“The most recent installment of the Critical Insights Themes series presents 13 essays on the most influential Latin American and Caribbean literary movement of the twentieth century: magical realism. Four introductory essays compare the different theories of magical realism, tracing its development in different cultures, placing it in a historical and contemporary context, and exploring the difference between magical realism and the fantastic. Nine critical-reading essays follow, focusing on specific works, from Gabriel García Márquez’s Of Love and Other Demons to Salman Rushdie’s Shame and Helen Oyemeymi’s The Icarus Girl, and on the impact the development of magical realism played in the literatures of Latin America, the Caribbean, South America, Canada, and New Zealand. The essays, between 2,500 and 5,000 words each, are dense and scholarly in nature, making this collection most appropriate for academic libraries...”