magic realism

noun

1

: painting in a meticulously realistic style of imaginary or fantastic scenes or images

2

: a literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction

called also magical realism

magic realist noun

Examples of magic realism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There’s a scene toward the end that is kind of magic realism — going from a realistic documentary kind of film to something that becomes almost dreamlike. —Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2025

Born in 1906 in the strongly Catholic, conservative Veneto region, to a haut-bourgeois family with aristocratic ancestors on both sides, Buzzati started writing dreamlike fables in the Thirties, when Bontempelli’s magic realism helped shape the scene. —Christopher Tayler, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025

The film is adapted from Juan Rulfo’s 1955 novel by screenwriter Mateo Gil; the book is billed as a direct influence on author Gabriel García Márquez in establishing magic realism within Mexican literary history. —Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 3 Sep. 2024

The film, in time, becomes an exercise in magic realism, serving as an allegory with a number of possible interpretations. —Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1933, in the meaning defined at sense 1