Editing Magical realism (section)

===Lo real maravilloso===
[[Alejo Carpentier]] originated the term {{lang|es|lo real maravilloso}} (roughly 'the marvelous real') in the prologue to his novel ''[[The Kingdom of this World]]'' (1949); however, some debate whether he is truly a magical realist writer, or simply a precursor and source of inspiration. Maggie Bowers claims he is widely acknowledged as the originator of Latin American magical realism (as both a novelist and critic);<ref name="Bowers, Maggie A. 2004"/> she describes Carpentier's conception as a kind of heightened reality where elements of the miraculous can appear while seeming natural and unforced. She suggests that by disassociating himself and his writings from Roh's painterly magic realism, Carpentier aimed to show how&mdash;by virtue of Latin America's varied history, geography, demography, politics, myths, and beliefs&mdash;improbable and marvelous things are made possible.<ref name="Bowers, Maggie A. 2004"/> Furthermore, Carpentier's meaning is that Latin America is a land filled with marvels, and that "writing about this land automatically produces a literature of marvelous reality."<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Alejocarpentier.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Alejo Carpentier]]

"The marvelous" may be easily confused with magical realism, as both modes introduce supernatural events without surprising the implied author. In both, these magical events are expected and accepted as everyday occurrences. However, the marvelous world is a unidimensional world. The implied author believes that anything can happen here, as the entire world is filled with supernatural beings and situations to begin with. Fairy tales are a good example of marvelous literature. The important idea in defining the marvelous is that readers understand that this fictional world is different from the world where they live. The "marvelous" one-dimensional world differs from the ''bidimensional'' world of magical realism because, in the latter, the supernatural realm blends with the natural, familiar world (arriving at the combination of ''two'' layers of reality: bidimensionality).<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|15}} While some use the terms magical realism and lo real maravilloso interchangeably, the key difference lies in the focus.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|11}}

Critic [[Luis Leal (writer)|Luis Leal]] attests that Carpentier was an originating pillar of the magical realist style by implicitly referring to the latter's critical works, writing that "The existence of the marvelous real is what started magical realist literature, which some critics claim is ''the'' truly American literature."<ref>Leal, Luis. "Magical Realism in Spanish America". In ''MR: Theory, History, Community''. pp. 122</ref> It can consequently be drawn that Carpentier's {{lang|es|lo real maravilloso}} is especially distinct from 'magical realism' by the fact that the former applies specifically to ''América'' (the American content).<ref name="Daniel, Lee A 1982"/> On that note, Lee A. Daniel categorizes critics of Carpentier into three groups: those that do not consider him a magical realist whatsoever (Ángel Flores), those that call him "a {{lang|es|italic=no|mágicorealista}} writer with no mention of his {{lang|es|italic=no|'lo real maravilloso'}} (Gómez Gil, Jean Franco, Carlos Fuentes)", and those that use the two terms interchangeably (Fernando Alegria, Luis Leal, Emir Rodriguez Monegal).<ref name="Daniel, Lee A 1982"/>