FANTASY LITERATURE

'Fantasy literature' is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, the majority of fantasy works have been literature. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of video games, music, painting, and the like.

Contents

History

Style

See also

Footnotes

References

External links

History

It is difficult to define the precise 'beginning' of fantasy literature, as stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed since time immemorial. Homer's Odyssey, the second work of European literature written, satisfies the definition of the fantasy genre with its magic, gods, heroes, adventures and monsters, though at the time it would have been thought of as being based on actual historical events. Albeit on the whole, the genre, as a distinct type, began to become visible in the Victorian times, in the works of writers such as William Morris, Lord Dunsany and George Macdonald.
Some commentators assert that the South African-born, English professor of philology, J. R. R. Tolkien, was seminal to the mass-popularization of the fantasy genre, with his hugely successful publications – ''The Hobbit'', and ''The Lord of the Rings''. Tolkien himself, though, was largely informed by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths — particularly ''Beowulf'' — but it was after his work that the genre began to receive the moniker, "fantasy." J. R. R. Tolkien's close friend C.S. Lewis, author of the ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', also an English professor interested in similar themes, was also associated with popularizing the commercial success of the fantasy genre.
Preeminent authors in the genre who undertook popular fantasy works ''after'' Tolkien's ''The Lord of The Rings'' phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s are listed below. The names listed are presented in chronological order, from the earliest published to the latest, along with their most significant works.

★ Michael Moorcock: The ''Elric of Melnibone'' series (first novel published 1965).

★ Lloyd Alexander: ''The Chronicles of Prydain'' (first book published 1964)

★ Ursula K. Le Guin : The ''Earthsea'' series (first book published 1968)

★ Fred Saberhagen: ''The Earth End sequence'' (first book published 1968)

★ Terry Brooks : The ''Shannara'' series (first book published in 1977)

★ Piers Anthony : The ''Xanth'' series (published 1977)

★ David Eddings : ''The Belgariad (first book published in 1982)

★ Raymond E. Feist : The ''Riftwar'' saga (first book published 1982)

★ Stephen King : The ''Dark Tower'' series (first book published 1982)

★ Terry Pratchett : The ''Discworld'' series (first book published 1983)

★ Guy Gavriel Kay : ''The Fionavar Tapestry'' trilogy (first book published 1984)

★ Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and others : ''The Dragonlance'' series (first book published in 1984)

★ Tad Williams : ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' series (first book published 1988)

★ Robert Jordan : ''The Wheel of Time'' series (first book published 1990)

★ Terry Goodkind : ''The Sword of Truth'' series (first book published 1994)

★ Robin Hobb : The ''Farseer'', ''Liveship Traders'' and ''Soldier's Son'' trilogies (first book published 1995)

★ Philip Pullman : The ''His Dark Materials'' Trilogy (first book published 1995)

★ George R.R. Martin : ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series (first book published 1996)

★ J.K. Rowling : ''The Harry Potter'' series (first book published 1997)

Style

Fantasy has been distinguished from other forms of literature by its style.
Ursula K. LeGuin, in her influential essay, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", criticized the use of a colloquial and modern-day style for writing high fantasy.^[1] While she admired the archaic style for its ability to distance prose into a fantasy world rather than appear as a modern world in disguise, when it was used by masters such as Lord Dunsany and E.R. Eddison, she also noted that it was a dangerous trap for fantasy writers because it was ridiculous when done wrong.^[2] Michael Moorcock observed that many writers would use archaic language for its sonority and to lend color to a lifeless story.^[3]
The fantasy world requires, like any genre, appropriate language, and that language can vary. In various forms of fairytale fantasy, even the villain's language would be inappropriate if vulgar.^[4]

See also

★ List of fantasy novels

★ Fantastique

Footnotes

1. Ursula K. LeGuin, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", p 74-5 ''The Language of the Night'' ISBN 0-425-05205-2
2. Ursula K. LeGuin, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", p 78-80 ''The Language of the Night'' ISBN 0-425-05205-2
3. Michael Moorcock, ''Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy'' p 35 ISBN 1-932265-07-4
4. Alec Austin, "Quality in Epic Fantasy"

References

★ The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, , Tzvetan, Todorov, Case Western Reserve University, 1973, ISBN 0-8295-0245-9

External links

★ Fantasy 100: Top 100 lists and short reviews of the all-time greatest fantasy books, films and TV shows