Romance and Magical Realism in Graphic Literature, part 4

Continued

IV – Conclusion

In summation, the question of this work’s classification as either Romance or Magical Realism has been addressed.  The story contains elements of Romance, but the emotional element of the ending does not fall in line with the category’s norms.  Realism wins out against Romance, but an irreducible element of magic prevents this story from being simple Realism.  The Realism must be qualified as Magical.

It is worth noting that in no way do these definitions of Romance and Magical Realism conflict.  This story fit the criteria for Magical Realism far better than Romance, but not through anything mutually exclusive.  A work may possibly be both Romance and Magical Realism, if it is constructed carefully and the story ends satisfactorily.

Romance and Magical Realism in Graphic Literature

I – Introduction

Scholars have noticed a distinct upswing in works that can be categorized as Romance in the last few decades.  Many attribute this to Romance’s easy translation to the formats of film and television, while others claim that it is a natural moment in a cycle or pendulum that alternates between Romance and Realism.

Romance, though, has never fallen completely out of fashion.  Pulp fictions and penny dreadfuls have been popular amongst a literate middle class, ever since this middle class learned to read.  Does this mean that a literature aimed at a low-brow audience is entirely devoid of contemplative nutrition?  Not necessarily.  If we take penny dreadfuls’ descendants, Graphic Novels, as an example, we find a genre that has grown and matured.  Whereas the target audience for Graphic Literature forty or fifty years ago was the 7-13 age group, the modern target audience is the 18-35 age group.  Because the genre’s readership has grown, so has much of its writing (though it is difficult to say which is the chicken and which the egg, here).  This is no longer an industry of men who failed as artists and men who failed as writers.

Prospectus

I return, having laid waste to much of what has kept me occupied.

As I have spent much of my time writing some critical essays, I shall post them as they become available.

Here is the prospectus for a piece on Magical Realism and Romance in Moon Knight.

Part of the interest in Magical Realism is the difficulty in its definition.  If we take Wendy Faris’ definition of the term, then the genre expands to include many more texts, some of which had been previously categorized in a different manner.  Many of these newly re-shelved texts sit elsewhere under the traditional heading, “Romance.”  Because of the ambiguity regarding these two headings and the intersection of their genres, I shall refer to each as a “category” to avoid confusion.

In this paper, I shall discuss the intersection Romance and Magical Realism.  Methods of analysis shall include comparisons of each category’s contrast against Realism and exploration and clarification of the definitions of these categories, referring primarily to Northrop Frye and Wendy Faris.

The primary text I shall analyze in this light will be the graphic novel series Moon Knight, paying special attention to the story arcs “The Bottom” and “God and Country.”  Here I will use my observations on Magical Realism and Romance to analyze the plot and the characters of this text.  I hope to be able to place this work squarely into one of those categories, but I expect to find that Magical Realism merely sits in the middle of a Lanserian spectrum running from Romance to Realism.