Magical realism is a literary genre that originated in Latin America in the mid-20th century. The term was first used by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925 to describe a new style of painting that combined elements of realism and fantasy, but it was not until the 1940s and 1950s that magical realism became a fully developed literary genre. The key figures in the development of the genre were Latin American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, and Julio Cortazar, who blended realistic settings with fantastical elements such as ghosts, magic, and dreams to explore the complexities of human experience. The genre quickly spread beyond Latin America and has since become a popular literary style worldwide, influencing writers in many different cultures and languages.
