A style of literature which integrates a seriality mode of writing with fantastical or marvellous events treated as perfectly ordinary occurrences. The term derives from a mistranslation of Cuban writer Alejo Carpentierâs notion âlo real maravillosoâ (marvellous reality), which occurs in the prologue to El Reino de este Mundo (1949), translated as The Kingdom of This World (1957), where it is used to characterize the life of the people Carpentier encountered on a visit to Haiti. The key here is that the aim is to describe a reality in which the magical is part of everyday life and not an extraordinary dimension. Thus, it should not be confused with either the fantastic (as Todorov, Tzvetan defines it) or fantasy fiction, because its purpose is not simply to go beyond the bounds of realism. As is evident in the best-known examples of magical realism, namely Gabriel GarcĂa MĂĄrquezâs novel, Cien años de soledad (1967), translated as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1970), and Salman Rushdieâs Midnightâs Children (1981), there is a distinct political purpose behind introducing the marvellous, which sets it apart from the merely fantastic. At its best, as in MĂĄrquez and Rushdie, but one can also cite the work of Mikhail Bulgakov, Angela Carter, and GĂŒnter Grass, the device of magical realism (as the Russian Formalism would undoubtedly call it) enables the writer to critique belief, memory, and the imagination as historical forces. Further Reading: M. Bowers Magic(al) Realism (2004). L. Parkinson Zamora Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community (1995).