Magical realism, perhaps the most common term, often refers to literature in particular, with magical or supernatural phenomena presented in an otherwise real-world or mundane setting, commonly found in novels and dramatic performances.

Magic realism, chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction.

Magical realism is a genre of literature that depicts the real world as having an undercurrent of magic or fantasy. Magical realism is a part of the realism genre of fiction. Within a work of magical realism, the world is still grounded in the real world, but fantastical elements are considered normal in this world.

Bridging the Cultural Divide García Márquez also suggests that cultures and countries differ in what they call “real.” It is here that magical realism serves its most important function, because it facilitates the inclusion of alternative belief systems.

A short story writer, poet and essayist, Borges was one of the giants of 20th century literature. “Borges’ works have contributed to the genre of science fiction as well as the genre of magical realism. Happy birthday, Jorge Luis Borges,” said Google in a YouTube animation of its doodle.

Magical realism is most often used to describe the literary subgenre popularized by Latin American writers in the 1950s such as Jose Martí and Ruben Darío. Though every work of literature in this genre varies in its content and style, there are some characteristics that appear over and over again.

The biggest difference between the two is that fantasy takes place in a world other than our own, whereas magical realism focuses on ordinary people going about their ordinary lives in an ordinary world. Magical realism is intentionally vague; people don’t know why or how the magic works, it just does.

The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka is a prime example of magic realism. Magic realism is a fictional technique that combines fantasy with raw, physical or social reality in a search for truth beyond that available from the surface of everyday life.

Surrealism aimed to revolutionise human experience, rejecting a rational vision of life in favour of one that asserted the value of the unconscious and dreams. The movement’s poets and artists found magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional.

Features of Surrealistic Art

• Dream-like scenes and symbolic images.
• Unexpected, illogical juxtapositions.
• Bizarre assemblages of ordinary objects.
• Automatism and a spirit of spontaneity.
• Games and techniques to create random effects.
• Personal iconography.
• Visual puns.
• Distorted figures and biomorphic shapes.

WORDS RELATED TO SURREALISTIC

• aberrant.
• abnormal.
• absurd.
• antic.
• bizarre.
• deformed.
• distorted.
• eerie.

Something that’s dreamlike feels like a dream, or seems unreal.

Surrealism is a movement that focuses on telling a story or conveying meaning via language and/or imagery that really isn’t connected in a logical sequence. It is often confusing, yet conveys meaning even if readers aren’t sure they understand the point or, if there even is a point.

What is another word for fantastical?

In this page you can discover 61 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for amazing, like: astonishing, incredible, astounding, phenomenal, marvelous, wondrous, fantastical, prodigious, miraculous, stupendous and fantastic.

As adjectives the difference between amazing and fantastic is that amazing is causing wonder and amazement; possessing uniquely wonderful qualities while fantastic is existing in or constructed from fantasy; of or relating to fantasy; fanciful.