Thursday, 30 July 2015

Magic Realism Videos - Lois Zamora

This post is part of the Magic Realism Bloghop 2015. It is also the first in a new series of blog posts that I am planning for this blog. Every weekend over the next year I plan to bring you a video about magic realism.


My aim is to comb You Tube and other sites to find a wide variety of videos that will expand your understanding of the genre. Some will be interviews with magic realist writers, some writer profiles, some animations of magic realist fiction and some will be academic lectures. We start the series with an excellent example of the latter.

The University of Houston has made available online (in this case on You Tube - but it is also available on the University's own website) a course delivered by magic-realism specialist Professor Lois Zamora. There are 25 (yes 25) lectures on the course. The course title is Contemporary Literature - Magic Realism. The focus is on a number of key magic realist books: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Garcia Marquez), Labyrinths (Borges), The Kingdom of this World (Carpentier), Tracks (Erdrich), Ceremony (Silko) and The House of Spirits (Allende). But it also touches on magic realism in art and its influence on the concept of magical realism in literature.

Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community by Professor Zamora and Wendy B. Ferris is the classic textbook on the subject. So these videos are the perfect way to study the genre.

I have included videos number one (above) and two (below), which focus on What is Magical Realism.


You can view the other lectures here: http://freevideolectures.com/Course/2608/The-Contemporary-Novel-Magical-Realism/

Summary of lecture contents:
Lectures 3, 4 and 25 - The Art Historical Beginnings of Magical Realism
Lectures 5, 6, 7, 8 and the first half of 9 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lectures Second half of 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 - Jorge Luis Borges
Lectures 14, 15, 16 - Alejo Carpentier
Lectures 17, 18, 19 - Louise Erdrich
Lectures 20, 21 and beginning of 22 - Leslie Marmon Silko
Lectures 22, 23, 24 - Isabel Allende and Magical Feminism

This post is part of the Magic Realism Blog Hop. About twenty blogs are taking part in the hop. Over three days (29th - 31st July 2015) these blogs will be posting about magic realism. Please take the time to click on the links below to visit them and remember that links to the new posts will be added over the three days, so do come back to read more.
1. The Autumn of the Patriarch - Magic Realism Books blog  
2. Why I Write Magic Realism - Hearth/Myth  
3. Magic in the Real World - Zoe Brooks Books  
4. Magic Realism Betwixt and Between - Malcolm's Round Table  
5. The Magic In Magic Realism - Lily Iona Mackenzie's blog  
6. In the Footsteps of Franz Kafka - Adventures in the Czech Republic  
7. The Reincarnation Chronicles and Magic Realism - Qaraq Books  
8. More Words About Magic Realism - Glenda Guest  
9. Putting the Magic into Magical Realism  
10. Do You Believe in Magic - Kathy Bryson   
11. Magical Realism: How Much Is Realism? - Laura Cowan  
12. A Most Enduring Enchantment - Eilis Phillips  
13. Why Every Writer Should Try Magic Realism - JT Robertson  
14. Just Starting Out Beware of Magical Realism - Malcolm's Round Table  
15. Magic Realism & the Cahuilla Indians Of Southern California  
16. Make it Big - Stephanie Barbe Hammer  
17. The Boundaries of Fantasy - Anfenwick  
18. The Poetry of Magical Realism - Rachel Dacus  
19. There's no fantasy - just realism, with a sprinkle of hope (Karen Wyld)  
20. Practical Magic Brought Me To Magic - Coffee & Writing  
21. Interview with Scott Wilbanks - Magic Realism Books Blog  
22. Long of the Earth - Jack Marshall Maness  
23. Rursday Reads - Review of Winter by Mark Helprin  
24. Lois Zamora Lecture Series - Magic Realism Books Blog  
25. Ashley Capes - A Review of Wild Sheep Chase by Murakami  

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)


1 comment:

Malcolm R. Campbell said...

Nice resources. Thanks for sharing them. One does wish, though, that when closed captioning is omitted from the videos that transcripts would be available for the deaf.

But for most, it's a great way to sit back, listen and absorb the magic.

Malcolm