Fantasy literature: status and prospects of study

Abstract

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It is difficult to imagine modern literature without fantasy, because it invariably finds its readers, often pushing aside not only realistic works, but also science fiction, which is an important indicator in the change of human aspirations in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. Despite the prevalence and demand for fantasy plots in literature, fantasy only took on the shape familiar to modern readers by the middle of the twentieth century under the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Inklings, who set the benchmarks for the development of the genre in the following decades. By the 1950s, a certain canon and some genre varieties had been established in fantasy, as well as a range of themes and artistic features, but by the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century, fantasy absorbed postmodernist techniques and gave rise to even more subgenres, as well as actively penetrated into cinema, painting, music, and later into the sphere of computer games, which forced us to rethink the very nature of the fantasy phenomenon.

Fantasy is a relatively young phenomenon, and J.R.R. Tolkien made a significant contribution to its development and theoretical understanding. His essay ‘On Fairy-Stories’ was one of the first attempts to define the characteristic features of fantasy, even though J. R. R. Tolkien does not use this term. Reflecting on the specificity of the so-called fairy-stories, fairy tales, Fairy literature and Fantasy, the writer identifies several main functions inherent in fairy stories – restoration of mental balance, escape from reality and happy ending. Restoration of mental balance helps a person to get rid of stereotypes of habitual thinking and to see things around him as they are, the following escape from reality gives liberation from the fetters of mechanical civilization, in which there is no place for naturalness, poetry and fairy tale, and Tolkien calls the happy ending the ability to cause enlightenment of the human soul, its purification in the process of contact with the fairy tale and complicity in fantasy.

Despite the fact that the history of fantasy is almost a century old, there is no single scientific approach to its study. Researchers have not been able to reach a consensus on the essence of fantasy, calling it a direction (S. Loginov, D. Lopukhov, S.V. Shamyakina), a genre (J. Timmerman, A.M. Prikhodko, I.A. Stolyarova, I.D. Winterle), or simply a type of literature (V.A. Revich, V.L. Gopman), and in recent years it is becoming more and more common to try to define similar and different features of fantasy and literary fairy tale (M.V. Solomonova, S.V. Gusarova, E.N. Levko, A.V. Zhuchkova, K.G. Artamo­nova, etc.). There are also ways to define fantasy as a meta-genre (T.I. Khoru­zhenko, O.S. Naumchik).

Fantasy is a dynamically developing phenomenon and very flexible in terms of genre variations, as one work can have the characteristics of several subgenres, and sometimes includes elements of science fiction, which corresponds to the general modern tendency to blur the boundaries between genres. However, for all the diversity of fantasy, we can identify a number of structural and semantic features that are found in the vast majority of works:

• reliance on fairy-tale, mythological and literary traditions;
• incorporating elements of the miraculous, magical or supernatural that are not explained in terms of scientific laws;
• creation of an internally consistent and convincing secondary world with an alternative history, geography, religious, mythological and socio-political systems;
• the struggle of oppositional principles (Good and Evil, Order and Chaos), which is differently comprehended in epic, heroic and humorous fantasy;
• incompleteness and seriality due, on the one hand, to the commercial orientation of mass literature and, on the other hand, to the phenomenon of co-creation, which allows a large number of participants to get involved in the process of creating a fantasy universe;
• the quest construction of the plot;
• formulaicity and template;
• game base;
• multimedia and a tendency towards synthetic, hybrid forms.

Since fantasy has many variants within a single genre, there is still no universally accepted typology of its varieties, because different principles are proposed as the basis for distinguishing subgenres. Depending on the peculiarities of the construction of the secondary world, fantasy is often divided into the so-called ‘high’ and the ‘low’ opposed to it. In high fantasy, the secondary world exists as a self-sufficient and independent reality, developing according to its own laws and in no way connected with the world familiar to the reader. In low fantasy, the secondary world is either a variation of the ordinary world, or it is included in the Multiverse system and comprehended as a parallel dimension that interacts with the real world in one way or another.

The principles of plot construction, characterization and specificity of the conflict allow for a more detailed classification and distinguish epic, heroic, historical, mythological, urban, dark, intellectual, humorous, combat, detective, adventure and scientific fantasy (technofantasy), but it is not uncommon for one work to combine features of different subgenres, which makes classification difficult.

Another principle of typology involves the identification of national models, since fantasy, having originated in British literature, was then significantly transformed on American soil, even within the same genre. It was English-language literature that formed the canon of fantasy, but although fantasy in other countries’ literatures tends to develop along English-language lines, some texts have considerable originality and originality. As a rule, this is due to their reliance on national folklore or national literary tradition. One of the most striking manifestations of non-English fantasy literature is Slavic fantasy, which is characterized by the use of Slavic settings and reference to Slavic mythology and folklore. Interesting from the point of view of originality is Japanese fantasy, which is most evident not so much in literature as in manga and anime, and in recent years European readers have had the opportunity to get acquainted with samples of Korean and Chinese fantasy.

Thus fantasy, while retaining a recognisable image due to the presence of a number of characteristic features, has many variations and continues to develop dynamically, adjusting to the changing literary process, and the popularity and demand for fantasy in modern culture makes it an important and interesting object of study.