Lesson 3: Fact and Fantasy:

On Magical Realism
Are you familiar with these books?
These books have one thing in
common. All of them are
representations of reality with a
touch of magical elements. The
authors behind these popular books
use magical realism as their style in
writing.
Magical realism is a trendy style that
emerged in the 1940s, and until now,
it is trendy not just in novels, but in
movies as well. Most Ghibli films use
this style. Some of the films produced
in this studio are My Neighbor, Totoro,
Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Ponyo.
Lesson Objectives
This course allows students to:
1. identify the history, notable authors,
characteristics, and famous works of magical
realism;
2. give five books, movies, or TV series that uses
the style of magical realism;
3. write a book report on a literary work under
magical realism
Before You Proceed…
Let us check your background knowledge about magical realism. Some of
the statements below describe magical realism. On the blank before the
number, write the letter T if you think that the statement describes
magical realism, and F if not.
______1. This genre deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts.
______2. It questions the nature of reality and draws attention to the act
of creation by using a new combination of fact and fancy.
______3. It is also known as fantasy.
______4. It is the representation of reality with extraordinary and magical
elements.
______5. Harry Potter is an example of magical realism because the
setting is a wizarding world.
Lesson Proper
Magical Realism According to Thamarana (2015),
Magical Realism extensively refers to the style of
writing or technique, which includes magical and
supernatural events narrated realistically without
any doubt about the improbability of the events.
It questions the nature of reality and draws
attention to the act of creation by using a new
combination of fact and fancy.
The difference between magical realism to
fantasy is even though it has a magical
element, the harsh realities of life are still
there, and the characters will indeed resolve
it realistically. Also, the characters in the
story coexist with magical creatures or
events, and they will make the readers feel
that what is happening is normal and can
occur in reality.
The difference between magical realism to
fantasy is even though it has a magical
element, the harsh realities of life are still
there, and the characters will indeed resolve
it realistically. Also, the characters in the
story coexist with magical creatures or
events, and they will make the readers feel
that what is happening is normal and can
occur in reality.
History of Magical Realism
Franz Roh, in his book Nach Expressionismus:
Magischer Realismus (After Expressionism:
Magical Realism), introduced a German term
Magischer realismus, which translates as magical
realism in 1925. During that time, he used Neue
Sachlichkeit, or New Objectivity to describe the
popular expression in painting that was an
alternative to the romanticism of expression.
Magical realism was used to emphasize how strange
and magical everyday objects can appear in the real
world when you stop and look at them. This is the
difference of magical realism to fantasy. In fantasy,
characters deal with supernatural creatures
supernaturally. The setting is usually in a magical world.
However, in magical realism, the location is in the real
world. Initially, this movement started with
LatinAmerican writers representing reality with
extraordinary and supernatural elements to show that
their culture as vibrant and complex.
It originated from the 1940s with the Spanish
American writers such as Miguel Angel
Asturias and Alejo Carpentier with their
representative novels Men of Maize and The
Kingdom of this World, respectively. These
writers used many indigenous aspects like
folklore, cultural beliefs, along with the
particular and geographical landscape.
(Thamarana, 2015)
Characteristics of Magical Realism Magical realism
is known for its unique characteristics.
Here are the characteristics of magical realism.
1. Realistic Setting –the standard setting of this
style is the real world, which is familiar to us. They
do not have any magical wizarding world like
Hogwarts, so Harry Potter does not belong to this
style.
2. Magical Elements- all stories under this style has a
magical element. However, the difference is inside the
novel; it is viewed as usual. For instance, in a 2018
movie “Border,” a woman working as a guard in the
border looks peculiar and possesses a gift of knowing
what is inside the mind of a person, and she can smell
if this person will bring danger. Believing that she is
human, she accepted that she is just gifted. She met a
guy who has the same physical qualities as her, and he
told her that they are not human but a troll
3. Limited information -authors do not
give full detail to the audience, so they
will believe or think that it is real. 84
4. Critique - authors used this to critique
the society using this. In Latin America,
they use this style to target American
Imperialism
5. Unique Plot Structure - unlike
some works which follow a plot
structure, this style does not
follow any structure, so the
readers will have no idea when
will the plot will advance, or the
conflict will arise.
Notable Authors and Their Works
A. Novel
AUTHOR WORKS

Isabel Allende (1982) The House of The Spirits

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967) One Hundred Years of Solitude

Salman Rushide (1981) Midnight’s Children

Toni Morrison Beloved

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Death Constant Beyond Love

Italo Calvino The Daughter of the Moon

B. Movies
Pan’s Labyrinth
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Edward Scissorhands
My Neighbor Totoro
Meaning of Death Constant Beyond Love
In the short story, “Death Constant Beyond
Love”, the significance of the title of the story
has many meanings. The first meaning is
that death is the one this that is constant.
Regardless of how we feel about one another,
emotions evolved, and even love, all things
will come to an end.
DEATH CONSTANT BEYOND LOVE”
Gabriel García Márquez’s 1970 short story
“Death Constant Beyond Love” creates an
overarching mood of loneliness and
repetition to think through the experience of
dying. Senator Onésimo Sanchez, the story’s
protagonist, travels on his routine reelection
campaign knowing that he has “six months
and eleven days to go before his death”
(Paragraph 1).
In Rosal del Virrey, “an illusory village” in the desert
but with a distant ocean view, he meets
Laura Farina. The narrator calls Laura “the woman
of his life” (Paragraph 1). Before telling of their
meeting, the narrator describes the spectacle of
Sanchez’s arrival in the town. He is cool, “placid
and weatherless,” inside his car. This is his “real
life”—he is 42 and married with children. When he
steps out of the car, he feels a “gust of fire” and
enters a hot, unreal desert space (Paragraph 2).
The narrator describes Sanchez’s
naked rest “in the shadow of the rose”
that he carefully preserves in water to
keep perky for his performances. The
politician takes pills and eats mild
food, even though “no one [knows] he
had been sentenced to a fixed term”
(Paragraph 3).
He delivers a high-minded speech that
unintentionally seems to reference
Marcus Aurelius. While he delivers the
speech, his aides orchestrate a show:
“There was a pattern to his circus”;paper
birds, flying in the air, “[cover] the
miserable real-life shacks” of the local
people (Paragraph 6).
As they transform the town, Sanchez
creates a “fictional world” of campaign
promises (Paragraph 7). At the end, he
points to “an ocean line of painted paper”
intended to create the illusion of idyllic
beauty. But Sanchez sees that the image
is “almost as poor and dusty as Rosal del
Virrey” (Paragraph 8).
Nelson Farina, Laura’s father, listens to
the performance from a distant
hammock. Something of an outlaw who
had murdered his first wife, Farina was
familiar with Sanchez’s campaign. He
“had begged for [Sanchez’s] help” in
gaining an identity card, and he resents
Farina for not meeting this need.
(Paragraph 10) Sanchez walks through
the street, greeting and answering the
small requests of the locals. When he
arrives at Farina, who looks “ashen and
gloomy” on his hammock, he stops to
speak with him. Farina reminds him that
they’re familiar, saying “moi vous savez,”
French for “you know me” (Paragraph
13).
His beautiful daughter, Laura,
emerges from the Farina house during
their conversation. The narrator notes
that “it was possible to imagine that
there had never been another so
beautiful in the whole world”; Laura
leaves the senator “breathless”
(Paragraph 14).
That night, Nelson sends Laura to
Sanchez. Sanchez is meeting with his
advisors and the local men, who look
“so much like all the ones he always
met in all the towns in the desert,” and
the meeting feels like a “perpetual
nightly session” (Paragraph 16)
As the locals ask for more than paper birds to
care for their town, Sanchez cuts a paper
butterfly that he sends flying “into the air
current coming from the fan” (Paragraph 18).
The butterfly flies out of the door to where
Laura waits in the vestibule. She watches the
butterfly unfold, hit the wall, and “[remain]
stuck there” (Paragraph 20). Laura works to
unstick the butterfly, but the guard tells her
that the butterfly is painted on the wall.
When the meeting ends, Sanchez
emerges into the vestibule and asks
Laura why she is there. She tells him that
she is there on behalf of her father.
Witnessing her “unusual beauty,” Sanchez
finds that it is “even more demanding
than his pain” and resolves “then that
death had made his decision for him”
(Paragraph 22).
Sanchez invites Laura into his room.
She is in awe of the “thousands of
bank notes” that float in the air,
“flapping like the butterfly” (Paragraph
23). She also notices the Sanchez’s
rose resting in its vase. Sanchez tries
to explain what it is, but Laura says
that she already knows.
The senator talks about roses while he
removes his shirt, revealing “a corsair’s tattoo
of a heart pierced by an arrow” (Paragraph
25). At his request, Laura kneels down to
remove Sanchez’s boots. He remarks that she
is “just a child” (Paragraph 26). When
Sanchez discovers that he and Laura share
Aries as their astrological sign, he tells her
that “it’s the sign of solitude” (Paragraph 27).
Laura is unsure how to handle his boots, and
Sanchez is unsure how to handle Laura, the
narrator reveals. Sanchez holds her “tightly
between his knees” and embraces her,
recognizing that she is “naked under her
dress” (Paragraph 28). He turns off the light,
leaving the pair “in the shadow of the rose.”
He begins to touch her, but he finds
“something iron” in his way (Paragraph 29).
Sanchez seems disturbed to discover that she
wears a padlock. Laura explains that her father has
the key to the padlock and will give it to Sanchez
when she returns with “a written promise” that
Sanchez will “straighten out his situation”
(Paragraph 30). In this tension, Sanchez reminds
himself to “remember […] that whether it’s you or
someone else, it won’t be long before you’ll be
dead and it won’t be long before your name won’t
even be left” (Paragraph 31).
He asks Laura what she has heard of
him. After some coaxing, Laura admits to
him that “they say you’re worse than the
rest because you are different”
(Paragraph 32). The senator sits quietly.
When he speaks, he seems “to have
returned from his most hidden instincts”
(Paragraph 33).
Sanchez tells Laura that he will
help her father. But he does not
send her back home for the key.
Instead, he asks her to sleep with
him for a while because “it’s good
to be with someone when you are
so alone” (Paragraph 34).
The story ends with Laura on his chest, “her
eyes fixed on the rose,” and the senator with
his face “into woods-animal armpit,” given in
“to terror” (Paragraph 35). As expected, “six
months and eleven days later,” he dies in this
position, “debased and repudiated because of
the public scandal with Laura Farina and
weeping with rage at dying without her”
(Paragraph 35). 
 Magical Realism
- Magical as well as supernatural
events narratedrealistically

- Frsnz Roh coined the Characteristics:

The term in his book Nach 1. Realistis
Expresionismus: Magischer Realismus 2. Magical Elements
(After Expressionism: Msgicsl Realism 3. Limited Information
4. Critique
5. Unique Plot Structure
Activity
Write the word/s that is being described in each item. Answers
must be written on the blank before each number.
_______________1. Magical realism refers to the style of
writing or technique, which includes magical and supernatural
events narrated realistically without any doubt about __ of the
events.
_______________2. __ is a German word which translate as
magical realism.
_______________3. __ was used to emphasize how strange and
magical normal objects can appear in the real world when you
stop and look at them
_________4. He is one of the Spanish writers who used
this style in the 1940’s.
_________5. The common setting of this style is __.
_________6. __ element is very common to this style.
_________7. It is the story’s sequence of events.
________ 8. In Latin America, they used this to target
_________9. This style gives __ information to reader.
________10. It is used to describe the popular
expression in painting that was an alternative to the
romanticism of expression .
Complete the table by giving five books, movies, or TV series that uses
magical realism, then give the characteristics of this that makes it
Magical Realism. You cannot use the examples in this module.

Movies/TV Series/BOOKS Characteristics

1.

2.

3.

4.