Magical Realism and Psychology Essay

Magical realism combines two seemingly contrasting elements reality and fantasy. Julio cortazar’s “House taken over” is a good example of magical realism because the house is being taken over by supernatural activity or Natzis. For instance, Cortazar describes the house being old and spacious, “ it kept the memories of great grandparents, our parents and the whole of childhood.”(pg. 37). This is a good example of magical realism because the family seems normal, they’re living in a home where past ancestors also used to live and the house is full of childhood memories. Although he also describes some sort of supernatural activity, “it was eight at night”- “I heard something in the library or the dining room.The sound

Magical realism is a type of writing where two views of reality come together. There are numerous of ways magical realism is expressed in Latin American writing. A very common one amongst stories is open-ended conclusion in which we the readers just have to accept it. Usually magical realism is used as a metaphor for something more meaningful. One story that conveys a lot of magical realism is The Third Bank of The River by João Guimarães Rosa. The story is about the narrator's dad who was quite the quiet man, who one day bought a boat fit for one. He entered the river and never spoke a word to another soul again. The son is the only one who stays at the house in case of the father's return. He leaves food out for him so that he will survive, until one day he makes an offer to his father, and ends up fleeing in terror.

Dreaming is yet another state of consciousness. A dream is simply an unfolding episode of mental images that involve characters and events. Dreams usually tend to occur during REM sleep but can occur during NREM sleep as well. We dream on a variety of topics, subjects, and individuals. No dream can be exactly interpreted or defined, therefore people have always been fascinated with what, why, and how we dream. An unpleasant and almost terrifying type of dream is a nightmare. This is a very vivid, almost real

Magic Realism appears when a character in the story carry forward to be alive ahead of the normal length of life. Also where magical or unreal aspect of a natural part in a different realistic environment and character fracture the rules of our real world. Characters that are portrayed as magical or surreal has a statement that is behind it. An example is Gregor in the Metamorphoses and not only did he turn into a bug but he sent a larger message about human experience. The two stories, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings and the Metamorphosis, both have a symbolic mean to humanity and realism.

When looking into the meanings of dreams, a variation of things can be found. Most people believe that dreams are a reflection of people’s inner thoughts and feelings. Most of these feelings are too private to be expressed in the real world and that is why they are expressed in a fantasy type way through dreams.

Obviously the most concise definition of magical realism is that it is the combination of magical and real elements. The magical elements that

Both Freud and Jung provided important and interesting theories on dreams; encompassing their functions, their roots, and their meanings. Freud looked at dreams as a result of repressed memories, particularly repressed sexual memories from our childhood. Jung however, believed that dreams delved beyond sexual repression during younger years, to other problems, be it trauma, anxiety etc. Jung also believed dreams changed predominately through middle adult years, while Freud believed the opposite. There is little empirical evidence to reinforce either Freud or Jung’s theories, however, their contributions to the study of dreams in psychology cannot be lessened or denied.

Magical realism is a genre that portrays both reality and fantasy. As defined by Faris (2004) in Ordinary enchantments, magical realism is a genre of writing that includes an irreducible element of magic and details that suggest phenomenon (Faris, 2004, p. 7). He describes the irreducible element as: “…something we cannot explain according to the laws of the universe as they have been formulated in Western empirically based discourse…” (Faris, 2004, p. 7). In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, The handsomest drowned man in the world, the facets of magical realism are rife. He uses magical realism to enchant the reader. The story is of a small cliff-side and coastal community

The “Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka, can be classified as magical realism when compared to “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” by Gabriel García Márquez, using aspects of magical realism including realistic elements, magical elements, dark humor, and distortion of time.

Imagine, every morning you wake up to the sound of the rooster singing. Not to the normal crow a rooster makes, but to a beautiful sonata that wakes your soul up from a deep slumber. It may not sound too realistic in our real word, but to a writer, this can bring special emphases to the story’s meaning. This literary practice is called magical realism. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines magical realism, or magic realism as they put it; 1) painting in a meticulously realistic style of imaginary or fantastic scenes or images; and 2) a literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. It is the second definition that author Laura Esquivel, incorporates magical realism into her book, Like Water for Chocolate. Many of the themes and emotions in the book are emphasized with the use of Magical realism.

Freud felt that he must rely upon his own dreams because of the difficulties of studying other people’s dreams. This was also a problem because he felt that he would then have to reveal his own private thoughts to the world. Freud states, “But if I was to report my own dreams, it inevitably followed that I should have to reveal to the public gaze more of the intimacies of my mental life than I liked, or that is normally necessary for any writer who is a man of science and not a poet. “ Having decided that he would willingly share his dreams and feelings for his studies he then expresses, “I can only express the hope that the readers of this book will put themselves in my difficult situation and treat me with indulgence”.

Identical to the Sublime's characteristic of accumulation in "The Circular Ruins" is Magical Realism's characteristic of an extensive

These are often suppressed because people do not want to come to realization that this is a desire of this and this is often times why people dream about such things. Although Freud and Jung share a research topic, Carl Jung did not agree completely with the sexual desires concept. Jung believed that dreams are messages from our subconscious. Allen Hobson was another top contributor to the theory of dreams and why people dream. He is known as the first man to study dreams scientifically. Hobson created a new theory in the 1970’s that was not based on the content of dreams, but how the brain worked during those dreams. In the article, “What are Dreams?”, it states the belief that Hobson had. The statement is, “It asserts that when we enter REM sleep, the state in which we dream the most, a signal is sent out from the brain stem located farthest below the brain, and the area of it responsible for visual perception becomes active. During sleep, we cease to input information from the outside world, so the brain takes memory fragments and pieces them together to create a story: a dream. The part of the brain that handles caution and judgment is not fully active at this time, which results in incoherent stories.” “REM means a stage in the normal sleep cycle during which dreams occur and the body undergoes marked changes including rapid eye movement, loss of reflexes, and increased pulse rate and brain activity. Also

Every night approximately seven billion people lay their heads down to sleep. Many people hoping for an escape from their chaotic lives, wishing to slip away into a fantasy world that is not based in their own reality. There is a great deal of research on the topic of dreams being fantasy versus a subconscious reality. Do we only dream what we know we could never do with our conscious mind or is it all just outlandish fantasies that will never come to life?

The eccentric. The marvelous. These are just a few words used to describe the genre of ‘magic realism’, which is also known as ‘magical realism’ (the usage of the term, as well as its history, has been debated from the beginning, but shall be bypassed as it is an entirely different topic from what is to be discussed in this commentary). Although Oxford Dictionaries defines it as “a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy”, others have also interpreted the genre in various other ways. However, the genre itself has a set of elements and characteristics that make them its own, which helps differentiate it from fantasy, as written pieces in magic realism are sometimes mistaken to