Animal Spirits: Magical Realism in the Anthropocene

In this essay I will investigate the minor yet significant presence of animals in magical realist texts. That presence follows two main threads: what we might call “memories of the future” and “world spirit.” They are different phenomena, pointing up the breadth of magical realism: the first is historically oriented and often tied to particular entities; the second is more metaphysical, even universal in nature. But they are related in both imagining beyond paradigms of material progress, even, perhaps, of materiality itself. I will begin by conceptualizing what I think may be going on at a macro level, and then proceed to fill that paradigm (finding contradictions along the way, of course) with what I hope will be some interesting details. I think that intriguing details are a particular strength of magical realist writing, a main reason for its excellence and consequent popularity.