The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature

The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature
Author: Edward James
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2012-01-26
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1107493730

Fantasy is a creation of the Enlightenment, and the recognition that excitement and wonder can be found in imagining impossible things. From the ghost stories of the Gothic to the zombies and vampires of twenty-first-century popular literature, from Mrs Radcliffe to Ms Rowling, the fantastic has been popular with readers. Since Tolkien and his many imitators, however, it has become a major publishing phenomenon. In this volume, critics and authors of fantasy look at its history since the Enlightenment, introduce readers to some of the different codes for the reading and understanding of fantasy, and examine some of the many varieties and subgenres of fantasy; from magical realism at the more literary end of the genre, to paranormal romance at the more popular end. The book is edited by the same pair who produced The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (winner of a Hugo Award in 2005).

Fantasy Fiction

Fantasy Fiction
Author: Lucie Armitt
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2005-04-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780826416858

This is a series of introductory books about different types of writing. One strand of the series will focus on genres such as Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, and Crime. The other strand will focus on movements or styles often associated with historical and cultural locations - Postcolonial, Native American, Scottish, Irish, American Gothic. These introductions all share the same nine-part structure: 1.A broad definition of the genre and its essential elements 2.A timeline of historical developments 3.Critical concerns to bear in mind while reading 4.Detailed readings of several key texts 5.In-depth analysis of major themes and issues 6.Signposts for further study 7.A summary of the most important criticism in the field 8.A glossary of terms 9.An annotated, critical reading list Writers covered in this book include: Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mary Shelley, J.K. Rowling, H.G. Wells, Thomas More, Jonathan Swift, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Yann Martel, Jeanette Winterson, and William Gibson.

An Introduction to Fantasy

An Introduction to Fantasy
Author: Matthew Sangster
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023
Genre: Fantasy fiction
ISBN: 9781009429924

"This accessible new introduction to Fantasy literature, media and culture delves into pasts, presents, practices and communities. It considers Fantasy as a deep-rooted form, discusses a wide range of media permutations and reflects on the ways in which fantasies draw from and return ideas to a dynamic, ever-shifting commons"--

Children's Fantasy Literature

Children's Fantasy Literature
Author: Michael Levy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2016-04-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1316483134

Fantasy has been an important and much-loved part of children's literature for hundreds of years, yet relatively little has been written about it. Children's Fantasy Literature traces the development of the tradition of the children's fantastic - fictions specifically written for children and fictions appropriated by them - from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, examining the work of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, C. S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, J. K. Rowling and others from across the English-speaking world. The volume considers changing views on both the nature of the child and on the appropriateness of fantasy for the child reader, the role of children's fantasy literature in helping to develop the imagination, and its complex interactions with issues of class, politics and gender. The text analyses hundreds of works of fiction, placing each in its appropriate context within the tradition of fantasy literature.

The A to Z of Fantasy Literature

The A to Z of Fantasy Literature
Author: Brian Stableford
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 568
Release: 2009-08-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0810863456

Once upon a time all literature was fantasy, set in a mythical past when magic existed, animals talked, and the gods took an active hand in earthly affairs. As the mythical past was displaced in Western estimation by the historical past and novelists became increasingly preoccupied with the present, fantasy was temporarily marginalized until the late 20th century, when it enjoyed a spectacular resurgence in every stratum of the literary marketplace. Stableford provides an invaluable guide to this sequence of events and to the current state of the field. The chronology tracks the evolution of fantasy from the origins of literature to the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulses creating and shaping fantasy literature, the problems of its definition and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes. The dictionary includes cross-referenced entries on more than 700 authors, ranging across the entire historical spectrum, while more than 200 other entries describe the fantasy subgenres, key images in fantasy literature, technical terms used in fantasy criticism, and the intimately convoluted relationship between literary fantasies, scholarly fantasies, and lifestyle fantasies. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography that ranges from general textbooks and specialized accounts of the history and scholarship of fantasy literature, through bibliographies and accounts of the fantasy literature of different nations, to individual author studies and useful websites.

Rhetorics of Fantasy

Rhetorics of Fantasy
Author: Farah Mendlesohn
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0819573914

This sweeping study of fantasy literature offers “new and often surprising readings of works both familiar and obscure. A fine critical work” (Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts). Transcending arguments over the definition of fantasy literature, Rhetorics of Fantasy introduces a provocative new system of classification for the genre. Drawing on nearly two hundred examples of modern fantasy, author Farah Mendlesohn identifies four categories—portal-quest, immersive, intrusion, and liminal—that arise out of the relationship of the protagonist to the fantasy world. Using these sets, Mendlesohn argues that the author's stylistic decisions are then shaped by the inescapably political demands of the category in which they choose to write. Each chapter covers at least twenty books in detail, ranging from nineteenth-century fantasy and horror to some of the best works in the contemporary field. Mendlesohn discusses works by more than one hundred authors, including Lloyd Alexander, Peter Beagle, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Crowley, Stephen R. Donaldson, Stephen King, C. S. Lewis, Gregory Maguire, Robin McKinley, China Miéville, Suniti Namjoshi, Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling, Sheri S. Tepper, J. R. R. Tolkien, Tad Williams, and many others.

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2001-09-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 158297103X

Learn to write science fiction and fantasy from a master You've always dreamed of writing science fiction and fantasy tales that pull readers into extraordinary new worlds and fantastic conflicts. Best-selling author Orson Scott Card shows you how it's done, distilling years of writing experience and publishing success into concise, no-nonsense advice. You'll learn how to: • utilize story elements that define the science fiction and fantasy genres • build, populate, and dramatize a credible, inviting world your readers will want to explore • develop the "rules" of time, space and magic that affect your world and its inhabitants • construct a compelling story by developing ideas, characters, and events that keep readers turning pages • find the markets for speculative fiction, reach them, and get published • submit queries, write cover letters, find an agent, and live the life of a writer The boundaries of your imagination are infinite. Explore them with Orson Scott Card and create fiction that casts a spell over agents, publishers, and readers from every world.

The Book of Fantasy

The Book of Fantasy
Author: Jorge Luis Borges
Publisher:
Total Pages: 526
Release: 1988
Genre: Fantasy fiction
ISBN: 9780552994019

Race and Popular Fantasy Literature

Race and Popular Fantasy Literature
Author: Helen Young
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2015-08-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317532171

This book illuminates the racialized nature of twenty-first century Western popular culture by exploring how discourses of race circulate in the Fantasy genre. It examines not only major texts in the genre, but also the impact of franchises, industry, editorial and authorial practices, and fan engagements on race and representation. Approaching Fantasy as a significant element of popular culture, it visits the struggles over race, racism, and white privilege that are enacted within creative works across media and the communities which revolve around them. While scholars of Science Fiction have explored the genre’s racialized constructs of possible futures, this book is the first examination of Fantasy to take up the topic of race in depth. The book’s interdisciplinary approach, drawing on Literary, Cultural, Fan, and Whiteness Studies, offers a cultural history of the anxieties which haunt Western popular culture in a century eager to declare itself post-race. The beginnings of the Fantasy genre’s habits of whiteness in the twentieth century are examined, with an exploration of the continuing impact of older problematic works through franchising, adaptation, and imitation. Young also discusses the major twenty-first century sub-genres which both re-use and subvert Fantasy conventions. The final chapter explores debates and anti-racist praxis in authorial and fan communities. With its multi-pronged approach and innovative methodology, this book is an important and original contribution to studies of race, Fantasy, and twenty-first century popular culture.

The Changeling Sea

The Changeling Sea
Author: Patricia A. McKillip
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2003-04-14
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1101659998

World Fantasy Award winner Patricia A. McKillip tells "an enchanting fantasy that is tinged with realism and romance." (School Library Journal) Since the day her father's fishing boat returned without him, Peri and her mother have mourned his loss. Her mother sinks into a deep depression and spends her days gazing out at the sea. Unable to control her anger and sadness any longer, Peri uses the small magic she knows to hex the sea. And suddenly into her drab life come the King's sons—changelings with strange ties to the underwater kingdom—a young magician, and, finally, love. "McKillip is a master storyteller; her tale rings true as if it were being told from memory."—Kirkus Reviews, pointer review