chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. Although this strategy is known in the literature of many cultures in many ages, the term magic realism is a relatively recent designation, first applied in the 1940s by Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier (Carpentier, Alejo), who recognized this characteristic in much Latin-American literature. Some scholars have posited that magic realism is a natural outcome of postcolonial writing, which must make sense of at least two separate realities—the reality of the conquerors as well as that of the conquered. Prominent among the Latin-American magic realists are the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez (García Márquez, Gabriel), the Brazilian Jorge Amado (Amado, Jorge), the Argentines Jorge Luis Borges (Borges, Jorge Luis) and Julio Cortazar (Cortázar, Julio), and the Chilean Isabel Allende (Allende, Isabel).