The Evolution of Modern Fantasy

The Evolution of Modern Fantasy PDF Author: Jamie Williamson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137515791
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In this comprehensive study, Williamson traces the literary history of the fantasy genre from the eighteenth century to its coalescence following the success of Tolkien's work in the 1960s. While some studies have engaged with related material, there has been no extended study specifically exploring the roots of this now beloved genre.

The Evolution of Modern Fantasy

The Evolution of Modern Fantasy PDF Author: Jamie Williamson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137515791
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this comprehensive study, Williamson traces the literary history of the fantasy genre from the eighteenth century to its coalescence following the success of Tolkien's work in the 1960s. While some studies have engaged with related material, there has been no extended study specifically exploring the roots of this now beloved genre.

The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales

The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales PDF Author: Justin Everett
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442256222
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
When the pulp magazine Weird Tales appeared on newsstands in 1923, it proved to be a pivotal moment in the evolution of speculative fiction. Living up to its nickname, “The Unique Magazine,” Weird Tales provided the first real venue for authors writing in the nascent genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Weird fiction pioneers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Catherine L. Moore, and many others honed their craft in the pages of Weird Tales in the 1920s and 1930s, and their work had a tremendous influence on later generations of genre authors. In The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror, Justin Everett and Jeffrey Shanks have assembled an impressive collection of essays that explore many of the themes critical to understanding the importance of the magazine. This multi-disciplinary collection from a wide array of scholars looks at how Weird Tales served as a locus of genre formation and literary discourse community. There are also chapters devoted to individual authors—including Lovecraft, Howard, and Bloch—and their particular contributions to the magazine. As the literary world was undergoing a revolution and mass-produced media began to dwarf high-brow literature in social significance, Weird Tales managed to straddle both worlds. This collection of essays explores the important role the magazine played in expanding the literary landscape at a very particular time and place in American culture. The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales will appeal to scholars and aficionados of fantasy, horror, and weird fiction and those interested in the early roots of these popular genres.

The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature

The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature PDF Author: Edward James
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107493730
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Fantasy is a creation of the Enlightenment, and the recognition that excitement and wonder can be found in imagining impossible things. From the ghost stories of the Gothic to the zombies and vampires of twenty-first-century popular literature, from Mrs Radcliffe to Ms Rowling, the fantastic has been popular with readers. Since Tolkien and his many imitators, however, it has become a major publishing phenomenon. In this volume, critics and authors of fantasy look at its history since the Enlightenment, introduce readers to some of the different codes for the reading and understanding of fantasy, and examine some of the many varieties and subgenres of fantasy; from magical realism at the more literary end of the genre, to paranormal romance at the more popular end. The book is edited by the same pair who produced The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (winner of a Hugo Award in 2005).

The Big Book of Modern Fantasy

The Big Book of Modern Fantasy PDF Author: Ann Vandermeer
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525563873
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 898

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Book Description
WORLD FANTASY AWARD WINNER • A true horde of fantasy tales sure to delight fans, scholars, and even the greediest of dragons—from bestselling authors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer Step through a shimmering portal ... a worn wardrobe door ... a schism in sky ... into a bold new age of fantasy. When worlds beyond worlds became a genre unto itself. From the swinging sixties to the strange, strange seventies, the over-the-top eighties to the gnarly nineties—and beyond, into the twenty-first century—the VanderMeers have found the stories and the writers from around the world that reinvented and revitalized the fantasy genre after World War II. The stories in this collection represent twenty-two different countries, including Russia, Argentina, Nigeria, Columbia, Pakistan, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, China, the Philippines, and the Czech Republic. Five have never before been translated into English. From Jorge Luis Borges to Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock to Angela Carter, Terry Pratchett to Stephen King, the full range and glory of the fantastic are on display in these ninety-one stories in which dragons soar, giants stomp, and human children should still think twice about venturing alone into the dark forest. Completing Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's definitive The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, this companion volume to takes the genre into the twenty-first century with ninety-one astonishing, mind-bending stories. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL

The Evolution of Modern Fantasy

The Evolution of Modern Fantasy PDF Author: Jamie Williamson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137515791
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
In this comprehensive study, Williamson traces the literary history of the fantasy genre from the eighteenth century to its coalescence following the success of Tolkien's work in the 1960s. While some studies have engaged with related material, there has been no extended study specifically exploring the roots of this now beloved genre.

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year PDF Author: Jonathan Strahan
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1597804606
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 758

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Book Description
In print and on-line, science fiction and fantasy is thriving as never before. A multitude of astonishingly creative and gifted writers are boldly exploring the mythic past, the paranormal present, and the promises and perils of myriad alternate worlds and futures. There are almost too many new and intriguing stories published every year for any reader to be able to experience them all. So how to make sure you haven’t missed any future classics? Award-winning editor and anthologist Jonathan Strahan has surveyed the expanding universes of modern sf and fantasy to find the brightest stars in today’s dazzling literary firmament. From the latest masterworks by the acknowledged titans of the field to fresh visions from exciting new talents, this outstanding collection is a comprehensive showcase for the current state of the art in both science fiction and fantasy. Anyone who wants to know where the future of imaginative short fiction is going, and treat themselves to dozens of unforgettable stories, will find this year’s edition of Best Science Fiction and Fantasy to be just what they’re looking for!

In the Mirror of the Past

In the Mirror of the Past PDF Author: Tomasz Ratajczak
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443867675
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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Book Description
These days, we are ever more often confronted by overwhelming events. Searching for a way to understand them, we turn to mythic archetypes still present in our culture. The authors of these essays pose questions about the reliability of the archetypes found in tradition, history, and scattered mythologemes. The essays in this collection deal with the presence of mythic time in modern speculative fiction, such as fantasy and alternate histories, and discuss major mythologemes and their functions in popular literature and extra-literary reality. The authors show how mythopoeic fiction becomes a (genetically) modified mythic mirror in which we hope to see answers to vexing questions, or just a reality superior to the ordinary one. In the Mirror of the Past: Of Fantasy and History is a collection of seven essays by American and Polish authors, including Brian Attebery, Terri Doughty, and Marek Oziewicz, with Mircea Eliade’s concept of “return from history to History” as their underlying theme.

The Rise of Tolkienian Fantasy

The Rise of Tolkienian Fantasy PDF Author: Jared Lobdell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
"Finally, Lobdell looks at some of the ablest heirs of the master: contemporary fantasists Ursula Le Guin, Stephen King (in the Dark Tower series), and J. K. Rowling."--BOOK JACKET.

Classical Traditions in Modern Fantasy

Classical Traditions in Modern Fantasy PDF Author: Brett M. Rogers
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190610069
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Classical Traditions in Modern Fantasy presents fifteen all-new essays on how fantasy draws on ancient Greek and Roman mythology, philosophy, literature, history, art, and cult practice. Ranging from harpies to hobbits, from Cyclopes to Cthulhu, the comparative study of Classics and fantasy reveals deep similarities between ancient and modern ways of imagining the world.

Race and Popular Fantasy Literature

Race and Popular Fantasy Literature PDF Author: Helen Young
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317532171
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
This book illuminates the racialized nature of twenty-first century Western popular culture by exploring how discourses of race circulate in the Fantasy genre. It examines not only major texts in the genre, but also the impact of franchises, industry, editorial and authorial practices, and fan engagements on race and representation. Approaching Fantasy as a significant element of popular culture, it visits the struggles over race, racism, and white privilege that are enacted within creative works across media and the communities which revolve around them. While scholars of Science Fiction have explored the genre’s racialized constructs of possible futures, this book is the first examination of Fantasy to take up the topic of race in depth. The book’s interdisciplinary approach, drawing on Literary, Cultural, Fan, and Whiteness Studies, offers a cultural history of the anxieties which haunt Western popular culture in a century eager to declare itself post-race. The beginnings of the Fantasy genre’s habits of whiteness in the twentieth century are examined, with an exploration of the continuing impact of older problematic works through franchising, adaptation, and imitation. Young also discusses the major twenty-first century sub-genres which both re-use and subvert Fantasy conventions. The final chapter explores debates and anti-racist praxis in authorial and fan communities. With its multi-pronged approach and innovative methodology, this book is an important and original contribution to studies of race, Fantasy, and twenty-first century popular culture.