hysterical realism

English

Etymology

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

Noun

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

• magic realism