From Uncertain Mirrors: Magical Realism in US Ethnic Literatures (2009) [also note the definition in our Bedford Glossary]:
“Postmodern realism,” “magical realism,” “the marvelous real,” “psychic realism,” “magicorealism,” or “postmodern fantastic”: the variety of denominations points at the wide range of interpretations and ascriptions of expressive modes that intend to subvert or go beyond the limits of what is commonly understood as realism. As an oxymoronic construction, magical realism seems to cancel itself out in its very formulation; magic and realism are clustered together in an “impossible” unifying term. Furthermore, magical realism comprises the two traditional impulses at the heart of literature: “These are mimesis, felt as the desire to imitate, to describe events, people, situations, and objects with such verisimilitude that others can share your experience; and fantasy, the desire to change givens and alter reality— out of boredom, play, vision, longing for something lacking, or need for metaphoric images that will bypass the audience’s verbal defenses” (Hume 1984: 20).
Whereas nineteenth-century realism was based on an optimistic estimation of our capacity to know, apprehend, and describe the real, magical realism is predicated on a more modest perception of our truth-grasping capabilities. From this perspective, magical realism questions and destabilizes the intellectual and ideological dictates that gave rise to nineteenth-century realism in the first place— the belief “that reality is knowable, predictable, controllable” (Zamora 1995).