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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 considered a genre of speculative fiction and is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror fiction by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these may overlap. Historically, most works of fantasy were in literature, but since the 1960s, a growing segment of the genre has taken the form of , fantasy television programs, , , music and art.
Many fantasy novels originally written for children and adolescents also attract an adult audience. Examples include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Hobbit.
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.
With Empedocles (), elements are often used in fantasy works as personifications of the forces of nature.John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Elemental" p 313-4,
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., Introduction, page xv; , Translator's introduction, quoting Hertel: "the original work was composed in Kashmir, about 200 B.C. At this date, however, many of the individual stories were already ancient." It is based on older oral traditions, including "animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine". Doris Lessing, Problems, Myths and Stories , London: Institute for Cultural Research Monograph Series No. 36, 1999, p 13
It was influential in Europe and the Middle East. It used various animal 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.Richard Matthews (2002). Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination, p. 8-10. Routledge. .
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). Boccaccio's The Decameron (c.1353) the Pentamerone (1634, 1636) and all that class of facetious fictitious literature."Isabel Burton, Preface , in Richard Francis Burton (1870), Vikram and The Vampire.
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.L. Sprague de Camp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p 10 Many imitations were written, especially in France.John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Arabian fantasy", p 52
The , Norse saga and , both of which are based on ancient oral tradition influenced the German Romantics, as well as William Morris, and J. R. R. Tolkien.John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Nordic fantasy", p 692 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.John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Beowulf", p 107
Celtic mythology and legend has been an inspiration for many fantasy works.John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Celtic fantasy", p 275
The Wales 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.Michael Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy p 101 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.Colin Manlove, Christian Fantasy: from 1200 to the Present p 12
During the Renaissance, Giovanni Francesco Straparola wrote and published The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550–1555), a collection of stories of which many are literary . Giambattista Basile wrote and published the Pentamerone, which was the first collection of stories to contain solely what would later be known as fairy tales. The two works include the oldest recorded form of many well-known (and some more obscure) European fairy tales.Steven Swann Jones, The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination, Twayne Publishers, New York, 1995, , p38 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.L. Sprague de Camp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p 11
In a work on alchemy in the 16th century, Paracelsus (1493–1541) identified four types of beings with the four elements of alchemy: (earth elementals); undines (water); (air); and salamanders (fire).Carole B. Silver, Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, p 38 Most of these beings are found in folklore as well as alchemy, and their names are often used interchangeably with similar beings from folklore.C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, p135
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).Brian Stableford, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature, p xx, Scarecrow Press, Plymouth. 2005. This era, however, was notably hostile to fantasy. Writers of the new types of fiction such as Daniel Defoe, Richardson, and Henry Fielding were realistic in style, and many early realistic works were critical of fantastical elements in fiction.Lin Carter, ed. Realms of Wizardry p xiii–xiv Doubleday and Company Garden City, NY, 1976
However, in the Elizabethan era in England, fantasy literature became extraordinarily popular and fueled Populism and anti-authoritarian sentiment during the 1590s. Topics that were written about included " in which the sexes traded places and men and immortals mingling".
The Romantics invoked the medieval romance as a model for the works they wanted to produce, in contrast to the realism of the Enlightenment.John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Romance", p 821 One of the first literary results of this trend was the Gothic novel, a genre that began in Britain with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. That work is considered the predecessor to both modern fantasy and modern horror fiction. Another noted Gothic novel which also contains a large amount of Arabian Nights-influenced fantasy elements is Vathek (1786) by William Thomas Beckford.Brian Stableford, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature, p 40, Scarecrow Press, Plymouth. 2005. In the later part of the Romantic period, folklorists collected folktales, epic poems, and ballads, and released them in printed form. The Brothers Grimm were inspired by the movement of German Romanticism in their 1812 collection Grimm's Fairy Tales, and they in turn inspired other collectors. Frequently their motivation 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, and sometimes, as in Ossian, 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.Michael Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy p 35
The Romantic interest in medievalism also resulted in a revival of interest in the literary fairy tale. The tradition begun with Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile and developed by Charles Perrault and the French précieuses was taken up by the German Romantic movement. The German author Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué created medieval-set stories such as Undine (1811), The Magic Ring (1812) and Sintram and his Companions (1815), which would later inspire British writers such as George MacDonald and William Morris. Brian Stableford, "Undine", (pp. 1992–1994). in Frank N. Magill, ed. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, Vol 4. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, Inc., 1983. Mike Ashley, "Fouqué, Friedrich (Heinrich Karl),(Baron) de la Motte",(p. 654-5) in St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers, edited by David Pringle. St. James Press, 1996. Veronica Ortenberg, In Search of the Holy Grail: The Quest for the Middle Ages, (38–9) Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006, . 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.Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann", (pp.111–120) in E. F. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. New York: Scribner's, 1985. Ludwig Tieck's collection Phantasus (1812–1817) contained several short fairy tales, including "The Elves".D. P Haase, "Ludwig Tieck" (pp.83–90), in E. F. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. New York: Scribner's, 1985.
In France, the main writers of Romantic-era fantasy were Charles Nodier with Smarra (1821) and Trilby (1822)Franz Rottensteiner, The Fantasy Book:an illustrated history from Dracula to Tolkien (p. 137) Collier Books, 1978. A. Richard Oliver, Charles Nodier:Pilot of Romanticism. (p. 134-37) Syracuse University Press, 1964. and Théophile Gautier who penned such stories as "Omphale" (1834) and "One of Cleopatra's Nights" (1838) as well as the novel Spirite (1866).Brian Stableford, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature (p. 159), Scarecrow Press, Plymouth. 2005. Brian Stableford, "Théophile Gautier", (pp. 45–50) in E. F. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. New York: Scribner's, 1985.
Hans Christian Andersen took a new approach to fairy tales by creating original stories told in a serious fashion. From this origin, John Ruskin wrote The King of the Golden River (1851), a fairy tale that included complex levels of characterization and created in the Southwest Wind an irascible but kindly character similar to J.R.R. Tolkien's later Gandalf.
The history of modern fantasy literature began with George MacDonald, 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 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).George MacDonald, "The Fantastic Imagination". Reprinted in Boyer, Robert H. and Zahorski, Kenneth J. Fantasists on Fantasy. New York: Avon Discus, 1984. pp. 11–22, Robert Scholes (1987). 080931374X, Southern Illinois University Press. 080931374X MacDonald was a major influence on both Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.Gary K. Wolfe, "George MacDonald", pp. 239–246 in Bleiler, E. F., ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985.
The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, an admirer of the Middle Ages and a poet who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the 19th century, including The Well at the World's End (1896). Morris was inspired by the medieval sagas, and his writing was deliberately archaic in the style of the chivalric romances.Lin Carter, ed. Realms of Wizardry p 2 Doubleday and Company Garden City, NY, 1976 Morris's work represented an important milestone in the history of fantasy, as while other writers wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds, Morris was the first to set his stories in an entirely fantasy world.Lin Carter, ed. Kingdoms of Sorcery, p 39 Doubleday and Company Garden City, NY, 1976
Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde also contributed to the development of fantasy with their writing of horror stories.Stephen Prickett, Victorian Fantasy p 98-9 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).M. J. Elkins, "Oscar Wilde" in E. F. Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985. (pp.345–350). H. Rider Haggard developed the conventions of the lost world subgenre with his novel King Solomon's Mines (1885), which presented a fantastical Africa to a European audience still unfamiliar with the continent.Lin Carter, ed. Realms of Wizardry p 64 Doubleday and Company Garden City, NY, 1976 Other writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs and Abraham Merritt, further developed the style.
Several classic juvenile fantasy such as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865),J.R. Pfeiffer, "Lewis Carroll", p 247-54, in E. F. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. Scribner's, New York, 1985 L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as well as the work of E. Nesbit and Frank R. Stockton were also published around this time.Brian Stableford, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature, p 70-3, Scarecrow Press, Plymouth. 2005. 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 for that audience, despite using concepts and themes that could form a work aimed at adults.C. S. Lewis, "On Juvenile Tastes", p 41, Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories,
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.W.R. Irwin, The Game of the Impossible, p 92-3, University of Illinois Press, Urbana Chicago London, 1976 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 term was referenced in a supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary. See Michael W. McClintock, "High Tech and High Sorcery: Some Discriminations Between Science Fiction and Fantasy", in George E. Slusser, and Eric S. Rabkin, ed., Intersections: Fantasy and Science Fiction. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. (pp.26–35.). 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.
H. P. Lovecraft was deeply influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and to a somewhat lesser extent, by Lord Dunsany; with his Cthulhu Mythos stories, he became one of the most influential writers of fantasy and horror in the 20th century.L. Sprague de Camp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p. 79
Despite MacDonald's future influence, and Morris' popularity at the time, it was not until around the start of the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach a large audience, with authors such as Lord Dunsany (1878–1957) who, following Morris's example, wrote fantasy novels, but also in the short story form. He was particularly noted for his vivid and evocative style. His style greatly influenced many writers, not always happily; Ursula K. Le Guin, in her essay on style in fantasy "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", wryly referred to Lord Dunsany as the "First Terrible Fate that Awaiteth Unwary Beginners in Fantasy", alluding to young writers attempting to write in Lord Dunsany's style.Ursula K. Le Guin, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", pp. 78–79 The Language of the Night According to S. T. Joshi, "Dunsany's work had the effect of segregating fantasy—a mode whereby the author creates his own realm of pure imagination—from supernatural horror. From the foundations he established came the later work of E. R. Eddison, Mervyn Peake, and J. R. R. Tolkien.
In Britain in the aftermath of World War I, a notably large number of fantasy books aimed at an adult readership were published, including Living Alone (1919) by Stella Benson,Brian Stableford, " Re-Enchantment in the Aftermath of War", in Stableford, Gothic Grotesques: Essays on Fantastic Literature. Wildside Press, 2009, A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) by David Lindsay,"David Lindsay" by Gary K. Wolfe, (pp. 541–548) in E. F. Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985. Lady into Fox (1922) by David Garnett, Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) by Hope Mirrlees,E.L. Chapman, "Lud-in-the-Mist", in Frank N. Magill, ed. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, Vol. 2. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, Inc., 1983. . pp. 926–931. and Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner.Robin Anne Reid, Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy (p.39), ABC-CLIO, 2009 . E. R. Eddison was another influential writer who wrote during this era. He drew inspiration from Northern sagas, as Morris did, but his prose style was modeled more on Tudor and Elizabethan English, and his stories were filled with vigorous characters in glorious adventures. Eddison's most famous work is The Worm Ouroboros (1922), a long heroic fantasy set on an imaginary version of the planet Mercury.Michael Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy p 47
Literary critics of the era began to take an interest in "fantasy" as a genre of writing, and also to argue that it was a genre worthy of serious consideration. Herbert Read devoted a chapter of his book English Prose Style (1928) to discussing "Fantasy" as an aspect of literature, arguing it was unjustly considered suitable only for children: "The Western World does not seem to have conceived the necessity of Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups".
In 1938, with the publication of The Sword in the Stone, T. H. White introduced one of the most notable works of comic fantasy.Lin Carter, ed. Kingdoms of Sorcery, p 121-2 Doubleday and Company Garden City, NY, 1976
The first major contribution to the genre after World War II was Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (1946), the book that launched the Gormenghast series. J. R. R. Tolkien played a large role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths, particularly Beowulf, as well as William Morris's romances and E. R. Eddison's 1922 novel, The Worm Ouroboros. Tolkien's close friend C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–56) and a fellow English professor with a similar array of interests, also helped to publicize the fantasy genre. Tove Jansson, author of The Moomins, was also a strong contributor to the popularity of fantasy literature in the field of children and adults.
The tradition established by these predecessors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has continued to thrive and be adapted by new authors. The influence of J.R.R. Tolkien's fiction has—particularly over the genre of high fantasy—prompted a reaction.Fornet-Ponse, Thomas. Tolkien's Influence on Fantasy: Interdisziplinäres Seminar Der DTG 27. Bis 29. April 2012, Jena = Tolkiens Einfluss Auf Die Moderne Fantasy. Vol. 9. Düsseldorf: Scriptorium Oxoniae., n.d. Print.
In China, the idea of fantasy literature as a distinct genre first became prevalent in the early 21st century. China has long had pre-genre stories with fantastical elements, including Zhiguai xiaoshuo, ghost stories, and miracle tales, among others. Similarly, fantasy novels in the style of Anglophone fantasy emerged in Arabic literature in the 2010s, beginning with Islām Idrīs's ʔusṭūra ("legend") series.
It is not uncommon for fantasy novels to be ranked on The New York Times Best Seller list, and some have been at number one on the list, including most recently, Brandon Sanderson in 2014, Brandon Sanderson tops best sellers list with Words of Radiance April 17, 2014 Neil Gaiman in 2013, Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin in 2011, and Terry Goodkind in 2006.
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,Ursula K. Le Guin, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", p 74-5 The Language of the Night 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.Ursula K. Le Guin, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", pp. 78–80 The Language of the Night
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.Alec Austin, "Quality in Epic Fantasy" . The generic features of historical fantasy literature, as a mode of inverting the real (including nineteenth-century ghost stories, children's stories, city comedies, classical dreams, stories of highway women, and Edens) are discussed in Writing and Fantasy, ed. Ceri Sullivan and Barbara White (London: Longman, 1999)
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