---

A collection of essays that explores magical realism as a momentary interruption of realism in US ethnic literature, showing how these moments of magic realism serve to memorialize, address, and redress traumatic ethnic histories.

---

PART I: TRAUMATIC INHERITANCES: THE PSYCHIC LIFE OF MAGIC 1. Trauma, Magic, and Genealogy; Lyn Di Iorio 2. The Exhaustion of Magical Realism in the Work of Junot Díaz and Roberto Bola¤o; Roman de la Campa 3. Flying to Save Her Life: Bad Luck, Bad Choices, Bad Mothers in Gina B. Nahai´s Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith; Ibis Gómez-Vega PART II: SENSORY IRRUPTIONS; MAGICAL SENSIBILITIES 4. Flashes of Transgression: The Fukú, Negative Aesthetics, and the Future in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz; Richard Perez 5. Rhythm and Freedom: African American Magical Realism and the Creation of a Home Country; Angela J. Francis 6. Of Magical Gourds and Secret Senses: The Uses of Magical Realism in Asian American Literature; Bego¤a Simal-González PART III: PROPHETIC PRACTICES; MYTHIC KNOWLEDGES 7. ´We, the shamans, eat tobacco and sing´: Figures of Shamanic Power in US and Latin American Magical Realism; Wendy Faris 8. Mythic Realism, Dreams, and Prophecy in James Welch´s The Heartsong of Charging Elk; Lori Burlingame 9. Native American (Mythic) Realism: The Infusion of Myth into Magical Realist Politics in Contemporary Native American Literature; Allison E. Brown PART IV: MAGIC, MEMORY, AND SPACE 10. Lifting ´the Weight of the Continent´: Magical Realism on the North American Landscape; Shannin Schroeder 11. Post-Holocaust Fiction and the Magical Realist Turn; Caroline Rody 12. Mama Day: Where Gothicism and Magical Realism Meet; Donald J. Reilly

---

Lyn Di Iorio, City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA Richard Perez, John Jay College School of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, USA Allison Brown, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA Lori Burlingame, Eastern Michigan University, USA Román de la Campa, University of Pennsylvania, USA Wendy Faris, University of Texas at Arlington, USA Angela Francis, CUNY Graduate Center, USA Ibis Gómez-Vega, Northern Illinois University, USA Donald Reilly, Bergen Community College, USA Caroline Rody, University of Virginia, USA Shannin Schroeder, Southern Arkansas University, USA Bego¤a Simal-González, University of Corunna, Spain

---