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Psychology and Magical Realism Literature Essays Literary Criticism

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Psychology and Magical Realism Four Works Cited Magical realism provides the reader with a unique perspective of the world -we look on it with new eyes. The reader must go beyond reality to understand magical realism. Magical realism may be related to certain academic fields such as psychology because of the state of mind one must use to really know what is happening. Magical realism can be characterized in many ways. Mainly, it depends on one’s own opinion, but for me reading certain selections about it, one can get basically the same point of view from it. “Meticulous craftsmen all, one finds them In the same preoccupation with style and also the same transformation of the common and everyday into the awesome and unreal”(Flores 114). The “awesome and the unreal” are characteristics that usually represent what magical realism is. Many magical realists use it in their selections to give readers a brief idea about magical realism. It is not just the everyday word or meaning to life. It is an outlook on what life has to give one if he or she is willing to look further into it. In the psychological field, Victor Frankl discuss something called “will-to-meaning.” Frankl says that in one life meaning is love for one’s children to tie to; in another life, a talent to be used; in a third, perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving. In his studies, he stated that people survive to weave those slender threads of a broken life into a firm pattern of meaning and responsibility. Frankl poses three different lives in his theory. Either a person could be living one of the three or he or she could be living all three at one time. People just do not realize the magic. If one cannot find his or her “will-to-meaning in life, Frankl says that the sufferer fails to find meaning and a sense of responsibility in his existence. Later on, Frankl puts an answer issue to this by saying “A human suddenly realizes he has nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life.” Frankl titles this idea as a mixed flow of emotion and apathy that is simply arresting. Also, Frankl gave a good meaning to his theory by quoting Nietzsche, “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.” That quote was a really moving statement to me. In the story Like Water For Chocolate, a young woman named Tita was haunted by her mother when she died. The love for a man made her mother haunt her because of Tita’s disobedience to her mother after she had died. In relation to Frankl’s ideas to this story, Tita had a reason to live as well as Frankl did. Frankl lived to write about what he had learned. His family all died in concentration camps with no meaning to life whatsoever. Tita at first thought she had no reason to live until meeting the love of her life. As Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Magical realism relates to certain academic fields such as psychology because of the state of mind one must use to really know what is happening. In Frankl’s will-to-meaning, like magical realism, one has to have a realization of what is going on and a “why and how” attitude towards it. Both are based upon the “real and unreal” where a person look upon things with other minds, not just a person’s own natural state (psychologically)-(magically). I think magical realism has became more popular over the last sixty years because it is shown to be a relation to things used today in our academic fields. I think that if it was not used then it would not be as fun to learn about it. When there are more perspectives, learning is a lot more interesting. Works Cited Esquivel, Laura. Like Water For Chocolate. N.Y.: Doubleday Printing Press, 1989. Flores, Angel. “Magical Realism: Post-Expressionism, Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community.” Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 109-117. Frankl, Victor. Man’s Search For Meaning. Boston: Beacon Printing Press, 1963. Roh, Franz. “Magical Realism: Post-Expressionism, Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community.” Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 15-31.

History and Theory of Magical Realism Literature Essays Literary Criticism

History and Theory of Magical Realism The world is full of magical realism. Magical Realism may just become a word that people thought of in the 1930’s; however, magical realism has been here for as long as the people have been able to tell and write stories. Whether the stories are true or made up, they are all magical realism. The first author who started associating the words of magical realism to out was a German art critic, by the name of Franz Roh. Roh considered magical realism an art category. It represented and responded to reality and depicted the enigmas of reality. In Latin America in the 1940’s, magical realism was a way to express the realistic American mentality and create an autonomous style of literature. One feature of magical realism is ironic distance from the magical worldview should not compromise reality. The writer should strongly respect the magic or else the magic would go into folk belief or complete fantasy and split from the term of magic that relates it to Angel Flores (111). Authorial reticence another feature of magical realism, refers to the lack of clear opinions of the accuracy of events of the worldviews expressed by the characters in the stories. This technique promotes acceptance in magical realism. The simple fact of explaining the supernatural worldview can be part of reality (Wendy Faris, 165). Magical Realism can be art, poetry, and literature. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was linked to the style of literature known as magical realism. Literature is only one type of magical realism that is expressed wildely. The books of many different authors who have written literature can make a person’s mind go far and beyond in their imagination. Scott Simpkins has stated that there are no limitations on the words of magical realism. He states that the truth is that the magic realist is always short of his her goal to explain reality. Many authors state that in the material state that some are deceived by the strategies and the failure as to the way the authors portray the words of magical realism. Wendy B. Faris wrote in her essay about children and their imagination. Children act upon their imaginations. The books that she talks about are for entertainment for readers. The fiction that Wendy B. Faris spoke is are modern and contemporary and is all basically magical realism. Irene Guenther is an author who has spoken of expressionism describing magical realism. Irene spoke of Roger Fry and the post-impressionism. He believed that the children had their own expression. The essay that she wrote states the date of 1920 as the time of magical realism. Basically, the words magical realism has been with us for a long time. Each and every author has a different date as to when the words magical realism came into focus. Amaryll Chanady speaks of control in her essay. Imagination and fiction are aspects of daily life. She speaks of imagination and what people are lacking in the world today. Amaryll Chanady spoke of the articles that artist and writers put in their books, and she states that they would not be able to do their thing without the imagination of magical realism. Franz Roh spoke of magical realism compared to painting and music as well as literature. Most people may or can understand magical realism upon reading a book; however, when art and music are involved some people have trouble with comparing them to magical realism. Magical realism is offered within the music and art, and some enjoy the sounds and the looks. They do not even realize that they are actually enjoying magical realism. Angel Flores evaluates magical realism as “Romantic” and “Poetic”. He states the different opinions that other authors give. Each and every one has a different opinion of what magical realism is and does. Each author gave a different book or title of a book as an example of their interpretation of magical realism. What would this world be today if everyone had the same opinion? Luis Leal finds that the different authors have distinguishing characteristics and a style with interest and transforming the common and everyday world into the awesome and unreal. The article Leal wrote is mentions that the authors do not agree with anything each other have to say. In reality, magical realism has basically everything each and every author has said and written about. They are all combined together as a total of magical realism. Magical realism expresses emotions of the real and the unreal. Life is magical and unreal. The combination of the articles or essays written on magical realism provide a large impression of the meaning of magical realism. Different authors have written some great books who likes that should be read by everyone who likes to read things that have imagination and mystery. The world is full of magical realism.

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