“Fabulism” or “Magical Realism.”
As a reaction against the demands of mainstream verisimilar fiction, writers of “fabulism” or “magical realism” have sought to reinvent or reinvigorate or reconceive traditional realism by infusing it with the characteristics of older forms such as the fable (hence the name), the tale, the legend, the myth, as well as allegory and parable.
Events or characters in such works are not expected to obey or conform to the conventions of realism: carpets may fly, animals may talk, etc.
Works in this mode tend toward the ornate, the Gothic, the subjective, the dream-like, the surreal. In Jose Saramago’s novel Blindness, for example, a mysterious illness causes everyone in the world to go blind within a matter of days.
Some other characteristics:
- emphasis on idea or theme
- settings in other times, places, but not necessarily "historical"
- exoticism: the extraordinary over the ordinary, the unusual over the usual.
Some seminal works and examples:
- Garcia-Marquez's story A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings.
- Robert Olen Butler’s “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot.”
- Angela Carter’s “The Werewolf.”
- T.C. Boyle’s “Descent of Man.”
- A.S. Byatt’s “The Thing in the
- Ursula LeGuin’s “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas.”
- Isak Dinesen’s “The Blue Stones.”
- Charles Johnson, “Menagerie.”
- Jose Saramago "Death with Interruptions"
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