hysterical realism

noun

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.

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Meanings

nounhysterical realism (uncountable)
  1. uncountableliteratureA 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.

    This is not magical realism. It is hysterical realism. […] The conventions of realism are not being abolished but, on the contrary, exhausted, and overworked.

    2000 July 24, James Wood, “Human, All Too Inhuman”, in The New Republic, →ISSN

Origin

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

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

hysterical realism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hysterical%20realism

MLA

“hysterical realism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hysterical%20realism. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hysterical realism,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hysterical%20realism.

Source: hysterical realism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.