at [https://mpra. ub. uni-muenchen. de/72636/](https://mpra. ub. uni-muenchen. de/72636/) [MPRA Paper No. 72636](MPRA Paper No. 72636) , [posted 24 Jul 2016 06:24 UTC](posted 24 Jul 2016 06:24 UTC) 1 Magical Realism: Locating its Contours in Postmodern Literature Nevil Stephen S. Asst. Professor, Dept. of English, St. Paul’s College, Kalamassery [nevilstephens@gmail.com](nevilstephens@gmail.com) Ph:09447892702 The emergence and popularity conjured up by the literary sensibility (magical realism) in the postmodern literary milieu implicitly signals yet another milestone in the ongoing globalizing process in literature. Magical realism as a mode, style and politics widened its latitude in a world characterized by alteration, enduring change and uncertainty. This literary mode being a unique mix of discursive heterogeneity succeeded in capturing reality in alternate ways and from multiple perspectives. This paper primarily attempts in locating its contours in the postcolonial literature and its effectiveness in representing reality that is heterogeneous hybrid. Key words: Magical Realism, postcolonial, heterogeneity, alternative The year 2015 and incidentally the month April is of greater significance in the postmodern/postcolonial literary history as this time period recorded the demise of German Nobel laureate Gunter Grass and also the first death anniversary of yet another Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These two men of letters have something in common as they both identified and capitalized in their literary works the fictional device and artistic mode: magical realism. The rise of this literary sensibility (magical realism) and the considerable popularity enjoyed by it in the postmodern literary world implicitly signals yet another milestone that is the globalization of literature. In a vanquished and subsumed traditional world, magical realism entered as a discursive heterogeneity to form one among the top rugs in the ladder towards modernism. It demarcates a fluid boundary between postmodernism and postcolonialism. Aligning with the other emergent modernist art traditions, magical realism rejected the 2 nineteenth century positivism and the predicament of art on science and empiricism. Conversely, it ushered the readers to a magical world of folklore, mysticism and mythology. Conceptualization of magical realism from a theoretical stand point is intriguing and complex as many writers have adopted the style and adapted them to their varying literarypolitical needs across borders. From a true postmodern standpoint, it is hardly totalizing or absolutist. Not in simple terms could it be reduced as a genre that simply mixes the supernatural and the natural, the magical and the real, the determinate and the ambiguous. Instead the style provides the space for multiplicity, hybridity and heterogeneity. While at one level it could be seen as a modernized extension of the veteran literary genre: the romance, on the other level it could be seen as a decolonized space that visiblizes dehierarchization and plurality in postcolonial discourse. In this context it is fundamental to read through some of the perspectives conjured up and practiced by literary theorists. While Maggie Ann Bowers sees magical realism as a narrative mode that provides “a way to discuss alternative approaches to reality to that of Western philosophy, expressed in many postcolonial and non-Western works of contemporary fiction,”(1) Stephen Slemon views it as “a concept of resistance to the massive imperial centre and its totalizing systems”(410) . Locating magical realism from a literary view point reveals two discourses at work, the magical and the real. However, these two are never asymmetrical, but sustainably extend tension as well as resi

FAQs

How does the paper describe magical realism’s emergence in the postmodern literary milieu?

It presents magical realism as a mode, style, and politics that gains popularity amid alteration and uncertainty, widening its latitude through discursive heterogeneity.

What relationship does the paper propose between magical realism and postcolonial literature?

It argues that magical realism operates as a fluid boundary between postmodernism and postcolonialism, functioning as a decolonizing space that highlights plurality and dehierarchization.

What theoretical distinction does the paper make between the magical and the real in magical realist texts?

It states that the magical and the real are never asymmetrical; magic becomes normative within the realistic matrix, organically emerging from portrayed reality.

Aug 20, 2026

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