ABSTRACT
Magic realism reflects “the hybrid nature of much postcolonial society” (Faris 2004, 1). Thus, although there is a powerful tradition of the fantastic in the North of the Americas – proliferating in the 19th century with works by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and continuing into the 20th century with examples like Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Toni Morrison’s Beloved before moving into 21st century incarnations like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad – the cultural traditions, literary history, and politics of Latin America make this region’s literature much more closely associated with magical realism. Throughout the Americas, though, the fantastic and magical realism have nourished multiple literary spirits voicing anti-establishment attitudes, anti-colonial positioning, and emancipatory outlooks.
