Critical Depictions of Structural Violence Through Magical Realism in Global Films and Literature

Magical realism, with its seamless blending of the ordinary and the extraordinary, has emerged as a powerful global narrative strategy for exposing and resisting structural violence. Across diverse historical and cultural contexts, it illuminates the often-invisible systems, shaped by colonial legacies, state power, and neoliberal forces, that marginalize and dehumanize individuals and communities. By rendering the hidden visible, magical realism challenges what is accepted as "normal" and disrupts narratives that mask inequality. Through the work of writers and filmmakers worldwide, it gives voice to those silenced or excluded, transforming storytelling into a space of critique, resistance, and reimagination. Critical Depictions of Structural Violence Through Magical Realism in Global Films and Literature critically examines how magical realism functions as an aesthetic and political mode for representing structural violence. Blending Marxist, postcolonial, and aesthetic theory, this book emphasizes magical realism not merely as a literary genre but as a political practice--a subversive counter-discourse that dramatizes the paradoxes of modernity, the trauma of expropriation, and the alienation of marginalized peoples. Covering topics such as fanonian subjectivity, bureaucratic power, and hauntological realism, this book is an excellent academic resource for graduate and doctoral students, literary critics, film scholars, humanities instructors, and more.