Hi.

I have written a novel that I am trying to get published but have long had trouble trying to categorise what genre it is. This whole genre things seems rather important from what I can gather so I want to get it right. A couple of people who have read it have mentioned that it seems to be 'magical realism'. Now I have heard of this concept in films but not in novels. I would be really grateful if somebody could help me out with a little more information on magical realism and whether or not it is a recognised genre - and if it isn't, what genre does it most closely resemble?

Thank you so much,

Stu
http://tollesburytimeforever.blogspot.com/

Hi Stu, wikipedia has a good section on magic realism in literature - google "magic realism wiki" and it should pop up.

It's most definitely a recognised category - major proponents include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Angela Carter, etc etc. It's quite strongly associated with Latin America.

However it's quite hard to categorise - there's lots of overlap with other categories - some people consider it's just a posh word for fantasy, and lots of writers are somewhere in the magical realist/postmodern overlap with arguments about where they fall.

I did a unit on it at uni and came out without any clear definition but that may be down to my deficiencies rather than the term itself!

Incidentally I don't think the genre is that important - unless you're writing commercial fiction where the genre dictates how it's marketed.

Magic realism is not a genre in the sense of being a bookshop/marketing genre like "crime" or "chick lit". Generally speaking it would fall within the broad church of literary fiction.

Hi Flora!

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! It was very kind of you. I guess when I think of fantasy I think of Lord of the Rings etc! Wrong I know (though I do love the books!)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez has always been an author I have wanted to read and I think I now will.

I guess from looking at how to submit work etc, the genre seems to play a significant part. I'm beginning to think though that my novel is what it is. Why write something from your mind and your heart then try and squeeze it into a box made by others just so someone else can then judge whether or not it will make them money? It's a strange old world!

I would suggest sticking with a fairly broad definition - as Flora says, it's not exactly a genre in itself.

The other reason is that the term makes many agents' and publishers' hearts sink, because it usually done very badly, either because the writer doesn't really understand what's going on with Garcia Marques or Isabelle Allende, or because they're only doing it because it makes plotting easier. Not fair, necessarily, but something to be aware of..

I see what you mean Emma. They must get to read some right old rubbish!

Yes, Marquez who is wonderful and Isabelle Allende (The House of the Spirits is SO good) - and also Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. And of late I've read the more recent The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw which tackles the 'genre' quite well.

I really enjoy reading magical realism.

In terms of children's writing (which I know yours isn't, Stu!), I've always understood magical realism to be something that happens in the normal, real world but is magical, as opposed to fantasy, where the whole fictional world is richly imagined.

SO magical realism might be a boy riding his bike to an ordinary school in an ordinary town, when suddenly it flies into the air.

fantasy would be a boy riding his hoverbike into the space school

but then what's urban fantasy?

ermmmmm....

Freebird's definition is really good. I've always thought of MR as being a realistic setting in which magical things happen. And that magic is as commonplace to the characters as the setting, which in itself is realistic/normal to the reader. So magic becomes part of the normality rather than part of the strangeness of the story.

House of Spirits is a great example. Nights at the Circus was also a classic.