Magical Realism in the Americas

Catalog description

Used to describe everything from the hit tv series Six Feet Under to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Nobel Prize masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, the phrase Magical Realism appears frequently in reviews and criticism. It has become common media parlance. But what does it really mean? Where is the magic? Where is the realism? As a storytelling form, how does it function? And for whom? Our course will explore how Magical Realism emerges from different communities in the Americas at different times and places. We will visit novels and films from the Caribbean, Latin America, Native America, and the African American South. Authors may include Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Edwidge Danticat, and Jesmyn Ward, among others. Films may include Guantanamera(Cuba), Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico), and Daughters of the Dust (USA), among others. A key question will guide the course. How does Magical Realism offer alternative ways of knowing the world as it is?