Fantasy literature

Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults.

Fantasy is a subgenre of speculative fiction and is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these genres overlap. Historically, most works of fantasy were written, however, since the 1960s, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music and art.

In the now classic Introduction to Fantastic Literature, Tzvetan Todorov defined the fantastic as a moment of doubt for a fictional character and the implicit reader of a text, shared empathetically. The limits of fantasy fiction would be marked, then, by the wide space of the marvelous, where the rational functioning of the world is discarded and the “strange” or the “explained fantastic”, in which the disturbing elements are reduced to mere infrequent but explainable events. Against the broad definition of the fantastic, this definition has the weakness of being too restrictive. Different theoretical reformulations have been proposed that attempt to rescue the core of this definition with various caveats.

Another possible definition with historical criteria holds that fantastic literature is defined within a secular culture, which does not attribute a divine and therefore supernatural origin to known phenomena, but pursues a rational and scientific explanation. In this situation, the fantastic story introduces a supernatural element, discordant with the natural order, that produces uneasiness in the reader. The supernatural element not only surprises and frightens because it is unknown, but it opens a fissure in the entire epistemological system of its world, capable of accommodating all kinds of unusual and monstrous events.

On the other hand, Argentine literary critic Ana María Barrenechea maintains that fantastic literature offers events that range from the everyday to the abnormal. These are presented in a problematic way for the characters, for the narrator and for the reader. It also mentions the appearance of fantasy and extraordinary creatures and elements.

Sometimes, this genre offers us a story based on unusual facts that when analyzing them escape reality, however, later in history, these events have a logical or scientific explanation, but this does not always happen and sometimes the story it concludes without departing from irrationality.

Fantastic literature can also present us with an object or character taken from reality, performing actions that in a real environment would be crazy or impossible.

A number of fantasy novels originally written for children, such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Harry Potter series, and The Hobbit also attract an adult audience.

Definition
As a modern subgenre of fantasy, fantasy places supernatural, fairytale and magical elements in the foreground. She often uses the motifs of old myths, folk tales or sagas. Legendary figures such as dwarfs or magicians appear, but also specially invented beings or anthropomorphic (human-like) animals. Often the plot is moved to a fictional world that differs significantly from earthly reality. The fictional is considered real within the imaginary background.

Style
Symbolism often plays a significant role in fantasy literature, often through the use of archetypal figures inspired by earlier texts or folklore. Some argue that fantasy literature and its archetypes fulfill a function for individuals and society and the messages are continually updated for current societies.

Ursula K. Le Guin, in her essay “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie”, presented the idea that language is the most crucial element of high fantasy, because it creates a sense of place. She analyzed the misuse of a formal, “olden-day” style, saying that it was a dangerous trap for fantasy writers because it was ridiculous when done wrong. She warns writers away from trying to base their style on that of masters such as Lord Dunsany and E. R. Eddison, emphasizing that language that is too bland or simplistic creates the impression that the fantasy setting is simply a modern world in disguise, and presents examples of clear, effective fantasy writing in brief excerpts from Tolkien and Evangeline Walton.

Michael Moorcock observed that many writers use archaic language for its sonority and to lend color to a lifeless story. Brian Peters writes that in various forms of fairytale fantasy, even the villain’s language might be inappropriate if vulgar.

At the turn of the millennium, the Harry Potter young adult urban fantasy novels of J. K. Rowling achieved widespread popularity by combining fantasy with realism, and exploring a variety of contemporary themes, including coming of age, prejudice, the loss of innocence, impending war, political corruption, death, depression, love, loss, and discrimination.

Features

World
A fictional world usually serves as the background for the fantasy narrative, but its social structures are mostly based on historical epochs. The European Middle Ages are particularly popular, and the Iron Age and Renaissance can also serve as models. Technically and culturally, the fantastic world is therefore almost always on a stand that looks backward to archaic by today’s standards. Occasionally, this is expanded into a dualism in which a decadent civilization and a noble but barbaric culture contrast.

The political order of a fantasy world is mostly like feudalism. This is not by chance a person member State in which the special relationship between individuals bring about social cohesion. This differs from the modern understanding of the state, according to which the citizens are directly involved in the state. The positive achievement of the modern state, namely relative equality, is seldom noticed or discussed in fantasy literature. This often puts fantasy close to the story novel in its narrative posture.

The religions of the fantasy world are partly polytheistic, partly monotheistic, whereby competing religious communities often face each other. Religion is often viewed not only mythically, but also magically (according to Jean Piaget): Individuals are able to intervene in the physical laws of the world. Either this happens through magical powers (magician) or with divine help (priest). Ordinary individuals are also involved in this higher order. The classic fantasy world thus shows a unity of politics and religion, which corresponds to an idealized form of the medieval order.

The cultures of a fantasy world are mostly based on earthly peoples, whereby ancient, medieval and modern elements are mixed. It is striking that the peoples mostly represent idealized communities that gather behind outstanding personalities such as kings, generals or tribal leaders. Conflicts between social groups are mostly neglected, greatly simplified or carried out between individuals. This is sometimes reminiscent of historistic historiography and its patterns of interpretation.

Races and peoples
As a rule, the fantasy world is inhabited by people. In addition, other races can exist, many of which occur across plants. Particularly popular are the dwarfs, elves and orcs defined by JRR Tolkien, which appear under the term “races”. They are based on models from fairy, elf, dragon and leprechaun sagasAs in the myth of old religions, however, they have stereotypical features and peculiarities that were only defined by fantasy: Dwarfs are a short-lived people, live underground, have a full beard, are masterful ax and argument fighters, blacksmiths and revelers. Elves are immortal or at least long-lived beings, who are sometimes morally and culturally superior to humans as nature-loving forest people, sometimes as culture-creating high civilization. Orcs are ugly, aggressive beings who are out for war and looting. Goblins are small, witty goblins that are cowardly but numerous. Furthermore, undead dive like animated skeletons, zombies and vampires, animal humans like centaurs,Minotaurs, satyrs, lizards and insects and halflings in many novels. In addition, beings created by the author, or forms modified or combined by him can also occur.

In fantasy jargon, the term “race” is used much more impartially than is otherwise the case. On the one hand, this is because it is a direct transmission from English. On the other hand, according to the biological definition, there is often a race-based relationship between the individual peoples, since they can also produce fertile offspring together. Sometimes half-elves appear as descendants of humans and elves. Which “races” can produce offspring among themselves can vary from plant to plant.

The representation of races and peoples often shows racist and biological tendencies. For example, the orcs are usually portrayed as evil, devious and degenerate, with their aggressiveness and lust for murder innate. Other breeds are presented less negatively, but in no way differentiated. Newer works of fantasy have at least partially weakened this tendency.

Motifs and narrative structures
Fantasy often draws on tried and tested motifs from adventure literature: sword fights and monster encounters, trips to exotic locations, epochal battles, court intrigues and the fight against a powerful opponent that can clearly be attributed to evil. The quest serves as a classic narrative structure, although influences from films, computer and role-playing games can now also be seen. The story arc is mostly epic and involves the whole world in the events. Often there are influences from the educational novel, development novel or boarding school novel noticeable when the main character has to undergo training as a magician, warrior or nobleman before the actual action begins.

At the center of the story is often a single hero together with one or more companions, the actions of which determine the fate of the fictitious place of action. The heroes are often extremely powerful and far superior to other, comparable people, or they develop from a “good-for-nothing” to such a superior hero.

Like every genre, fantasy has developed its own stereotypes and clichés. The gaming industry in particular has strongly formalized the genre through games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering or, especially in German-speaking countries, The Black Eye. Action elements are used again and again to make it easier for readers to get started and to provide them with what has proven itself.

History

Beginnings
Stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature. Classical mythology is replete with fantastical stories and characters, the best known (and perhaps the most relevant to modern fantasy) being the works of Homer (Greek) and Virgil (Roman). The contribution of the Greco-Roman world to fantasy is vast and includes: The hero’s journey (also the figure of the chosen hero); magic gifts donated to win (including the ring of power as in the Gyges story contained in the Republic of Plato), prophecies (the oracle of Delphi), monsters and creatures (especially dragons), magicians and witches with the use of magic.

The philosophy of Plato has had great influence on the fantasy genre. In the Christian Platonic tradition, the reality of other worlds, and an overarching structure of great metaphysical and moral importance, has lent substance to the fantasy worlds of modern works. The world of magic is largely connected with the later Roman Greek world.

With Empedocles,(c. 490 – c. 430 BC) the elements, they are often used in fantasy works as personifications of the forces of nature. Other than magic concerns include: the use of a mysterious tool endowed with special powers (the wand); the use of a rare magical herb; a divine figure that reveals the secret of the magical act.

India has a long tradition of fantastical stories and characters, dating back to Vedic mythology. The Panchatantra (Fables of Bidpai), which some scholars believe was composed around the 3rd century BC. It is based on older oral traditions, including “animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine”. It was influential in Europe and the Middle East. It used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles of political science. Talking animals endowed with human qualities have now become a staple of modern fantasy. The Baital Pachisi (Vikram and the Vampire), a collection of various fantasy tales set within a frame story is, according to Richard Francis Burton and Isabel Burton, the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights, and which also inspired the Golden Ass of Apuleius, (2nd century A.D). Boccacio’s Decamerone (c.1353) the Pentamerone (1634,1636) and all that class of facetious fictitious literature.”

The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) from the Middle East has been influential in the West since it was translated from the Arabic into French in 1704 by Antoine Galland. Many imitations were written, especially in France. Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba.

The Fornaldarsagas, Norse and Icelandic sagas, both of which are based on ancient oral tradition influenced the German Romantics, as well as William Morris, and J. R. R. Tolkien. The Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf has also had deep influence on the fantasy genre; although it was unknown for centuries and so not developed in medieval legend and romance, several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner’s Grendel.

Celtic folklore and legend has been an inspiration for many fantasy works. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, owing to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epic Mabinogion. One influential retelling of this was the fantasy work of Evangeline Walton. The Irish Ulster Cycle and Fenian Cycle have also been plentifully mined for fantasy. Its greatest influence was, however, indirect. Celtic folklore and mythology provided a major source for the Arthurian cycle of chivalric romance: the Matter of Britain. Although the subject matter was heavily reworked by the authors, these romances developed marvels until they became independent of the original folklore and fictional, an important stage in the development of fantasy.

From the 13th century
Romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight-errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest, yet it is “the emphasis on love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the chanson de geste and other kinds of epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates.” Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Romances reworked legends, fairy tales, and history to suit the readers’ and hearers’ tastes, but by c. 1600 they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel Don Quixote. Still, the modern image of “medieval” is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons, and other romantic tropes.

Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman, Occitan, and Provençal, and later in Portuguese, in Castilian, in English, in Italian (particularly with the Sicilian poetry) and German. During the early 13th century, romances were increasingly written as prose. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a marked tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love, such as faithfulness in adversity.

Renaissance
At the time of the Renaissance romance continued to be popular. The trend was to more fantastic fiction. The English Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471), was written in prose; this work dominates the Arthurian literature. Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works. At the time, it and the Spanish Amadis de Gaula (1508), (also prose) spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well-received, producing such masterpiece of Renaissance poetry as Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata. Ariosto’s tale, many marvels, and adventures, was a source text for many fantasies of adventure.

During the Renaissance Giovanni Francesco Straparola wrote and published The Facetious Nights of Straparola(1550-1555), a collection of stories, many of which are literary fairy tales Giambattista Basile wrote and published the Pentamerone a collection of literary fairy tales, the first collection of stories to contain solely the stories later to be known as fairy tales. Both of these works includes the oldest recorded form of many well-known (and more obscure) European fairy tales. This was the beginning of a tradition that would both influence the fantasy genre and be incorporated in it, as many works of fairytale fantasy appear to this day.

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1594/5), the Weird Sisters in Macbeth and Prospero in The Tempest (or Doctor Faustus in Christopher Marlowe’s play) would be deeply influential on later works of fantasy.

In a work on alchemy in the 16th century, Paracelsus (1493 – 1541) identified four types of beings with the four elements of alchemy: gnomes, earth elementals; undines, water elementals; sylphs, air elementals; and salamanders, fire elementals. Most of these beings are found in folklore as well as alchemy; their names are often used interchangeably with similar beings from folklore.

Enlightenment
Literary fairy tales, such as were written by Charles Perrault (1628 – 1703), and Madame d’Aulnoy ((c.1650 – 1705)), became very popular, early in the Age of Enlightenment. Many of Perrault’s tales became fairy tale staples, and influenced latter fantasy as such. Indeed, when Madame d’Aulnoy termed her works contes de fée (fairy tales), she invented the term that is now generally used for the genre, thus distinguishing such tales from those involving no marvels. This influenced later writers, who took up the folk fairy tales in the same manner, in the Romantic era.

Several fantasies aimed at an adult readership were also published in 18th century France, including Voltaire’s “contes philosophique” “The Princess of Babylon” (1768) and “The White Bull” (1774).

This era, however, was notably hostile to fantasy. Writers of the new types of fiction such as Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding were realistic in style, and many early realistic works were critical of fantastical elements in fiction.

Romanticism
Romanticism, a movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, was a dramatic reaction to rationalism, challenging the priority of reason and promoting the importance of imagination and spirituality. Its success in rehabilitating imagination was of fundamental importance to the evolution of fantasy, and its interest in medieval romances providing many motifs to modern fantasy.

The Romantics invoked the medieval romance as justification for the works they wanted to produce, in distinction from the realistic pressure of the Enlightenment; these were not always fantastic, sometimes being merely unlikely to happen, but the justification was used even from fantasy. One of the first literary results of this fascinations was Gothic novel, a literary genre that began in Britain with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole, which is the predecessor to both modern fantasy and modern horror fiction. One noted Gothic novel which also contains a large amount of fantasy elements (derived from the “Arabian Nights”) is Vathek (1786) by William Thomas Beckford.

In the later part of the Romantic tradition, in reaction to the spirit of the Enlightenment, folklorists collected folktales, epic poems, and ballads, and brought them out in printed form. The Brothers Grimm were inspired in their collection, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, (1812) by the movement of German Romanticism. Many other collectors were inspired by the Grimms and the similar sentiments. Frequently their motives stemmed not merely from Romanticism, but from Romantic nationalism, in that many were inspired to save their own country’s folklore: sometimes, as in the Kalevala, they compiled existing folklore into an epic to match other nation’s; sometimes, as in Ossian, (1760) they fabricated folklore that should have been there. These works, whether fairy tale, ballads, or folk epics, were a major source for later fantasy works.

The Romantic interest in medievalism also resulted in a revival of interest in the literary fairy tale. The tradition begun with Giovanni Francesco Straparola ((ca. 1485?-1558))and Giambattista Basile (1566 – 1632) and developed by the Charles Perrault(1628 – 1703) and the French précieuses, was taken up by the German Romantic movement. Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué created medieval-set stories such as Undine (1811) and Sintram and his Companions (1815) which would later inspire British writers such as MacDonald and Morris. E. T. A. Hoffmann’s tales, such as “The Golden Pot” (1814) and “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (1816) were notable additions to the canon of German fantasy. Ludwig Tieck’s collection Phantasus (1812-1817) contained several short fairy tales, including “The Elves”.

In France, the main writers of Romantic-era fantasy were Charles Nodier, with Smarra (1821) and Trilby (1822) and Théophile Gautier in stories such as “Omphale” (1834) and “One of Cleopatra’s Nights” (1838), and the later novel Spirite (1866).

Victorian era
Fantasy literature was popular in Victorian times, with the works of writers such as Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851), William Morris and George MacDonald, and Charles Dodgson, author of Alice in Wonderland (1865).

Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875) initiated a new style of fairy tales, original tales told in seriousness. From this origin, John Ruskin wrote The King of the Golden River (1851), a fairy tale that uses new levels of characterization, creating in the South-West Wind an irascible but kindly character similar to the Tolkien’s later Gandalf.

The history of modern fantasy literature begins with George MacDonald (1824 – 1905), author of such novels as The Princess and the Goblin (1868) and Phantastes (1868) the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald also wrote one of the first critical essays about the fantasy genre, “The Fantastic Imagination”, in his book A Dish of Orts (1893). MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris (1834 – 1896), a socialist, an admirer of Middle Ages, a reviver of British handcrafts and a poet, who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the century, of which the most famous was The Well at the World’s End (1896). He was deeply inspired by the medieval romances and sagas; his style was deliberately archaic, based on medieval romances. In many respects, Morris was an important milestone in the history of fantasy, because, while other writers wrote of foreign lands, or of dream worlds, Morris’s works were the first to be set in an entirely invented world: a fantasy world.

Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) and Oscar Wilde (in The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890) also developed fantasy, in the telling of horror tales, a separate branch of fantasy that was to have great influence on H. P. Lovecraft and other writers of dark fantasy. Wilde also wrote a large number of children’s fantasies, collected in The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891).

H. Rider Haggard developed the conventions of the Lost World subgenre with King Solomon’s Mines (1885), which sometime included fantasy works as in Haggard’s own She. With Africa still largely unknown to European writers, it offered scope to this type. Other writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs and Abraham Merritt, built on the convention.

Several classic children’s fantasies such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865), J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1906), L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as well as the work of E. Nesbit (1858 – 1924)) and Frank R. Stockton (1834 – 1902)) were also published around this time. Indeed, C. S. Lewis noted that in the earlier part of the 20th century, fantasy was more accepted in juvenile literature, and therefore a writer interested in fantasy often wrote in it to find an audience, despite concepts that could form an adult work.

At this time, the terminology for the genre was not settled. Many fantasies in this era were termed fairy tales, including Max Beerbohm’s “The Happy Hypocrite” (1896) and MacDonald’s Phantastes. It was not until 1923 that the term “fantasist” was used to describe a writer (in this case, Oscar Wilde) who wrote fantasy fiction. The name “fantasy” was not developed until later; as late as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937), the term “fairy tale” was still being used.

Development of fantasy in the 19th century
The early Romantic period was marked by a philosophically motivated enthusiasm for supernatural worlds were created folktale collections, literary fairy tales and educational novels with fantastic components, often in medieval settings, also for the high fantasy are very typical. Authors such as Novalis (Heinrich von Ofterdingen), Ludwig Tieck (The Elves) and Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué (Undine) anticipated structural and content-related elements of fantasy literature. The mixture of literary genres is particularly important – a central requirement of romantic universal poetry. Novalis’ novel fragment Heinrich von Ofterdingen, for example, is interspersed with poems and fairy tales of various kinds, which should later also play a central role in the work of JRR Tolkien.

In late romanticism, authors such as ETA Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe increasingly began to incorporate supernatural elements into their novels and stories. This new literary genre of fantasy turned out to be a sales force in the emerging book market, with showers and adventure novels such as Sir Walter Scott’s works being particularly successful. Also significant is the poet and composer Richard Wagner, who significantly influenced fantasy with his monumental stage dramas based on Nordic mythology (The Ring of the Nibelung).

The beginnings of science fiction, which is still closely related to fantasy, even if not in terms of content, can also be found in this period. Today’s fantasy would be unthinkable without the preparatory work by Jules Verne, Erckmann-Chatrian, Herbert George Wells, Lord Dunsany, Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), Bram Stoker (Dracula), Robert Louis Stevenson (The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), George MacDonald (day boy and night girl),Mark Twain (A Yankee at King Arthur’s Court) and Oscar Wilde (The Portrait of Dorian Gray).

Emergence in the 20th century
Fantasy emerged as a separate literary genre in the 20th century. JRR Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) is often mentioned as her founder, who triggered a real boom with his works, especially in the late 1960s, and is cited as an example by many authors. As a further “ancestors” of fantasy apply ER Eddison (The Worm Ouroboros), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and Gray Mouse Ling), CS Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and the American pulp author Robert E. Howard, whose stories aboutConan the barbarians are as controversial as they are famous.

After the first Tolkien boom in the 1960s, numerous other authors shaped the genre, often based on Tolkien, such as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Stephen R. Donaldson in the 1970s, Terry Brooks and Raymond Feist in the 1980s. The development of fantasy role-playing games in the 1970s was significantly influenced by fantasy literature, which in turn increased interest in the written works. In the 1980s and 1990s, parallel to classic high fantasy, developed by authors such as Tad Williams, Robert Jordan and Robin Hobbnew subgenres such as Urban Fantasy or Humoristic Fantasy were carried forward.
Development in the 21st Century
At the beginning of the new century, fantasy experienced a new boom both in literature and in film. The triggers are, in particular, the success of the Harry Potter books and films, as well as the Lord of the Rings films. The remake of the Chronicles of Narnia or the series Percy Jackson and Eragon also contributed to the fantasy wave of the 2000s, some of which continues to this day. Also subgenres became popular, for example, the dark fantasy. In the currently prevailing high fantasyThere is a trend towards a more complex treatment of fantasy motifs, for example by avoiding genre conventions. George RR Martin, Steven Erikson and JV Jones are seen as pioneers of this modern high fantasy.

Discourses of Fantasy

Overlap with other genres
Fantasy contains many motifs from other subgenres of fantasy, such as science fiction and horror literature. Many authors and publishers are active in several genres at the same time, so that there is an overlap in terms of personnel and content and a clear distinction is difficult. Hybrid forms such as Star Wars, which enriches a science fiction backdrop with fantasy motifs, or the Cthulhu myth, in which science fiction, horror and fantasy flow together, are not uncommon.

Literary Evaluation
Fantasy is often viewed as pure entertainment and trivial literature, since fantasy literature mostly appeared in pulp magazines in the period in which it was created and was aimed at a corresponding audience. Fantasy is usually assigned to pop culture according to the cultural rating categories “ high ” and “ pop culture ”. However, blurring the lines between “entertaining” and “serious” literature does not stop at fantasy. Fantasy motifs can be found in contemporary novels and films, and literary studies increasingly take on fantasy.

Marketing and serial character
Despite the increasing acceptance, fantasy is usually still marketed as genetic literature. Cover design, advertising and form of publication (paperback) are based on the supposed or actual taste of fantasy readers, whose interest should be maintained by the publication of series. This inevitably leads to a repetition of genre-typical elements, which makes further development of the genre difficult. For example, the content of works that are viewed as irrelevant by critics can achieve commercial success simply by using classic themes, while novels that are considered to be more demanding or unusual have a much harder time getting through.

Escapism
Fantasy is assumed to have a tendency towards escapism, because it mostly represents a medieval, simplistic structured society and thus hides or suppresses the social, political or cultural realities and problems of our time. This reproach applies to many works, but does not mention that early fantasy literature used its fictional background to discuss philosophical questions or point out social problems, such as the King Arthur book series by TH White. Contemporary fantasy also repeatedly takes up current issues (war, nationalism, religious extremism).

In his essay, J. R. R. Tolkien refers to On Fairy Storiesfrom 1937 escapism as an integral part of fantasy. According to this, the functions of a fantasy story always consist in firstly awakening the imagination (“Fantasy”), secondly enabling readers to recover (“Recovery”), thirdly providing escape options (“Escape”) and fourthly providing consolation (“Consolation”). While imagination is, so to speak, the ticket to the fantastic worlds, Tolkien sees restoration as “regaining a clear view” and taking a new perspective. In terms of escape, Tolkien distinguishes between two variants, which he characterizes as the deserter’s flight and the prisoner’s flight. The former is just a coward who wants to run away. But prisoners could not be resented the will to flee. Your escape is more resistance than just running away. Tolkien sees the escape option offered by the genre Fantasy as a way of fulfilling longings and satisfaction that the real world cannot offer. For him, one of the important functions of fantasy is the return to the state of enchantment anchored in myth and mythical thinking.

Racism, sexism and reaction
Another reproach to fantasy is the reactionary, simplified world view of many novels, which contains the idea of authority over feudal structures, a conservative design of gender roles and the overemphasis on the differences between peoples or “races”. Although this general criticism can be refuted by countless counterexamples, one cannot deny a certain ambivalence of fantasy in these areas of tension, which is mainly due to the genre’s pulp past. Modern and partly old fantasy does not ignore these questions, on the contrary it treats them mostly very complexly.

Studies
The fantasy literature has become, especially in the last decades of the twentieth century an important topic of contemporary literature, the target of various literary analysis, in which it includes the book The Fantastic (1988), of Selma Calasans Rodrigues, PhD in Letters and professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In the work, Selma Rodrigues tries to introduce the theme in a didactic and synthesized way, due to the few pages of the book (80 p.) And the character of the series to which she belongs, which is intended mainly for university audiences who want to have an overview about the theme.

The author, right in the opening chapter, relies on texts by two renowned authors of fantastic literature, ETA Hoffmann, Laura Esquível and Gabriel García Márquez, to conceptualize and explain the similarities and differences of the texts that, although both belong to the literature fantastic, have peculiar characteristics that fit them in different conceptions of the genre.

In the second chapter, Selma seeks, throughout history, the relationship between literature and reality, relying this time on analyzes by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges and Arvède Barine. There is also the following distinction from the fantastic genre:

Fantastic lato sensu: it refers to texts that escape strict realism, taking as reference the Realism of the 19th century. From this point of view, Fantástico is taken in its broad sense, making it possible to affirm that this is the oldest form of narrative.
Fantastic stricto sensu: because it was elaborated from the rejection of medieval theological thought and all metaphysics, this literature had its origins in the 18th century, with the Enlightenment. According to the fantastic, it is born from what cannot be explained through rationality and critical thinking, such as the complex process of training individuals.
In the third chapter, the author starts to conceptualize the various nomenclatures used when referring to fantastic literature, such as magical, wonderful and allegorical realism, which are later used in the following chapter to compare the Fantastic produced in Europe with the Fantastic of “Hispano-America and Brazil”. According to the author, in European fantastic literature, unlike that produced in Latin America, there is a concern to preserve the real when something supernatural occurs, even if the explanation appears only in the outcome of the work. In this way, the aim is not to lose the likelihood, or even to contest it. In the fantastic literature of Latin America, however, there is no such concern. So the credible merges with the unlikely, the dream, as in the case of the work of Gabriel García Márquez,

Subgenres
The fantasy literature can be divided into the following sub-groups, which cannot be strictly differentiated; some works also have characteristics of several subgenres:

High Fantasy: Classic fantasy, which is located in a fictional fantasy world, mostly medieval and with an emphasis on magic; often in Tolkien style and accordingly epic. High Fantasy works often span several volumes, in which a hero – or a group of heroes – embarks on an adventurous journey (quest) to solve a task or to search for a magical item. Well-known works: The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, The Secret of the Great Swords by Tad Williams, The Game of the Godsby Steven Erikson, The Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, Erdsee by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, The Elves by Bernhard Hennen, The Belgariad Saga by David Eddings, Eragon by Christopher Paolini and The Dwarfs by Markus Heitz.
Low Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery (literally: Sword & Magic, but referred to as ‘Sword and Magic’) or Heroic Fantasy: Adventure and Pulp literature, which is located in a fictional fantasy world. At the center of the action is usually a lonely, intrepid hero who faces natural and supernatural problems. Well-known works: Conan by Robert E. Howard, the Lankhmar cycle by Fritz Leiber.
Contemporary and urban fantasy: Clear reference to reality, but broken by fantastic elements. These are novels and stories in which the real world merges with fantastic, magical worlds. Well-known works: American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Harry Potter by Joanne K. Rowling, the Bartimaeus book series by Jonathan Stroud, Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
In a sub-group of contemporary fantasy, which some literary scholars and critics see as a separate group, it is portals through which protagonists enter the fictional world and experience adventure there. Ultimately, the fantasy world and the real world remain separate. Well-known works: The Endless Story by Michael Ende, The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, Peter Pan by JM Barrie, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum.
Time travel stories: with the help of objects or a special gift, protagonists travel into the past or future. If this is achieved with technical devices, it is not a subgenre of fantasy, but science fiction. Well-known works: Fire and Stone by Diana Gabaldon, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, At the Abyss of Time by Andreas Schreiner
Art fairy tales, fairy tale novels: fairytale and poetic fantasy, often also modernized fairy tales. Well-known works: The Endless Story by Michael Ende, Bluebeard’s Room by Angela Carter, The Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum.
Animal Fantasy: Fantasy in the animal kingdom, animals as hero characters. Well-known works: The Wolves of Time by William Horwood, Watership Down by Richard Adams, Clever Weasels by Garry D. Kilworth, Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter, When the Animals Left the Forest by Colin Then
Science Fantasy: mix of fantasy and science fiction elements; a variant of this literary direction is steampunk. Well-known works: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, cave world saga by Harald Evers, Darkover cycle by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Drachenreiter-von-Pern series by Anne McCaffrey, Otherland by Tad Williams, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, Die Strange von Stefan Bachmann
Dark Fantasy: A tendency towards horror, in which the dark and the eerie mix with the dream-like world of fantasy. Passion and eroticism often play a major role. Well-known works: Bis (s) series by Stephenie Meyer, The Dark Tower by Stephen King, Thomas Covenant the Doubt by Stephen R. Donaldson, The Saga by Kane by Karl Edward Wagner, The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop, the Witcher Cycle by Andrzej Sapkowski.
All Age Fantasy: Fantastic novels and stories that appeal to readers beyond age limits. Originally written for a young audience, this literature is now becoming more and more popular with adult readers, as the authors combine exciting adventures with complex entertainment and a fantastic atmosphere. Well-known works: Harry Potter by Joanne K. Rowling, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.
Humoristic fantasy: parodistic or ironic handling of fantasy motifs or classic legends and myths. Well-known works: Zamonia cycle by Walter Moers, disc world – novels by Terry Pratchett, demon series by Robert Asprin, the nomad god by Gerd Scherm, Krishna cycle by Lyon Sprague de Camp.
Pseudo-documentation: fictional non-fiction books with fantastic content. Well-known works: Halbritter’s flora and fauna by Kurt Halbritter, Fantastic Beasts & where to find them by Newt Scamander alias Joanne K. Rowling.
Pseudo-historical fantasy: New interpretation of an epoch through the integration of fantastic elements. The ideally very well researched novels do not take place in foreign fictional fantasy worlds, but on our earth in a historical period (often the Middle Ages or a prehistoric period) in which the belief in magic and magic was widespread or even of great importance. The authors often fall back on legends and legends, or on historical events or people. Well-known works: At the court of the Sun King by Vonda N. McIntyre, Dr. Faustus trilogy byKai Meyer, The Fire Riders of His Majesty by Naomi Novik, Avalon series by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Black Mists by Michael Crichton (with pseudo-documentary frame).
Social Fantasy: Fantasy literature that focuses on socially and socially critical topics as well as possible political utopias such as anarchism. Well-known works: Erdsee series by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Fantasy outside literature

Movie
Cinema and television have also turned to the genre several times, albeit comparatively less often than science fiction. Apart from the early fairy tale films, some fantasy films by Walt Disney such as The Secret of the Enchanted Cave (1959) and a first cartoon version of the cult novel of the same name, The Lord of the Rings (USA, 1978), real fantasy material was only taken up in the 1980s. At that time, film classics such as Excalibur (USA / GB, 1981), Battle of the Titans (GB, 1981), The Dragon Slayer (USA, 1981), The Dark Crystal were created(USA / GB, 1982), Legend (GB, 1985) and The Journey to the Labyrinth (GB / USA, 1986). It is striking that none of the successful fantasy novels was filmed; According to the Bakshi film, which was unsuccessful at the box office, the Lord of the Rings was considered too difficult a subject, other novels apparently too bad a template. The only exception remained a film adaptation of the novel The Endless Story (D / USA, 1984) by Michael Ende. With the film Willow (USA, 1988), producer George Lucas tried to repeat his science fiction success with Star Wars (USA, 1977) in the fantasy area, which he was not allowed to do.

Real fantasy films remained rare in the 1990s; Dragonheart (USA, 1996) had greater success. Instead, television discovered the genre for itself and created several fantasy series, such as Robin Hood (GB, 1984–1986), Hercules (USA / NZ, 1995–1999), Xena (USA / NZ, 1995–2001) and Charmed – Magical witches (USA, 1998-2006).

In the 2000s, director Peter Jackson finally ventured into the film version (NZ / USA, 2001) of The Lord of the Rings and achieved a great success at the box office with the film trilogy. Together with the also successful Harry Potter films, he created a basis for further filming plans. So also Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart and the Narnia series by CS Lewis found his way to the canvas.

Series
As a result of the success of the Game of Thrones series (2011-2019), numerous fantasy series have been announced, which will gradually appear from the end of Game of Thrones. In 2019, for example, the series The Witcher, His Dark Materials, Carnival Row and The Dark Crystal: Era of Resistance will start.

Board games and role playing
Fantasy served early as the background for numerous board games, play books and especially role playing games (pen and paper role playing games and live role playing games). In the course of the role-playing game – triggered by the market leader Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) in the 1980s and 1990s – there were interactions with the fantasy literature; some authors found the role play on fantasy literature and vice versa. In addition, some role-playing games were processed literarily, such as the dragon lance novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman or the Forgotten Realms series byRA Salvatore emerged. The fantasy playbooks, which are regarded as the forerunner of the text adventure, gained particular importance; were known among other Lone Wolf by Joe Dever and the Fighting Fantasy series from Steve Jackson.

In the late 1990s, the fantasy theme penetrated into other game areas. Especially the trading card game Magic: The Gathering celebrated success, pulled some players away from the classic role-playing game and at the same time opened up this genre to other people who had no access to fantasy. After the new fantasy wave in the course of the Tolkien filming in the 2000s, live role-playing games and the classic pen and paper role-playing games became more socially acceptable, but sales of role-playing game publishers have been declining for years.

Video Games
In the field of video games, fantasy motifs have always been used, as all fantastic genres have found their way into computer game culture. From early text adventures such as Guild of Thieves by Magnetic Scrolls to early role-play implementations such as Ultima by Origin, fantasy fabrics were picked up again and again. The quest typical of computer games created an archetypal narrative structure, which later found its way back into fantasy literature.

In the 1980s, several famous fantasy computer games, such as The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Dungeon Master, the aforementioned Ultima or The Bard’s Tale were created, some of which continue to this day. In the 1990s, the implementations of the D&D role-playing games (such as Champions of Krynn or Eye of the Beholder), the fantasy parody Simon the Sorcerer, the role-playing game Lands of Lore, the Adventure Erben der Erde or the Nordland trilogy were particularly successfulas well as the strategy game Dungeon Keeper better known. In the 2000s, ever more sophisticated graphics and higher computing power enabled computers to become more and more detailed worlds, so that today’s computer games reach an incredible scale. The milestones here are the games Diablo and Dungeon Siege, the strategy game Warcraft and the role-playing games World of Warcraft, Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Gothic, The Elder Scrolls, Sacred, Dark Age of Camelot and Fable. The films of the Lords of the Rings and the Harry Potter series also led to implementations in the field of computer games, as is the ever closer integration of literature, cinema and computer games. So the fantasy game Dungeon Siege was filmed by director Uwe Boll in 2007 as Swords of the King – Dungeon Siege.

Music
With filk own style of music and culture, whose songs stories exist from and about fantasy and science fiction tell -literature and media. Furthermore fantasy can be found in progressive rock and especially in heavy metal. Although the term fantasy metal exists, it is rarely used because topics from fantasy can be found in almost all metal styles, especially in power and epic metal. Record covers are also very popular with metal albumswith fantasy motifs. These are often used even on albums and bands that are not otherwise concerned with fantasy topics. Summoning, Ensiferum, Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire and Manowar are particularly noteworthy bands. Even symphonic metal bands like Nightwish or Within Temptation and Xandria or the singer Tarja use in their songs fantasy elements.

Painting
Modern fantasy painting has its forerunners in the western culture in the ancient and medieval bestiaries and in the work of Hieronymus Bosch (1460–1516). Many of the pictorial themes he depicted – such as varied human representations in connection with fauna and flora, animated objects and playful shapes – returned thematically in fantasy art of the late 20th century. There are monsters and impossible structures, bizarre landscapes and a feeling of the unreal that evokes the viewer, which often uses stylistic elements of surrealism and magical realism.

The painter Johann Heinrich Füssli and his successor William Blake revolutionized fantastic, mythological and grotesque subjects in the 18th century and are still inspiring for fantasy and gothic painting. This type of painting first flourished in the Victorian era, when a large number of fictional stories, often in the form of the knightly novel, which had been popular since the Romantic period, a revival of the medieval courtly novel, combined with more advanced painting and printing techniques to create a wave of illustrated books led to the population of English speaking countries.

Important fantasy painters are Luis Royo, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Roger Dean, Patrick Woodroffe, Alan Lee, John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Chris Foss and the brothers Greg and Tim Hildebrandt.