The Magic Realist Novel:  A Chronological History, with  Particular Attention to Canadian Texts


1949         Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala)         Men of Maize

                 Alejo Carpentier (Cuba)                        The Kingdom of this World

1953         Carpentier                                             The Lost Steps

1955         Juan Rolfo (Mexico)                              Pedro Paramo

1958         Jose Maria Arguedas (Peru)                    Deep Rivers

1960         WilsonHarris (Guyana)                           The Palace of the Peacock

1963         Miguel Angel Asturias                             Mulata

1966         Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)                     The Green House

                 Jose Lezama Lima (Cuba)                      Paradiso

1967         Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)         One Hundred Years of Solitude

1968         Garcia Marquez                                      No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories

1970         Demetrio Aguilera-Malta (Equador)          Seven Moons and Seven Serpents

1972         Garcia Marquez                                       Leaf Storm and Other Stories

1974         Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay)               I the Supreme

                 John Nichols (USA)                                 The Milagro Beanfield War

1977         Toni Morrison (USA)                                Song of Solomon

                 Robert Kroetsch (Canada)                        What the Crow Said

                 Jack Hodgins (Canada)                             The Invention of the World

1978         Garcia Marquez                                         Innocent Erendira and Other Stories

                 Keith Maillard (Canada)                             T wo Strand River

                 Cam Hubert (Canada)                                 Dreamspeaker

1980         Salman Rushdie (India)                                Midnight's Children

                 Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)                              Distant Relations

                 Jack Hodgins                                               The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne

                 George Bowering (Canada)                          Burning Water

1982         Isabel Allende (Chile)                                   The House of Spirits

                Angela Carter (England)                                Nights at the Circus

1983         William Kennedy (USA)                               Ironweed

                 Abdelkebir Khatibi (Morocco)                      Love in Two Languages

1984         Timothy Findley (Canada)                              Not Wanted on the Voyage

1986          B. Kojo Lang (Ghana)                                  Search Sweet Country

1987         Vargas Llosa                                                 The Storyteller

                 Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco)                         The Sand Child

                 Toni Morrison                                                Beloved

                 Michael Ondaatje (Canada)                            In the Skin of a Lion

                 M.T. Kelly (Canada)                                       A Dream Like Mine

1988         Isabel Allende                                                 Eva Luna

                 Toni Morrison                                                 Beloved

1989         Laura Esquival (Mexico)                                  Like Water for Chocolate

                 Darlene Quaife (Canada)                                 Bone Bird

1990         Terry Griggs (Canada)                                     Quickening

                 Louis de Bernieres (England)                            The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts

1991         Ben Okri (Nigeria)                                           The Famished Road

                Rodney Hall (Australia)                                    The Second Bridegroom

                 Louis de Bernieres                                            Senor Viva and the Coca Lord

1992         Louis de Bernieres                                            The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman

                 John Stefler (Canada)                                        The Afterlife of George Cartwright

                 Kate Sterns (Canada)                                        Thinking About Magritte

1993         Ana Castillo (USA)                                             So Far From God

                 Jorge Amado (Brasil)                                          The War of the Saints

                 Thomas King (Canada)                                       Green Grass, Running Water

1996         Gail Anderson-Dergatz (Canada)                         The Cure for Death by Lightning

                 Salman Rushdie                                                   The Moor's Last Sigh

1997         Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique)                          Texaco

1998         Thomson Highway (Canada)                                 The Kiss of the Fur Queen

2000         Zakes Mda (South Africa)                                    The Heart of Redness

2001         Nega Mezlekia (Canada/Ethiopia)                         The God Who Begat A Jackal
 

    There is considerable disagreement about the nature of magical realism, and not all critics would admit all of the above to the category. On the other hand, there are critics who would classify almost any story with fantastic elements as magic realist. One particularly troubling case is that of  Jorge Luis Borges, who some critics credit with intorducing  magic realism to Latin America. Borges was not particularly interested in realism, magical or otherwise, but he did have an influence on subsequent writers like Garcia Marquez,  so readers of magic realism will find familiar elements in many of his stories, particularly "The Circular Ruins," "Funes the Memorious," and "The Secret Miracle." The surrealist fantasies of Julio Cortazar, particuarly stories like "The Bestiary," and "Letter to a Young Lady in Paris,"  also have magic realist qualities. Others to consider for the  magic realist/baroque/fantastic qualities of their work: Manuel Puig (Argentina), Moacyr Scliar (Brazil), Bohumil Hrabl (Czech Republic), M.G. Vassanji (Kenya/Canada), Amos Tutuola (Nigeria), Philippe-Toby Marcelin (Haiti),Umberto Eco (Italy), Ann Landsman (South Africa).....

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