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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