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hysterical realism

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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Coined by English critic James Wood in 2000 to describe Zadie Smith's White Teeth.

Noun

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hysterical realism (uncountable)

  1. (literature) A literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization, on the one hand, and careful, detailed investigations of real, specific social phenomena on the other.
    • 2000 July 24, James Wood, “Human, All Too Inhuman”, in The New Republic[1], →ISSN:
      This is not magical realism. It is hysterical realism. [] The conventions of realism are not being abolished but, on the contrary, exhausted, and overworked.

See also

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