Unraveling the Real: The Fantastic in Spanish-American Ficciones (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781439902400)

In literary and cinematic fictions, the fantastic blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. Lacking a consensus on definition, critics often describe the fantastic as supernatural, or similar to, but quite different from fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism.

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In "Unraveling the Real" Cynthia Duncan provides a new theoretical framework for discussing how the fantastic explores both metaphysical and socially relevant themes in Spanish American fictions. Duncan deftly shows how authors and artists have used this literary genre to convey marginalized voices as well as critique colonialism, racism, sexism, and classism. Selecting examples from the works of such noted writers as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortizar, and Carlos Fuentes, among others, she shows how capacious the concept is, and why it eludes standard definition.

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Challenging the notion that the fantastic is escapist in nature, "Unraveling the Real" shows how the fantastic has been politically engaged throughout the twentieth century, often questioning what is real or unreal. Presenting a mirror image of reality, the fantastic does not promoting a utopian parallel universe but rather challenges the way we think about the world around us and the cultural legacy of colonialism."

Author: Cynthia Duncan
ISBN-10: 1439902402
ISBN-13: 9781439902400
Publisher: Temple University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/05/2010
Pages: 296
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 9.27h x 6.37w x 0.88d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2011
Chronicle of Higher Education 10/08/2010 pg. 17