Luis Urrea reads poetry:
http://billmoyers.com/2012/05/04/moyers-moment-2012-luis-alberto-urrea-reads-from-ghost-sickness/
About magic realism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism
Characteristics in literature:
Literature
Characteristics
The extent to which the characteristics below apply to a given magic
realist text varies. Every text is different and employs a smattering of
the qualities listed here. However, they accurately portray what one
might expect from a magic realist text.
Fantastical elements
As recently as 2008, magical realism in literature has been defined
as "...a kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events
are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the 'reliable'
tone of objective realistic report, designating a tendency of the modern
novel to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the
energies of fable, folk tale, and myth while maintaining a strong
contemporary social relevance. The fantastic attributes given to
characters in such novels—levitation, flight, telepathy, telekinesis—are
among the means that magic realism adopts in order to encompass the
often phantasmagorical political realities of the 20th century."
[14]
Plenitude
In an essay entitled "The Baroque and the Marvelous Real" the
Cuban writer
Alejo Carpentier
championed the idea that the baroque is defined by a lack of emptiness,
a departure from structure or rules, and an "extraordinary"
plenitude of disorienting detail (citing
Mondrian as its polar opposite). From this angle, Carpentier views the
baroque
as a layering of elements, which translates easily into the
post-colonial or transcultural Latin American atmosphere that Carpentier
emphasizes in
The Kingdom of this World.
[15] "America, a continent of symbiosis, mutations...
mestizaje, engenders the baroque,"
[16]
made explicit by elaborate Aztec temples and associative Nahuatl
poetry. These mixing ethnicities grow together with the American
baroque; the space in between is where the "marvelous real" is seen.
Marvelous: not meaning beautiful and pleasant, but extraordinary,
strange, excellent. Such a complex system of layering—encompassed in the
Latin American "boom" novel, such as
One Hundred Years of Solitude—has as its aim "...translating the scope of America."
[17]
Hybridity
Magical realism plot lines characteristically employ hybrid multiple
planes of reality that take place in "...inharmonious arenas of such
opposites as urban and rural, and Western and indigenous."
[18][19]
For example, as seen in Julio Cortázar's "La noche boca arriba," an
individual experiences two realistic situations simultaneously in the
same place but during two different time periods, centuries apart.
[20]
His dreamlike state connects these two realities; this small bit of magic makes these multiple planes of reality possible.
[21] Overall, they establish "...a more deep and true reality than conventional realist techniques would illustrate."
[18][22]
Metafiction
This trait centers on the reader's role in literature. With its
multiple realities and specific reference to the reader’s world, it
explores the impact fiction has on reality, reality on fiction and the
reader’s role in between; as such, it is well suited for drawing
attention to social or political criticism. Furthermore, it is the tool
paramount in the execution of a related and major magic realist
phenomenon: textualization. This term defines two conditions—first,
where a fictitious reader enters the story within a story while reading
it, making us self-conscious of our status as readers—and secondly,
where the textual world enters into the reader's (our) world. Good sense
would negate this process but ‘magic’ is the flexible topos that allows
it.
[23]
Authorial reticence
Authorial reticence is the "...deliberate withholding of information and explanations about the disconcerting fictitious world."
[24]
The narrator does not provide explanations about the accuracy or
credibility of events described or views expressed by characters in the
text. Further, the narrator is indifferent, a characteristic enhanced by
this absence of explanation of fantastic events; the story proceeds
with "logical precision" as if nothing extraordinary took place.
[25][26]
In this, explaining the supernatural world would immediately reduce
its legitimacy relative to the natural world. The reader would
consequently disregard the supernatural as false testimony.
Sense of mystery
Something that most critics agree on is this major theme. Magic
realist literature tends to read at an intensified level. Taking the
seminal work of the style,
One Hundred Years of Solitude by
Gabriel García Márquez, the reader must let go of preexisting ties to conventional
exposition,
plot advancement, linear time structure, scientific reason, etc., to
strive for a state of heightened awareness of life's connectedness or
hidden meanings. Carpentier articulates this feeling as "...to seize the
mystery that breathes behind things,"
[27]
and supports the claim by saying a writer must heighten his senses to
the point of "estado limite" [translated as "limit state" or "extreme"
[28]] in order to realize all levels of reality, most importantly that of mystery.
[29]
Collective consciousness
The Mexican critic Luis Leal has said, "Without thinking of the
concept of magical realism, each writer gives expression to a reality he
observes in the people. To me, magical realism is an attitude on the
part of the characters in the novel toward the world," or toward nature.
He adds, "If you can explain it, then it's not magical realism."[30]
Political critique
Magic realism contains an "...implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite."
[31]
Especially with regard to Latin America, the style breaks from the
inarguable discourse of "...privileged centers of literature."
[32]
This is a mode primarily about and for "ex-centrics": the
geographically, socially and economically marginalized. Therefore, magic
realism's ‘alternative world’ works to correct the reality of
established viewpoints (like realism, naturalism, modernism). Magic
realist texts, under this logic, are subversive texts, revolutionary
against socially dominant forces. Alternatively, the socially dominant
may implement magical realism to disassociate themselves from their
"power discourse."
[33] Theo D’haen calls this change in perspective "decentering."
