Introduction: “Proliferations of Being: The Persistence of Magical Realism in Twenty-First Century Literature and Culture”

Abstract

In this chapter, Perez and Chevalier explore the continuing importance of magic realism as a mode of reading and representation in global literatures of the twenty-first century. For Perez and Chevalier, magical realism manifests harbored presences and practices that subvert colonial ways of Being. This proliferation of Being reveals a tear in the fabric of social existence. Thus, this essay discusses how magic reveals an assertive and irrepressible element of Being in the twenty-first century unwilling to yield to colonial imaginaries. Magical realism in this new century serves as an ongoing phenomenon, harboring and preserving traditions in a layered present from which a future, ineluctably informed by multiple global traditions in dynamic conversation, emerges. The essay also provides chapter summaries of the twenty-six essays that make up the anthology.