While readers' advisors often use genre designations and appeal features to help guide readers, it is easy to overlook other reading interests that may not be as obvious. Literary movements are a perfect example. While literary movements can be both nebulous and intimidating to readers, given a well-placed recommendation, books that fit into those categories may appeal to readers who don't normally think in these terms.
In this article I'd like to comment on three contemporary literary movements and provide some book suggestions. As with any categorization, these movements don't always have clear delineations. One book may fit into more than one of the categories; and there are always those who would argue that a certain book doesn't precisely fit the definition of a certain movement. In fact, there are some commonalities between these three movements—such as alternate points of view and complex plot lines. That being said, it is always good to have examples. The book suggestions listed here include benchmark novels and my favorites with a few others thrown in for variety.
Magical realism
Originally coined in the 1920s to describe an artistic movement, magical realism has been almost exclusively associated with Latin American fiction (such as Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Rulfo, and Jorge Luis Borges) since the use of the term became widespread in the 1960s. It is in fact a worldwide movement, not restricted to any one geographical area or literary tradition. In magical realism the lines between what is real and what is magical are blurred. For example, in a magical realist novel angels might appear not as a fantastical element, but as a feature of everyday life, as normal as a raccoon digging through your garbage; while an encounter with something as normal as ice (as in García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude) might be spine-tingling.
In magical realism, the fantastic is used to heighten sensory detail and, ultimately, illuminate reality. Plots can be rather complex and convoluted, often involving time slips and other nonlinear story line devices. In some cases, while settings may be specific and even real, certain elements are not recognizable (as in some of the stories in Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves). These are places populated by unusual or strange characters; where coincidence is commonplace, and miracles can (and do) happen.
Like fantasy, magical realism employs fantastic elements; yet it differs from fantasy in its aim-in the magical realist novel, magic is used to create a heightened understanding of reality. However, people who enjoyed a magical realist novel might respond very well to more serious, or more literary fantasy novels; just as the more literary-inclined fantasy fans might find magical realism compelling.
Here is a sampling of magical realist works:
- Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (New York: Penguin Books, 1986. 262 pp. ISBN 9780140086836)
Set on a Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico, the novel follows Tayo, a World War II veteran struggling to pull together the pieces of his life. Frighteningly real ancient Laguna stories are interwoven with Tayo's, illuminating his life and our own. - The Famished Road by Ben Okri (New York: N.A. Talese, 1992. 500pp. ISBN 9780385424769)
7-year-old narrator-protagonist Azaro an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition exists between life and death. Exiled from his fellow spirits, he lives in abject poverty clinging to the life he has chosen. - The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpenter (New York: Noonday Press, 1989. trans. from Spanish by Harriet de Onís. 186pp. ISBN 9780374521974)
Set in Haiti after its liberation from French colonial rule, The Kingdom of this World is a fictional account of the downfall of the brutal regime of King Henri-Christophe, the first black king in the Western Hemisphere. - Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Writings by Jorge Luis Borges (New York: New Directions, 1964. [trans. From Spanish.] 260pp.)
The best works of Borges--an inspiration for many authors of magical realism--collected in one volume. - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (New York: Knopf, 1981 446pp. ISBN 9780394514703).
The children born at or around midnight on August 14, 1947, the moment of Indian independence, are imbued with magical abilities. Midnight's Children is the story of India told through the eyes of one of those children. - Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (New York: Viking, 1985. 294pp. ISBN 9780670803750)
Sophie Fevvers, trapeze artist extraordinaire, is part woman and part swan. This romp through turn-of-the-century Europe and Asia weaves fairy tales and legends into the story of this super-woman and the journalist attempting to unmask her. - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (New York: Harper & Row 1970. trans. from Spanish by Gregory Rabassa. 422pp. ISBN 9780060114183)
The quintessential magical realist novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude sweepingly chronicles 100 years in the life the Buendía family and their hometown, Macondo. It features a consistent blending of myth and reality and two distinct views of time. - So Far From God by Ana Castillo (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993. 251pp. ISBN 9780393034905)
Social issues are blended with magic and divine intervention in this story of a single mother raising four daughters in the small town of Tome, New Mexico. - The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (New York: Pantheon Books, 1963. trans. from Germany by Ralph Manheim. 591pp)
Narrated by its protagonist, The Tin Drum is an autobiography of Oskar Matzerath, a man who by dint of his own will never grew up. Through Matzerath's life story (beginning with the meeting of his grandparents in 1899), Grass is able to subtly illustrate the involvement of ordinary citizens in the crimes of the National Socialist regime.
To learn more about magical realism, I recommend reading Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community edited by Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1995. 581 pp. ISBN 9780822316114).
Postcolonialism
Postcolonial fiction became popular in the mid-twentieth century. It deals with the cultural legacy of colonial rule, generally challenging the perspectives of the dominator culture and its version of history. It includes literature produced in countries that once were colonies of other countries, as well as literature written in colonial countries by their citizens, if the subject is colonized people (Jane Gardham, for example). In many cases these novels address the subversion of colonial rule and the emergence of national identity. The abuse of power, cultural and personal identity, and issues of abandonment and alienation are common themes in these novels. The authors question, challenge, and often offer a re-writing of history. Postcolonial novels especially appeal to readers who enjoy reading about other cultures, exploring different perspectives on the world, and looking for thought-provoking stories.
Some examples of postcolonial literature include:
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Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. 311pp. ISBN 9780375410536)
Forensic anthropologist Anil Tissera, returns to her homeland after a fifteen-year absence as part of a fact-finding mission for an international human rights investigating abuses during Sri Lanka's civil war. - The Bone People by Kari Hulme (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985. 450pp. ISBN 9780807112847)
Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, The Bone People describes the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage. - Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 1991. 289pp. ISBN 9780915943517)
Originally published under the title Ice-candy-man, Cracking India vividly describes the partition of India through the eyes of Lenny Sethi, a sickly young Parsi girl from Lahore. - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (New York: Random House, 1997. 321pp. ISBN 9780679457312)
Set in Kerala, The God of Small Things is the story of fraternal twins, Estha and Rahel, and their family. In addition to illustrating the lives of the Christian minority, the novel addresses issues like the caste system and communism. - July's People by Nadine Gordimer (New York: Viking Press, 1981. 160pp. ISBN 9780670410484)
Written before the end of apartheid in South Africa, July's People is Gordimer's vision of its overthrow and how it would affect one middle-class white family. - Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (New York: Grove Press, 1988. 208pp. ISBN 9780802110275)
Elderly British journalist, Claudia Hampton recounts her time as a war-correspondent in 1940s Egypt. - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (New York: Viking, 1994. 282pp. ISBN 9780670853458)
A bildungsroman written from the perspective of a 10-year-old growing up in 1960s Ireland. - A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1988. 81pp. ISBN 9780374266387)
A nonfiction piece about the legacy of colonialism in Antigua, focused on the politics, history, and culture of the island. - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (New York: Anchor Books, 1994. 209pp. ISBN 9780385474542)
Set in eastern Nigeria at the turn of the century, the novel focuses on the transformation of traditional Igbo life under British rule.
Postcolonial Web: Contemporary Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English (http://www.postcolonialweb.org/) is a wonderful resource.
Postmodernism
Postmodernist fiction is a much broader category than the previous two movements discussed, and thus harder to define. Postmodern literature rose to prominence in the post-World War II era. A postmodern novel is generally marked by one or more of the following characteristics: playfulness with language, a mixture of "high art" and popular culture, experimentation in form (such as point of view), pastiche (combination of genres, or stories within stories), experimentation with the way time is conveyed in the novel (one of my favorite novels, Time's Arrow by Martin Amis, gives us a perfect example of this), hyper-reality (where technology is the focus and simulations replace the real), differing perspectives within the story, and an interest in metafiction (writing about the act of writing). Humor, and especially irony is common to postmodern literature; as is a sense of distrust or even paranoia.
With such a wide variety of novels falling into this category, there is opportunity to draw readers based on a number of different appeal factors. Most broadly, these books may appeal to literary readers who appreciate rich and complex story lines with no simple solutions as well as those with a taste for the ironical. These books, however, are not appropriate for readers who find comfort in the consistency of genre norms.
Here are some novels that fall into the postmodernist category:
- City of Glass by Paul Auster (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1985. 203pp. ISBN 9780940650527)
The first part of the New York Trilogy, City of Glass is a meta-detective story featuring a crime novelist-turned-PI named Paul Auster. A graphic novel version, adapted by David Mazzucchelli and Paul Karasik, was published in 2004. - Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966. 183pp. ISBN 9780397004188)
Lot 49 is a collection of forged US postal stamps (part of the estate of which protagonist Oedipa Maas is executor) related to a centuries-old conflict between Thurn und Taxis (a big player in development of the European postal system during the 16th century) and Tristero (a firm of Pynchon's imagination). - Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic (New York: Knopf, 1988. trans. from the Serbo-Croatian by Christina Pribicevic-Zoric. 388 pp.)
Purporting to contain all that is known of a lost empire, this three part lexicon novel does not need to be read linearly. Available in male and female editions (differing only in seventeen lines). - Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989. trans. from Italian by William Weaver. 641 pp. ISBN 9780151327652)
Foucault's Pendulum has been called an intellectual adventure story. It is the story of three book editors who decide to invent a conspiracy. Learn what happens when it begins to take on a life of its own. - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981. trans. from Italian by William Weaver. 260pp. ISBN 9780151436897)
An anti-novel about the efforts of two characters to read ten very different novels. - Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis (New York: Viking, 1985. 363pp. ISBN 9780670804405)
Alternating between London and New York, Money is a novel about greed, gluttony, and John Self, a man who is "addicted to the twentieth century." - Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (New York: Putnam, 1962. 315pp.)
A novel presented as a poem by fictional American poet John Shade with an introduction and commentary by his friend Charles Kinbote. - Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (New York: Knopf, 1989. 245pp. ISBN 9780394573434)
Diary entries by Stevens, a butler living in post-World War II England, illuminate his character, the sympathies of his employer, and the fading social order. - White Noise by Don Delillo (New York: Viking, 1985. 326pp. ISBN 9780670803736)
Set in a Midwestern town, the novel is the tale of Jack Gladney, who teaches Hitler studies in a small liberal arts college, and his family living in a dysfunctional time .
Postmodern American fiction: a Norton anthology, edited by Paula Geyh, Fred Leebron, and Andrew Levy (New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. 672pp. ISBN 9780393316988), which includes excerpts from novels with commentary by the authors on what they wanted to achieve, and its online course guide (http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/pmafim) is a good starting point for learning more about postmodern fiction in general (and American postmodern fiction specifically).
Other literary movements include Fabulism, Harlem Renaissance, Literature of the Absurd, Modernism, Neoclassicism, Social Realism, Surrealism, and Transcendentalism. Knowledge of literary movements may be especially useful with literary fiction readers; but as noted, they also have links to genre fiction. Spend the time to learn a bit more about different literary movements and you may be able to open new doors for your readers.
Karen Walton Morse works at the State University of New York at Buffalo where she runs a book club for other librarians and writes the "Book of the Month" features for the Libraries' Student Services blog (http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/blog/students/). She works as an archivist in Special Collections, but has a degree in comparative literature and a soft spot for readers' advisors.