The Imaginary Real: Magical Realism in Latin American Literature

Catalog description

In the world of magical realism, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the magical becomes commonplace. Featuring literature from Spanish speaking countries of Latin America, this course will introduce students to key writers of the genre. Spanning a century of literary narrative, beginning with the first magic-realist flashes in the 1920s and reaching to its echoes today, the course will emphasize the Latin American Boom with the writers of the 1960s and 70s, whose alchemy crafted and transformed this style into one understood today as distinctly Latin American. As students will learn, Magical Realism is not a style or a genre so much as a way of questioning the nature of reality. As such, it will expose students to equal parts magic and realism in key literary works and challenge them to think critically about prominent themes in order to better understand the evolving character and identity of Latin America.