Realism and Surrealistic Portrayals in Contemporary Art

Abstract

Surrealism is detached from reality and operates in the unconscious and dream like planes. Whereas, magical realism obtains its exclusivity in the seamless blending of magical and real at a normal plane; the blending takes place not in the unconscious but in the daily routine plane. The magical realism which the Latin American writers defend is claimed as their own. It is encountered in its raw state, hidden and all-pervasive in all that is Latin American. Owing to the thin line that separates magical realism and fantasy, realism and surrealism, which is so vague and unsure, critics like Angel Flores questioned the authenticity of magical realism and magical realists’ argument and hypotheses. Critics like Howard M. Fraser at the University of North Carolina have argued that the works of Alejo Carpentier can be better classified as a mere fantasy and not necessarily magical realist. The only debatable idea that forms the fulcrum of this enquiry is whether or not a text should be realized as literature or just a mere piece of entertainment.