![]() Transitions between the traditional and modern modes of fantastic literature are evident in early Gothic novels, the ghost stories in vogue in the 19th century, and Romantic novels, all of which used extensively traditional fantastic motifs, but subjected them to authors' concepts.īy one standard, no work created before the fantasy genre was defined can be considered to belong to it, no matter how many fantastic elements it includes. Traditional tales with fantasy elements used familiar myths and folklore, and any differences from tradition were considered variations on a theme the traditional tales were never intended to be separate from the local supernatural folklore. įinally, the fantastic worlds of modern fantasy are created by an author or group of authors, often using traditional elements, but usually in a novel arrangement and with an individual interpretation. In traditional tales the degree to which the author considered the supernatural to be real can span the spectrum from legends taken as reality to myths understood as describing in understandable terms more complicated reality, to late, intentionally-fictitious literary works. The second difference is that the supernatural in fantasy is by design fictitious. It seldom describes the place or the time with any precision, often saying simply that it happened "long ago and far away." (A modern, rationalized analog to these stories can be found in the Lost World tales of the 19th and 20th centuries.) Traditional fantastic tales take place in our world, often in the past or in far off, unknown places. of this world tend to be defined, even if they are not described outright. In addition, the rules, geography, history, etc. Modern genre fantasy postulates a different reality, either a fantasy world separated from ours, or a hidden fantasy side of our own world. ![]() Illustration to Orlando furioso by Gustave Doré, featuring the hippogriff, a monster not found in folkloreĮven the most fantastic myths, legends and fairy tales differ from modern fantasy genre in three respects: And today fantasy continues as an expansive, multi-layered milieu encompassing many subgenres, including traditional high fantasy, sword and sorcery, magical realism, fairytale fantasy, and horror-tinged dark fantasy.ĭifferences between fantasy and earlier fantastic works This also did much to establish the genre of fantasy as commercially distinct and viable. Tolkien enormously influenced fantasy writing, establishing the form of epic fantasy. Later, in the twentieth century, the publication of The Lord of the Rings by J. Authors like George MacDonald (1824 –1905) created the first explicitly fantastic works. Works in which the marvels were not necessarily believed, or only half-believed, such as the European romances of chivalry and the tales of the Arabian Nights, slowly evolved into works with such traits. The modern genre is distinguished from tales and folklore which contain fantastic elements, first by the acknowledged fictitious nature of the work, and second by the naming of an author. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning. ![]()
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