A Postcolonial History of Magical Realism

For the most part, Latin American literature can scarcely be mentioned without considering the influence of the magical realist movement. The latter is one of the most fascinating in literary canon - both in its simultaneously grounded and experimental form, and its unique relationship to power and geography. 

Magical realism took its roots overseas - in the similar artistic and literary tradition known as surrealism. Originating in 1920s France, the practice was born primarily as a reaction to the first World War - its massive displacement, horrific wake, and the broader, looming sense that rationality had been upended on itself. Surrealist writers rejected rationality - writing about the inexplicable, the absurd, or the subconscious - yet nonetheless distinctly grounded in reality as a response. In Europe - and more broadly, the movement was a response - criticising societal ills by parting from its imposed structures.

When surrealism arrived in Latin America, it bore with it the roots of colonialism - the European surrealist André Breton at first claimed that Latin America was “naturally surreal” - arguing that it was a place wild and untamed, particularly set for exploration of the inexplicable. While Breton may have had positive intentions, as a figure standing in opposition to French imperialism, he nonetheless demonstrated the colonial tendency to see the region as one monolithic and exotic landscape - of a unique relation, but ultimately less developed than Europe. 

Latin American experimental literature, nonetheless, did not fall into such an easily definable category. Early writers in the region similarly saw in magical realism surrealism’s origin due to societal ills - but rather than primarily adopting the psychoanalysis of Freud for their response, took on the region’s own bent. Magical realist writers argued that the region’s history of colonialism had alienated indigenous cultural elements from the locale - and by defying the believed rationality that Eurocentrism imposed, would restore the two together. Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier pioneered this - saying that Latin America existed in a uniquely “marvelous” space - but of its own identity, shaped by revolution, spiritualism, and the lasting scars of conflict. Like surrealism was shaped within its own, magical realism existed not of Breton’s wild impulses, but grounded in history. 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his magnum opus One Hundred Years of Solitude is widely considered one of the crowning works of magical realism, and an accurate encapsulator of the movement. Marquez details a faintly magical town suddenly rendered into disarray by the intrusion of the United Fruit Company - that leaves a heavy rain in its wake for the course of five years. One Hundred Years of Solitude’s magical realism does not seek to entirely alienate itself from colonial activity - but neither is it dominated by it. Macondo’s rain is an expression of history and rightful tragedy - surreal and grounded, uniquely the town’s own.