Magical realism
In magical realism, the fantastic elements can be very slight, or almost non-existent; perhaps more a matter of interpretation than anything else. Alternatively, they can be quite bright and real, but treated in a realistic fashion -- almost blending into urban fantasy.
Magical realism may also be viewed simply as a marketing ploy for fantasy, realistic fiction, or fantasy by people of color or non-Anglo cultures.
List of works called or marketed as magical realism
Novels and stories
- Allende, Isabel. - much of her work
- Block, Francesca Lia. Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books (1998). This collects five short novels in one book: Weetzie Bat (1989)
Witch Baby (1991) Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys (1992) Missing Angel Juan (1993) Baby Be-Bop (1995)
- Broner, E. M. A Weave of Women (Israeli / Jewish)
- Castillo, Ana. So Far From God (Mexican-American)
- Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate (Mexican)
- Garcia, Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban (Cuban-American)
- Graham, María. A History of My Residence in Chile (1883) (Anglo-Chilean writer; a magical-realism journal; Valparaíso)
- Guess, Carol. Switch (1998) (magic realism; lesbians in a small midwestern US town)
- Kwasny, Melissa. Modern Daughters and the Outlaw West (Spinsters Book, San Francisco, 1990). (A modern-day small Wyoming town is infested with quirky lesbians, ghosts, and politics.)
- Mootoo, Shani. Cereus Blooms at Night Press Gang Publishers, 1996. 1997 Tiptree Shortlist. (magical realism elements very realism and not very magical, but still ... the tone of the book is magical ...)
- Stinson, Susan. Martha Moody (Spinsters Ink, 1995) (About a turn-of-the-century woman in the West who falls in love with another woman, and begins to write magical stories.)
- Valenzuela, Luisa. The Lizard's Tail
Films & Videos
- "Antonia's Line"
- "The House of the Spirits"
- "Like Water for Chocolate"
Anthologies
- Marjorie Agosin, editor. Secret Weavers: Stories of the Fantastic by Women of Argentina and Chile (1992)
- Lawrence Schimel, editor. Things Invisible to See: Gay and Lesbian Tales of Magic Realism
- Susanna Sturgis, editor. Tales of Magic Realism By Women: Dreams in a Minor Key
- Lucy Sussex & Judith Raphael Buckrich, editors. She's Fantastical (1995, Sybylla and fantasy
- Irene Zahava, editor. Hear the Silence: Stories by Women of Myth, Magic and Renewal (1986)