Magical realism is more an artistic method than an aesthetic trend, formed at the beginning of the twentieth century in Europe and America. Moreover, it was most clearly manifested in the work of Latin American writers and artists of North America. But before touching on the distinctive features of this trend, we briefly list the main signs of realism, the trend in art, which arose and developed throughout the nineteenth century and captured all of world art and, above all, literature.
In artistic images, realist writers tried to reflect the very essence of life. Their work has become a means of understanding the surrounding and complex, multifaceted human personality in the world. Moreover, one of the main criteria of the aesthetics of realism is to show the deep contradictions and philosophy of life through the most ordinary heroes in typical circumstances. Another important criterion for the art of realism is life-affirming humanism, even the tragic end - always the beginning of a new life that can be redrawn, changed. The surrounding reality in the works of realists is knowable and changeable, it is always given in development, new contradictions and conflicts arise, and this is the basis of new relations.
The aesthetics of realism gave rise to many original artistic methods, which, adhering to its basic principles, however, reflected reality, as if through a multifaceted prism, through the edges of which it sometimes took unusual fantastic shapes.
Magical realism and its elements in literature and art
The French critic E. Jaluet was the first to single out the main stylistic elements of magical realism. This artistic method, in his opinion, transforms reality, highlighting in it strange, fantastic images, thanks to which the surrounding reality appears in a surreal, fantastic, symbolic form.
The style of magical realism is difficult to grasp. In the literary works of representatives of this method (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Goran Petrovich, Jorge Amadou, Carlos Castaneda and many others), special techniques are used. This is, first of all, a large number of vivid capacious symbols and images, often borrowed from mythology, a thorough detailing of the surrounding reality. The surreal, magical space surrounding the heroes is completely accepted and lived by them. One of the brightest tricks is the distortion of time - it seems to be completely absent and the action takes place in a temporary vacuum, or develops cyclically, often the past and future change places. Sometimes the logic of the narrative is violated, its causal relationships, and the emotional experiences of the characters can be long before the events that are associated with them. An open ending is also characteristic of these works, which allows the reader to identify and discover for themselves the meaning of the magical and symbolic meanings of the novel.
Magical realism in painting is often replaced by the term "post-impressionism", which designates an artistic device that combines elements of abstraction in the image of reality. In the paintings of artists - representatives of magical realism (Mikaloyus Čiurlionis, Marc Chagall, Ivan Albright, Andrew Wyeth and others), despite all their stylistic diversity, you can find some common features. In contrast to abstract art, they tried very carefully and in detail to depict real reality, however, they intentionally mixed up spatial plans, interchanging interiors and exteriors. One of the most striking stylistic devices is the play of chiaroscuro and reflections, as well as shapes and backgrounds, which creates the same magical impression.
The American artist Andrew White painted rural landscapes and portraits of real people with almost photographic accuracy, carefully and in great detail drawing the smallest details. However, his paintings create a special poetic mood due to the unusual angle of the image, poses, as well as the transmission of light and spatial perspective.
Magical realism as an artistic method was also used by filmmakers. An example here is Akira Kurosawa's film Dreams and David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
