American Magic Realism: Crossing the Borders in Literatures of the Margins

Year 1997, Issue: 6, 25 - 33, 01.10.1997

Magdalena Delicka

Abstract

The term magic realism exerts, what Fredric Jameson calls, “a strange seductiveness” 302 , and is today as prevalent as ever despite attempts on the part of critics to modify or abandon it. Note 1 It has already been applied to describe European Post-Expressionist painting of the 1920s, Kafka’s works and especially the literature of South America. Recently, the concept of magic realism has been used to refer to the literary expressions of the groups who consider themselves to be marginalized, such as women, lesbians and gays; and also to the literary expressions of the nations that are ethnically or socially marginalized borderlands.

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