Magical realism is a genre of literature in which most of what happens in the world a story describes is realistic, but a few aspects break the rules of what can happen in normal life, such as in “The Metamorphosis.” So in Lord of the Rings, fantastical things happen all the time, and strange creatures lurk around every corner. On the other hand, in Exit West (which some readers consider to be magical realism), there are the portals but most of everything else seems like it could happen in our world.
What have you noticed about how these portals change life and how they don’t change life? What point do you think Hamid is making with them–in other words, how do they make us look at our own world differently? It may be interesting to know Hamid has said in interviews that he got the idea when he was video conferencing with a friend in a far away place and imagined jumping through his phone to teleport there. (Note that what an author says outside of the original text does not need to limit or direct the meaning you see in it.)
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|