Friday, May 18, 2012

Are magic realism and urban fantasy the same?

Magical Realism (magic realism) refers to a movement in literature started by Latin American authors that combines literary subject matter, realism or a non-romantic view of the world, with speculaitve elements. In other words, it takes a realistic glance at the speculative phenomenon, while advancing literary stories (non-mainstream, non-plot driven, non-genre stories). Aimee Bender comes to mind as an American writing Magical Realism. If you read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, you can see the vast difference between it and Fantasy novels. 


Urban Fantasy is a subgenre of Contemporary Fantasy. It describes fiction that uses the common tropes found in Fantasy, but in contemporary times and in a real-world city or urban setting--sometimes referred to as urbanized fantasy. As with most Fantasy, UF is plot driven and places vast importance on its speculative elements. In this sense, it has more in common with Comic Books than with Magical Realism. It is very rare for an Urban Fantasy novel to not be plot driven. 


Magical Realism and Urban Fantasy are worlds apart. Their labels are not interchangeable in any way, even while they share some similarities. One is literary and the other is genre fiction--I hope you know what both mean. 

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