Beyond Binaries

Magical Realism, recognized for years as a valid genre in literature studies, tillnow has dealt in discussions of binarism, bringing magic and real together insuch a way that distinguishing between the two becomes almost impossible.Currently, most studies of this genre have neglected to take into accountworks from the popular fiction and children's literature genres, relegatingthese instead to other preestablished categories within the canon. Thisstudy, by focusing on the concept of borderlands as described by GloriaAnzaldúa in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, argues that thesestudies of magical realism have been overly exclusive. It argues for a new,more inclusive form of magical realism, called borderland magical realism.This study should help answer these questions: How are borderlands andmagical realism currently defined, and how can we combine these currentdefinitions in a new working definition of magical realism? How/why havemagical realist associations been transposed onto borderlands, and are thesetranspositions valid? Can determining the presence of pop culture andchildren's novels within the magical realist genre be supported through anexamination of these borderlands as they function as magical real spaceswithin the works? This book is addressed to professors and students ofLiterature and cultural studies, and researchers in these fields.