Seeking the magic in our reality : a critical study of magical realism and the work of Salman Rushdie and Alexis Wright

Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria is a unique piece of Indigenous Australian literature. Several critics have noted its narrative style as an example of ‘magical realism’. Since the text shares certain characteristics with other novels regarded as magical realist, such as Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, this label seems befitting of Wright’s prose. However, analysis into the origins and development of ‘magical realism’, along with a close reading of these texts focussing on form and content to determine the significance of the presence of the real and magical within their work, reveals the term’s inadequacy in describing Carpentaria. A ‘maban reality’, as defined by Mudrooroo Narogin, is found to be a more accurate label for Wright’s particular techniques and purposes, and thus a case-by-case approach is advocated for the study of future works.