As a genre, magical realism is relatively difficult to define. In the simplest sense, magical realism is a blend of fantasy and reality, but this definition lacks much of the nuance that literary critics have assigned to the term.
Professor and literary critic Wendy B. Faris put forth five tenets of magical realism as part of her definition of the term. The most important of these tenets include the ideas of “an ‘irreducible’ magic which cannot be explained by typical notions of natural law” and “a realist depiction that stresses normal, common, everyday phenomena.”[1] Often, this is accomplished through “extreme or amplified states of mind or setting,” and Faris notes that “time is both history and the timeless; space is often challenged; identity is broken down at times.”[2]
Meanwhile, critic Kenneth Reeds asserts that magical realism is also necessarily a “recasting of history,”[3] and that the established “verisimilitude of magic”[4] and the “neo-fantastic” serve to “inject the past with hitherto marginalized voices.”[5] Magical realism, according to Reeds, is not merely the combination of the “neo-fantastic” with the real; the use of magical elements must shed light on some aspect of history, typically the history of an oppressed group.
Magical realism’s definition is complex in large part because of its long and varied history as a genre.
Magical realism was born not in literature, but in visual art. The term was coined in 1923 by the German art critic Franz Roh, who used it to describe an emerging style of painting which he profiled “as a reaction to Expressionism.”[6] As opposed to the “fantastic dreamscape” of Expressionism,[7] magical realism “focused on the representation of the object… dissected the object, renewed it in a cold, clinical way which turned the presentation of a normal item into something unfamiliar.”[8] To Roh, magical realism was the middle ground between the extremes of realism and expressionism. Roh’s contemporaries typically referred to the same post-expressionist movement as New Objectivity.
Professor and literary critic Wendy B. Faris put forth five tenets of magical realism as part of her definition of the term. The most important of these tenets include the ideas of “an ‘irreducible’ magic which cannot be explained by typical notions of natural law” and “a realist depiction that stresses normal, common, everyday phenomena.”[1] Often, this is accomplished through “extreme or amplified states of mind or setting,” and Faris notes that “time is both history and the timeless; space is often challenged; identity is broken down at times.”[2]
Meanwhile, critic Kenneth Reeds asserts that magical realism is also necessarily a “recasting of history,”[3] and that the established “verisimilitude of magic”[4] and the “neo-fantastic” serve to “inject the past with hitherto marginalized voices.”[5] Magical realism, according to Reeds, is not merely the combination of the “neo-fantastic” with the real; the use of magical elements must shed light on some aspect of history, typically the history of an oppressed group.
Magical realism’s definition is complex in large part because of its long and varied history as a genre.
Magical realism was born not in literature, but in visual art. The term was coined in 1923 by the German art critic Franz Roh, who used it to describe an emerging style of painting which he profiled “as a reaction to Expressionism.”[6] As opposed to the “fantastic dreamscape” of Expressionism,[7] magical realism “focused on the representation of the object… dissected the object, renewed it in a cold, clinical way which turned the presentation of a normal item into something unfamiliar.”[8] To Roh, magical realism was the middle ground between the extremes of realism and expressionism. Roh’s contemporaries typically referred to the same post-expressionist movement as New Objectivity.
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Giorgio de Chirico’s 1914 painting The Song of Love.[9] De Chirico was one of the painters Roh included in his description of magical realism. This painting in particular may be better described as surrealist, since the "rules" for magical realism in visual art are not very well defined. |
By 1927, magical realism had migrated to Latin America alongside a translation of Roh’s work.[10] There, the term began to describe a literary genre, but not exactly the same one it describes today. In the early magical realism of Latin America, “reality is represented as if it were magic, but… it is not really magical.”[11] Magical realist author Alejo Carpentier explained this sense of the genre, arguing that “it was natural to Latin America’s history, geography, people, and politics that unlikely combinations of events occurred producing marvelous results.”[12] Carpentier’s novel The Kingdom of This World is an example of this type of magical realism.
Latin American magical realism continued to subtly shift, and it experienced a boom in the 1960s. The seminal work of this period was Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.[13] This new sense of magical realism, more closely in line with the contemporary definition, spread elsewhere in the world and was adopted particularly by authors belonging to marginalized communities. The works of Toni Morrison, including Song of Solomon and Beloved, are prime examples of contemporary magical realism.
Magical realism is not as prevalent of a genre in theatre as it is in other literature, but nevertheless, some plays make use of magical realist concepts.
Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House is one example of an application of magical realism in theatre. In the play, magical and fantastical elements “intrude on the realistic household setting; snow falls indoors, and apples fall from the sky into the living room.”[14] Other examples are far more overt with their magical elements, including Jose Rivera’s Marisol, featuring a post-apocalyptic New York City, a missing moon, and a guardian angel who informs the protagonist of the angels’ war against a senile God. Perhaps the most prominent example of magical realism in contemporary theatre, however, is Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, which intersperses the gritty realism of the AIDS epidemic with “an angel crashing through the ceiling”[15] along with “dreams and dreams-within-dreams.”[16] Notably, Kushner’s magical realism aligns with the literary definition in that Kushner’s magical elements, while more overt than typical for literature, are used to “crack open” history;[17] the play gives a voice to and tells the story of a disenfranchised population, much like the magical realist works of Latin American and African American authors.
Latin American magical realism continued to subtly shift, and it experienced a boom in the 1960s. The seminal work of this period was Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.[13] This new sense of magical realism, more closely in line with the contemporary definition, spread elsewhere in the world and was adopted particularly by authors belonging to marginalized communities. The works of Toni Morrison, including Song of Solomon and Beloved, are prime examples of contemporary magical realism.
Magical realism is not as prevalent of a genre in theatre as it is in other literature, but nevertheless, some plays make use of magical realist concepts.
Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House is one example of an application of magical realism in theatre. In the play, magical and fantastical elements “intrude on the realistic household setting; snow falls indoors, and apples fall from the sky into the living room.”[14] Other examples are far more overt with their magical elements, including Jose Rivera’s Marisol, featuring a post-apocalyptic New York City, a missing moon, and a guardian angel who informs the protagonist of the angels’ war against a senile God. Perhaps the most prominent example of magical realism in contemporary theatre, however, is Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, which intersperses the gritty realism of the AIDS epidemic with “an angel crashing through the ceiling”[15] along with “dreams and dreams-within-dreams.”[16] Notably, Kushner’s magical realism aligns with the literary definition in that Kushner’s magical elements, while more overt than typical for literature, are used to “crack open” history;[17] the play gives a voice to and tells the story of a disenfranchised population, much like the magical realist works of Latin American and African American authors.
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A titular angel from the revival of Kushner’s Angels in America.[18]
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Magical realism takes several forms in Sagittarius Ponderosa, some more obvious than others. Most notably and most overtly, Grandma makes a love potion for Archer, and this is not seen as out of place for otherwise-realistic setting. The character of Peterson as a puppet, and his appearance in the action at a pivotal moment in the plot, is also treated nonchalantly by the characters. Additionally, the omnipresent pine’s seemingly supernatural ability to bring together Archer and Owen, and as the surreal treatment of time throughout the play, could also be seen as magical realist elements. Though Sagittarius Ponderosa does not take place in a definitely real world (as in the New York City of Angels in America), Kaufman uses magical elements to retell history while giving a voice to a marginalized group—in this case, transgender people, making it fit safely within the rather-blurry confines of the genre of magical realism.
Notes
[1] Angelina Meehan, “Why Magical Realism is a Global Phenomenon,” Storied, PBS Digital Studios, YouTube, March 31, 2022, video, 10:37, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scgn2BCcht4.
[2] Meehan.
[3] Kenneth S. Reeds, What Is Magical Realism?: An Explanation of a Literary Style (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2012), 226.
[4] Reeds, 231.
[5] Reeds, 238.
[6] Reeds, 44.
[7] Reeds, 46.
[8] Reeds, 47.
[9] Giorgio de Chirico. The Song of Love. Oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/ works/80419.
[10] Reeds, 50.
[11] Reeds, 61.
[12] Reeds, 54-55.
[13] Meehan.
[14] “Magical Realism on Stage,” BroadwayWorld, March 20, 2015, https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/ Magical-Realism-on-Stage-20150320.
[15] “Magical Realism on Stage.”
[16] Frank Rich, “Review/Theater: Angels in America; Millenium Approaches; Embracing All Possibilities in Art and Life,” New York Times, May 5, 1993. https://www.nytimes.com/ 1993/05/05/theater/review-theater-angels-america-millennium-approaches-embracing-all-possibilities.html.
[17] Rich.
[18] Brinkhoff-Moegenburg. Angels in America. Photograph. Playbill, https://playbill.com/article/look-back-at-angels-in-america-on-broadway-in-honor-of-tony-kushner.
See a complete bibliography here.
[1] Angelina Meehan, “Why Magical Realism is a Global Phenomenon,” Storied, PBS Digital Studios, YouTube, March 31, 2022, video, 10:37, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scgn2BCcht4.
[2] Meehan.
[3] Kenneth S. Reeds, What Is Magical Realism?: An Explanation of a Literary Style (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2012), 226.
[4] Reeds, 231.
[5] Reeds, 238.
[6] Reeds, 44.
[7] Reeds, 46.
[8] Reeds, 47.
[9] Giorgio de Chirico. The Song of Love. Oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/ works/80419.
[10] Reeds, 50.
[11] Reeds, 61.
[12] Reeds, 54-55.
[13] Meehan.
[14] “Magical Realism on Stage,” BroadwayWorld, March 20, 2015, https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/ Magical-Realism-on-Stage-20150320.
[15] “Magical Realism on Stage.”
[16] Frank Rich, “Review/Theater: Angels in America; Millenium Approaches; Embracing All Possibilities in Art and Life,” New York Times, May 5, 1993. https://www.nytimes.com/ 1993/05/05/theater/review-theater-angels-america-millennium-approaches-embracing-all-possibilities.html.
[17] Rich.
[18] Brinkhoff-Moegenburg. Angels in America. Photograph. Playbill, https://playbill.com/article/look-back-at-angels-in-america-on-broadway-in-honor-of-tony-kushner.
See a complete bibliography here.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Sharon Mollerus
