Print ISBN: 978-1-61925-413-8
# of Pages: 300
# of Volumes: 1
Print List Price: $105
e-ISBN: 978-1-61925-414-5
eBook User Price: $105
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Critical Insights: Magical Realism

Editor: Ignacio Lopez-Calvo
September 2014


Outstanding, in-depth scholarship by renowned literary critics; great starting point for students seeking an introduction to the theme and the critical discussions surrounding it.

Magical Realism analyzes its evolution as well as its manifestations in different cultures. Several essays discuss the struggle between the hegemonic imposition of western modernity and subaltern, ethnicized, nonwestern conceptualizations in the Third World. Magical realist cultural production is thus seen as a tool for questioning Eurocentric views, as it endows non-western worldviews with additional agency. 

This title revisits what is perhaps the most influential literary movement to come out of Latin America and the Caribbean: magical realism. This title analyzes its evolution as well as its manifestations in different cultures. Several essays discuss the struggle between the hegemonic imposition of western modernity and subaltern, ethnicized, nonwestern conceptualizations in the Third World.

The second section, Critical Readings, delves into essays on individual works. Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes. The essays review past and current criticism of magical realist works around the world, analyze seminal as well as lesser known magical realist literature and film, and update the theoretical discourse addressing this literary and cultural mode.

Some of the titles are, "History, Ethnography, and Magical Realism in Marcio Veloz Maggiolo’s The Diffuse Biography of Sombra Castañeda," "Proliferation: The Case for Magical Realisms from Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl," "The Shadow of Magical Realism in José Luis Cuerda’s 1980s films," and more.

Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources:

  • About This Volume
  • Critical Context: Original Introductory Essays
  • Critical Readings: Original In-Depth Essays
  • Further Readings
  • Detailed Bibliography
  • Detailed Bio of the Editor
  • General Subject Index

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