Moments of Magical Realism in US Ethnic Literatures

Lyn Di Iorio, City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USARichard Perez, John Jay College School of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, USAAllison Brown, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USALori Burlingame, Eastern Michigan University, USA Román de la Campa, University of Pennsylvania, USA Wendy Faris, University of Texas at Arlington, USAAngela Francis, CUNY Graduate Center, USA Ibis Gómez-Vega, Northern Illinois University, USA Donald Reilly, Bergen Community College, USA Caroline Rody, University of Virginia, USAShannin Schroeder, Southern Arkansas University, USABegoña Simal-González, University of Corunna, Spain

• PART I: TRAUMATIC INHERITANCES: THE PSYCHIC LIFE OF MAGIC  1. Trauma, Magic, and Genealogy; Lyn Di Iorio 2. The Exhaustion of Magical Realism in the Work of Junot Díaz and Roberto Bolaño; Roman de la Campa 3. Flying to Save Her Life: Bad Luck, Bad Choices, Bad Mothers in Gina B. Nahai's Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith; Ibis Gómez-Vega PART II: SENSORY IRRUPTIONS; MAGICAL SENSIBILITIES 4. Flashes of Transgression: The Fukú, Negative Aesthetics, and the Future in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz; Richard Perez 5. Rhythm and Freedom: African American Magical Realism and the Creation of a Home Country; Angela J. Francis 6. Of Magical Gourds and Secret Senses: The Uses of Magical Realism in Asian American Literature; Begoña Simal-González PART III: PROPHETIC PRACTICES; MYTHIC KNOWLEDGES 7. 'We, the shamans, eat tobacco and sing': Figures of Shamanic Power in US and Latin American Magical Realism; Wendy Faris 8. Mythic Realism, Dreams, and Prophecy in James Welch's The Heartsong of Charging Elk; Lori Burlingame 9. Native American (Mythic) Realism: The Infusion of Myth into Magical Realist Politics in Contemporary Native American Literature; Allison E. Brown PART IV: MAGIC, MEMORY, AND SPACE 10. Lifting 'the Weight of the Continent': Magical Realism on the North American Landscape; Shannin Schroeder 11. Post-Holocaust Fiction and the Magical Realist Turn; Caroline Rody 12. Mama Day: Where Gothicism and Magical Realism Meet; Donald J. Reilly

"Urgent announcement! The last rites of magical realism are indefinitely postponed! Far from dead, as some have declared, magical realism continues to evolve in vibrant ways both as a critical term and a creative practice. These essays invite us to track magical realist topics and techniques in an array of communities, countries, and cultural practices: shamanism in Latino America, magical gourds in Asian America, rhythm and freedom in African America, myth in Native America, the magical turn in post-Holocaust fiction. The amplitude of magical realism as a critical category suits the diversity of the literary works discussed here, and allows cultural differences and similarities to emerge and interact in unexpected ways. This collection is a welcome demonstration that there is still much to be seen through this rich conceptual lens." - Lois Parkinson Zamora, Professor of English, History, and Art, University of Houston "This collection of essays is of particular interest for its break down of the category 'magical realism' into a study of magical realist moments or effects in U.S. ethnic texts simultaneously beyond but also inclusive of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina/o literature. The collection contributes to putting Jewish American, Iranian American, African American, Asian American, and Native American texts in conversation with Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina/o ones over critical questions generated by the irruptions of magical realist moments in otherwise realist texts of U.S. contemporary 'ethnic' production. Moments of Magical Realism in U.S. Ethnic Literatures makes a key contribution to U.S. ethnic and transamerican studies, to comparative ethnic studies, and to critical understandings of relations between historical trauma, aesthetics, consciousness, and agency among minority, ethnic, and postcolonial subjects in the United States." - Maria DeGuzman, Director of Latina/o Studies and Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill