Fantasy + Magical Realism - Talking Genre 1
When I introduce people in my writing groups to the novel I am writing, I explain it as a cosy contemporary fantasy. That’s a misnomer, but one most people understand enough to expect some of the elements included in my story. In reality, it’s magical realism. A sub-sub-genre, but one with a very specific set of tropes.
For a few months I convinced myself that the subcategory of “cosy fantasy” was enough. But I read a writer’s post on quora or similar and the woman was questioning her own novel she had published under the cosy fantasy category, which is very on-trend in this moment. What she’d found was that reader reviews were coming in really liking her writing but expressing disappointment that there was so little fantasy going on. Several readers had purchased her book expecting a full fantasy world and adventure ie. an epic fantasy.
This writer then reclassified her book as magical realism, and found more uptake from readers who understood what that genre was.
My story is magical realism - it’s set in a contemporary and normal everyday world which has a touch of magic or fantasy elements considered just as everyday as washing sheets or going to the doctors.
Adding “cosy” to the category also contains the story with other tropes, but they work well together.
The differences between these fantasy sub(sub)genres is discussed in my own terms below.
Fantasy
Fantasy - fantasy has several subgenres such as epic fantasy, high versus low, urban, dark fantasy or grimdark, historical, sword & sorcery or fairytales plus many others.
Note the urban above. Let me define this a little better - fantasy is to do with the storyworld, it’s a setting expectation - readers expect worldbuilding or a different world from real life. In this respect when talking about urban fantasy, it’s a world which is close to our own, but different enough to have to be described or explained.
Confusingly perhaps, urban fantasy may include titles like JK Rowling’s Harry Potter world, and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. Both are set in a modern(ish) real and urban world but the stories take place in a fantasy world within or separated from this real world. Real world people like you or me (muggles) aren’t aware of the people and history within that storyspace.
Harry Potter also fits the portal fantasy subgenre - Hogwarts students enter their safe world through portals or transport devices not available or visible to normal people. Narnia is another world entered from the normal world through a wardrobe portal.
Okay, so what about Twilight, or all those other werewolf or vampire stories? Yes, these are urban and low fantasy with some mythological elements. Low Fantasy is where magical or supernatural elements intrude on an otherwise realistic often modern world. The reason why they’re not magical realism is that these creatures or beings are not known about by everyday people. The stories are around a special subset of people who need to keep their lives hidden from others.
Fabulism also blends a real world with some magical or fantastical elements. The difference in fabulism is that the fantasy elements are used as a commentary (often quite surreal) on the real world. Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Calvino's Invisible Cities, and even some aspects of Alice in Wonderland are considered examples of fabulism.
Magical Realism
Magical Realism is qualified as another subgenre of Fantasy overall. It has associations with low fantasy and fabulism, but is perhaps easier to define than the later.
Magical Realism is set in a real world we all understand, but with small fantasical (to us as readers) integrated elements. The difference is that these elements are subtle and accepted by everyone in the world. Whether it’s magical spells or fabulous unicorns, everyone in the world is not surprised by their existance.
Whereas fantasy’s focus is on worldbuilding and magic, magical realism’s focus is on a normal world which has an acceptance of magic.
Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude is held up as one of the defining novels in magical realism. Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate and Toni Morrison’s Beloved are other examples.
Magical Realism is the most-often debated subgenre however. Looking up lists of books on the internet, I find ones like Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches often put onto cosy and magical realism lists, probably because the lovely (and one of my favourite witchy reads) novel is set in a modern day world. This novel and many other cosy everyday fantasies are actually cosy fantasy - because the characters or situations with these bits of magic remain secret from the rest of the world.
I’ve provided a list of my favourite books which come under the Cosy Fantasy or Cosy Magical Realism genres.
In Part 2 of this genre discussion I’ll attempt to discuss cosy, spicy and clean.
