magic realism

American  

Or magical realism

noun

1. a style of painting and literature in which fantastic or imaginary and often unsettling images or events are depicted in a sharply detailed, realistic manner.

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magic realism British  

noun

1. a style of painting or writing that depicts images or scenes of surreal fantasy in a representational or realistic way

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• magic realist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of magic realism

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

“Tigers Are Not Afraid” was a horror film shot through with magic realism, and both those elements find a home in “Night Country.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 14, 2024

Nancy Savoca’s 1993 film “Household Saints,” a warmhearted fable spiced with magic realism and zesty performances, may be the most endearing of multigenerational Italian American family sagas and is likely the most mystical.

From New York Times • Jan. 11, 2024

That grounding also allows for some well-integrated magic realism, and of the introduction of a spirit world that lives close by and looks and sounds and acts a lot like ours.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 27, 2023

His 1979 work The Book of Laughter and Forgetting spanned seven narratives and containing elements of the magic realism genre, while in 1988 he wrote one of his best novels, Immortality.

From BBC • Jul. 12, 2023

Writing back to the empire, asserting its independence in "chutnified" Indian English, this masterpiece of magic realism borrows the device of the storytelling scribe from the "Mahabharata," an ancient Indian epic.

From Salon • Aug. 27, 2022