Originating in 18th century France, fantastic literature is the product of fantasy and imagination. In the 20th century, magical realism, popularized in South American literature, is a movement that places fantastic elements on the ground of reality.

In modern times, the desire to escape from reality and escape to dreams has produced many literary works. While fantastic literature, which has made its influence felt even more in the last century with popular works such as Game of Thrones, Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, journeys into the unknown; magical realism, which has    made its name with works such as One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Life of Pi, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, brings the known world together with the unknown. In fantastic literature: John R. R. Tolkien, Joanne K. Rowling, Ursula K. Le Guin, while in magical realism Julio Cortázar, Haruki Murakami, Gabriel García Márquez are well-known authors.

In this study, fantasy and magical realism, which are often confused with each other, will be explained in terms of their similarities and differences. By giving the characteristics of the two genres, it is aimed to contribute to the reader to decide whether a book is fantastic or magical realism while reading a literary work.

Literature, novel, fantasy, magical realism.