Explain magical realism in literature, relating the genre to Jean Giono's writing.

Magical realism was created in the 1930s as a change from
the surreal movement in literature. This surreal period of fiction told the stories as
fantasies with no true relation to reality.

In magical
realism, there is a "transformation of the common and everyday" into the same world but
with miracles, timelessness, and unreal
reality.

Definition of Magical
Realism

The writer confronts the problems of
the story which are found in reality but based in fantasy.  The mysterious events are
based in the real world and evolve around man and his circumstances.  The plot of the
story circulates around a miracle or oddity; but whatever the problem is has no
psychological or logical explanation.  The story will contain fantastical elements, but
they are found in the landscape of
reality.

Example of Magical
Realism

An excellent example of magical
realism is “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  An old,
dirty man with huge wings is found in the back yard of a poor couple.  He is barely
alive.  The doctor examines the man and discovers that the wings are real.  The couple
place the old man in a chicken coop where they profit by allowing people who pay to see
and touch the angel.  The magical realism expresses the real life situation but with the
miracle of the angel. The point of the story is the ill treatment of something so
valuable as an angel.

In this type of story, the writer
faces the mysterious act or miracle and tries to understand it and its purpose in the
real world. He must be careful not to take away the supernatural part of the story which
is the controlling element in the story. In these stories, the individual usually has a
close relationship with religion or the church. 

The
story’s characters will have an admiration for the magic.  Everything involved in the
miracle will have a deeper meaning.  Throughout the story, the mysterious being will
seem to threaten the tranquility or calmness of the life of the
characters. 

The reader will recognize the world as mundane
and its appearance is normal. Then, the characters emerge into a different world with a
different vision.  Nothing is really as it should be.  The fantasy world is alien to the
realistic world.  The metaphoric world aides the magic of the fantastical element as it
is found in the realistic landscape.

This type of story has
been used primarily by European and Latin American writers. Jean Giono, a French writer,
was one of the first to use the style.  He created characters that are rooted in the
folklore of rural France. In his story “That My Joy Remain,” a farming couple find that
their lives have become dull.  A stranger comes into their lives and helps them
understand how to revamp their lives.  The stranger tells
them:

Youth is
neither strength, nor a supple body, nor even youth as you conceive of it.  Rather,
youth is the passion for the impractical or the
useless.

With this
information the couple invites friends and neighbors into their lives.  Their happiness
becomes contagious and their lives become happy again. They plant fields of flowers, a
meadow of grain just for the birds, and they set their horses
free.

Giono’s beautiful story of magic and a passion for
the earth becomes to man “the laws of nature.”