One of the key differences here is that with contemporary or urban fantasy, the fantasy element is generally a force that characters must strive to overcome. However, we need to take the definition a few steps farther to really understand magical realism, especially if we want to differentiate it from contemporary fantasy or urban fantasy, which are also fantasy stories that take place in everyday settings.
I like to define magical realism in middle grade as a story that takes place in an everyday setting with just a hint of magic. Today I’m going to share my specific understanding of the sub-genre and how I have used everyday magic as a tool to develop my characters’ emotional journeys.įirst, a definition. Middle grade authors have developed their own version of magical realism, which, of course, varies just as much as previous iterations. Nowadays, my thoughts on the subject are not quite so lofty. Magical realism is a flourishing sub-genre of middle grade literature, but what does it mean, how is it different from standard fantasy and why is it so appealing to young readers and not-so-young authors alike? My first introduction to magical realism came in college when I became enamored with the works of Congolese author Sony Lab’ou Tansi although, at the time, I wrote a paper outlining how his brand of magical storytelling differed from the classic magical realism tradition of Latin American authors like Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges.
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