About

“Magical realism” is a much debated term that is not often applied to our understanding of television. Most often understood as a literary technique that emerged from Latin America in the 1960s, magical realism deals with the blending of fantastic or magical elements into an otherwise mundane, domestic and realistic world. It is commonly associated with the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, and Jorge Luis Borges. In English, key exponents of the Magical Realist mode include Salman Rushdie and Alice Hoffman.  However in the last 15 years television has taken a turn towards the magical realist, especially “quality” dramas such as John From Cincinnati, Carnivale and The Leftovers. What is interesting about all of these examples is that their use of magical realist techniques have all been in the service of exploring faith and religion. Unlike the key magical realist novels that play on myths, legends and folklore, these shows have all used the techniques of magical realism to focus on Christianity, a contemporary religion.  It is my aim to pursue a practice-based PhD in Screenwriting in order to research the literary techniques of magical realism in television and how these techniques have been used to frame religious stories. Using a close textual analysis of key magical realist texts and of television texts employing these techniques I hope to discover what differences exist between the two. In doing so I pose the following questions: Have the techniques made the medium-jump unscathed? Or have the inherent economic and production constraints of television prevented these techniques from being fully realized? Could I find a way to fully-realize magical realist techniques in my own creative practice? And how can I, as a writer invested in exploring the impact of faith on society, use magical realist techniques to construct my own stories?