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Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning. The modernfantasy genre is distinguished from tales andfolklore which contain fantastic elements, first by the acknowledged fictitious nature of the work, and second by the naming of an author.[citation needed] Authors likeGeorge MacDonald (1824–1905) created the first explicitly fantastic works.
Later, in the twentieth century, the publication ofThe Lord of the Rings byJ. R. R. Tolkien enormously influenced fantasy writing,[1] establishing the form ofepic fantasy. This also did much to establish the genre of fantasy as commercially distinct and viable. Today, fantasy encompasses many subgenres, including traditional high fantasy,sword and sorcery,fairytale fantasy, anddark fantasy.
Even the most fantastic myths, legends and fairy tales differ from modern fantasy genre in three respects:
Modern genre fantasy postulates a different reality, either afantasy world separated from ours, or a hidden fantasy side of our own world. In addition, the rules, geography, history, etc. of this world tend to be defined, even if they are not described outright. Traditional fantastic tales take place in our world, often in the past or in far off, unknown places. 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 theLost World tales of the 19th and 20th centuries.)
The second difference is that the supernatural in fantasy is by design fictitious. 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.[2]
Finally, 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.[2] 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. Transitions between the traditional and modern modes of fantastic literature are evident in earlyGothic novels, theghost stories in vogue in the 19th century, andRomantic novels, all of which used extensively traditional fantastic motifs, but subjected them to authors' concepts.
By 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. By another, the genre includes the whole range of fantastic literature, both the modern genre and its traditional antecedents, as many elements which were treated as true (or at least not obviously untrue) by earlier authors are wholly fictitious and fantastic for modern readers. But even by the more limited definition a full examination of the history of the fantastic in literature is necessary to show the origins of the modern genre. Traditional works contain significant elements which modern fantasy authors have drawn upon extensively for inspiration in their own works.
With increases in learning in the medieval European era, literary fiction joined earlier myths and legends. Among the first genres to appear wasromance. This genre embraced fantasy, and not only simply followed traditional myths and fables, but, in its final form, added new fantastical elements.[3]Romance at first dealt with traditional themes, above all three thematic cycles of tales, assembled in imagination at a late date as theMatter of Rome (focusing on military heroes likeAlexander the Great andJulius Caesar), theMatter of France (Charlemagne and Roland, his principal paladin) and theMatter of Britain (the lives and deeds of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, within which was incorporated the quest for the Holy Grail), although a number of "non-cyclical" romances also achieved a great deal of popularity.[4]
The romances themselves were fictional, but such tales asValentine and Orson,Guillaume de Palerme, andQueste del Saint Graal were only the beginning of the fantasy genre, combining realism and fantasy.
During theRenaissance, romance continued to be popular. The trend was to more fantastic fiction. The EnglishLe Morte d'Arthur bySir Thomas Malory (c. 1408–1471), was written in prose; this work dominates the Arthurian literature, often being regarded as the canonical form of the legend.[5] Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works.[6] At the time, it and the SpanishAmadis de Gaula (1508), (also prose) spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well-received, producing such masterpiece of Renaissance poetry as Ludovico Ariosto'sOrlando furioso and Torquato Tasso'sGerusalemme Liberata. Ariosto's tale, with its endlessly wandering characters, many marvels, and adventures, was a source text for many fantasies of adventure.[7] With such works asAmadis of Gaul andPalmerin of England, the genre of fantasy was clearly inaugurated, as the marvels are deployed to amaze and surprise readers.[2]
One English romance isThe Faerie Queene ofEdmund Spenser.
Literary fairy tales, such as were written byCharles Perrault (1628 – 1703), andMadame d'Aulnoy (c.1650 – 1705), became very popular, early in theAge of Enlightenment. Many of Perrault's tales became fairy tale staples, and influenced latter fantasy as such. Indeed, when Madame d'Aulnoy termed her workscontes de fée (fairy tales), she invented the term that is now generally used for the genre, thus distinguishing such tales from those involving no marvels.[8] This would influence later writers, who took up the folk fairy tales in the same manner, in the Romantic era.[9]
Several fantasies aimed at an adult readership were also published in 18th century France, includingVoltaire's"contes philosophique" "The Princess of Babylon" (1768) and "The White Bull" (1774), andJacques Cazotte's Faustian novelThe Devil in Love.[10]
This era, however, was notably hostile to fantasy. Writers of the new types of fiction such asDefoe,Richardson, andFielding were realistic in style, and many early realistic works were critical of fantastical elements in fiction.[11] Aside from a few tales of witchcraft and ghost stories, very little fantasy was written during this time.[9] Even children's literature saw little fantasy; it aimed at edifying and deplored fairy tales as lies.[12]
Romanticism highly prized the supernatural, tradition and imagination.[13]
Gothic tales permitted, but did not require, an element of the supernatural. Some stories appeared to contain such elements and then explained them away. The genre has been argued by some to straddle the border between fantasy and non-fantasy, but many elements from it, particularly the houses of particular import, being ancient, owned by nobles, and often endowed with legends, were incorporated in modern fantasy.[14]
Of particular importance to the development of the genre was that the Gothic writers used novelistic techniques, such as Defoe was using, rather than the literary style of the romance, and also began to use the landscape for purposes of expressing the characters' moods.[15]
On the other hand, the Gothic still held back the pure fantasy. InThe Castle of Otranto, Walpole presented the work as a translation; the fictitious original author is therefore responsible for its fantastical elements, which Walpole distances himself from.[16] One noted Gothic novel which alsocontains a large amount of fantasy elements (derived from the "Arabian Nights") isVathek byWilliam Thomas Beckford.[17]
The Romantic interest in medievalism also resulted in a revival of interest in the literaryfairy tale. The tradition begun withGiovanni Francesco Straparola andGiambattista Basile and developed by theCharles Perrault and the Frenchprécieuses, was taken up by theGerman Romantic movement.Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué created medieval-set stories such asUndine (1811)[18] andSintram and his Companions (1815)which would later inspire British writers such as MacDonald and Morris.[19][20]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.[21]Ludwig Tieck's collectionPhantasus (1812-1817)contained several short fairy tales, including "The Elves".[22]
In France, the main writers of Romantic-era fantasy wereCharles Nodier, withSmarra (1821) andTrilby (1822)[23][24] andThéophile Gautier in stories such as "Omphale" (1834) and "One of Cleopatra's Nights" (1838),and the later novelSpirite (1866).[25][26]
In Britain,Sara Coleridge also wrote a fantasy novel,Phantasmion (1837), described as""the first fairytale novel written in English".[27][28]
In the early Victorian era, stories continued to be told using fantastic elements, less believed in.Charles Dickens wroteA Christmas Carol, using novelistic characterization to make his ghost story plausible;[29] Scrooge at first doubts the reality of the ghosts, suspecting them his own imagination, an explanation that is never conclusively refuted.[29]
The fairy-tale tradition continued in the hands of such authors asWilliam Makepeace Thackeray, butThe Rose and the Ring showed many elements of parody.[30]Hans Christian Andersen, however, initiated a new style of fairy tales, original tales told in seriousness.[30] From this origin,John Ruskin wroteThe King of the Golden River, a fairy tale that uses new levels of characterization, creating in the South-West Wind an irascible but kindly character similar to the later Gandalf.[30]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, modern fantasy began to take shape. The history of modern fantasy literature begins withGeorge MacDonald, the Scottish author of such novels asThe Princess and the Goblin andPhantastes; the latter can be considered to be the first fantasy novel written for adults.[31] MacDonald also wrote one of the first critical essays about the fantasy genre, "The Fantastic Imagination", in his bookA Dish of Orts (1893).[32][33] MacDonald was a major influence on bothJ. R. R. Tolkien andC. S. Lewis.[34]
Another major fantasy author of this era wasWilliam Morris, a socialist, an admirer of Middle Ages, a reviver of British handcrafts and a poet, who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the century, of which the most famous wasThe Well at the World's End. He was deeply inspired by the medieval romances and sagas; his style was deliberately archaic, based on medieval romances.[35] In many respects, Morris was an important milestone in the history of fantasy, because, while other writers wrote of foreign lands, or ofdream worlds, Morris's works were the first to be set in an entirely invented world: afantasy world.[36]
These fantasy worlds were part of a general trend. This era began a general trend toward more self-consistent and substantive fantasy worlds.[37] Earlier works often feature a solitary individual whose adventures in the fantasy world are of personal significance, and where the world clearly exists to give scope to these adventures, and later works more often feature characters in a social web, where their actions are to save the world and those in it from peril. InPhantastes, for instance, George MacDonald has a mentor-figure explain to the hero that the moral laws are the same in the world he is about to enter as in the world he came from; this lends weight and importance to his actions in this world, however fantastical it is.[38]
Authors such asEdgar Allan Poe andOscar Wilde (inThe Picture of Dorian Gray) also developed fantasy, in the telling of horror tales,[39] a separate branch of fantasy that was to have great influence onH. P. Lovecraft and other writers ofdark fantasy.[original research?] Wilde also wrote a large number of children's fantasies, collected inThe Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) andA House of Pomegranates (1891).[40]
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 asLord Dunsany who, following Morris's example, wrote fantasy novels, but also in the short story form.[35] He was particularly noted for his vivid and evocative style.[35] 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.[41]S. T. Joshi claims that "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 ofE. R. Eddison,Mervyn Peake, and J. R. R. Tolkien.[42]
According to historian Michael Saler,speculative fiction entered a new stage in the 1880s and 1890s as a consequence of the rise of thesecular society, where the imagination in literature was freed from the influence of the church. This allowed writers to combineaesthetic literature with the freedom of the New Romance literature and the techniques used in literary realism.[43]
H. Rider Haggard developed the conventions of theLost World subgenre, which sometime included fantasy works as in Haggard's ownShe.[44] With Africa still largely unknown to European writers, it offered scope to this type.[44] Other writers, includingEdgar Rice Burroughs andAbraham Merritt, built on the convention.
Several classicchildren's fantasies such asLewis Carroll'sAlice in Wonderland,[45]J. M. Barrie'sPeter Pan,L. Frank Baum'sThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as well as the work ofE. Nesbit andFrank R. Stockton were also published around this time.[46] Indeed,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 in it to find an audience, despite concepts that could form an adult work.[47]
At this time, the terminology for the genre was not settled. Many fantasies were termedfairy tales, includingMax Beerbohm'sThe Happy Hypocrite and MacDonald'sPhantastes.[48] It was not until 1923 that the term "fantasist" was used to describe a writer (in this case, Oscar Wilde) who wrote fantasy fiction.[49] The name "fantasy" was not developed until later; as late as J.R.R. Tolkien'sThe Hobbit, the term "fairy tale" was still being used.
An important factor in the development of the fantasy genre was the arrival of magazines devoted to fantasy fiction. The firstsuch publication was the German magazineDer Orchideengarten which ran from 1919 to 1921.[50]In 1923, the first English-language fantasy fiction magazine,Weird Tales, was created.[51] Many other similar magazines eventually followed, most noticeablyUnknown (AKAUnknown Worlds)[52] andThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction[53] The pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity at this time and was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines also played a large role in the rise ofscience fiction and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other.
Several of the genre's most prominent authors began their careers in these magazines includingClark Ashton Smith,Fritz Leiber, andRay Bradbury. The early works of manysword and sorcery authors such asRobert E. Howard also began at this time.[54] By 1950, sword and sorcery had begun to find a wide audience, with the success of Howard'sConan the Barbarian, andFritz Leiber'sFafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. Howard's works, especially Conan, were to have a noteworthy, even defining, influence on thesword and sorcery subgenre.[55] They were tales of vivid, larger-than-life action and adventure,[56] and after the work of Tolkien, the most widely read works of fantasy.[57] Leiber's stories were particularly noted for their uncommon realism for the time;Unknown developed this trait, with many stories in it showing credibility and realism.[58] Like Morris and Eddison before him, Leiber continued the tradition of drawing on Northern European legend and folklore.[59]C. L. Moore was among Howard's first imitators, with "The Black God's Kiss", in which she introducedJirel of Joiry and the heroine protagonist to sword and sorcery.[60] According toGary Lachman,Helena Blavatsky had a significant influence on some of the biggest names in both fantasy and science fiction of the pulp era.[61]
Outside the pulp magazines, several American writers used the medium of fantasy for humorous and satirical purposes, includingJames Branch Cabell (whose 1919 novelJurgen became the subject of an unsuccessful prosecutionforobscenity),[62]Thorne Smith, withTopper (1926) andTurnabout (1931),[63] andCharles G. Finney, author ofThe Circus of Dr. Lao (1935).[64]
In Britain in the aftermath of World War I, a notably large number of fantasy books aimed at an adult readership were published,includingLiving Alone byStella Benson,[65]A Voyage to Arcturus byDavid Lindsay,[66]Lady into Fox byDavid Garnett,[65]Lud-in-the-Mist byHope Mirrlees,[65][67] andLolly Willowes bySylvia Townsend Warner.[65][68]E. R. Eddison, another influential writer, 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.[36] Eddison's most famous work isThe Worm Ouroboros, a long heroic fantasy set on an imaginary version of the planet Mercury. His characters were often of great ability and noble, if not royal, birth. These characters have been admired for his work in making his villains, particularly, more vivid characters than Tolkien's.[69] Others have observed that while it is popular to depict the great of the world trampling on the lower classes, his characters often treat their subjects with arrogance and insolence, and this is depicted as part of their greatness.[70] Indeed, at the end ofThe Worm Ouroboros, the heroes, finding peace dull, pray for and get the revival of their enemies, so that they may go and fight them again, regardless of the casualties that such a war would have.[71] Several of these writers (including Eddison, Lindsay, and Mirrlees) had their fantasy work republished during the 1960s and 1970s.[65]
In 1938, with the publication ofThe Sword in the Stone,T. H. White introduced one of the most notable works ofcomic fantasy.[72] This strain continued with such writers asL. Sprague de Camp.[73]
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 bookEnglish Prose Style (1928) to discussing "Fantasy" as an aspectof 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".[33]Edward Wagenknecht also discussed fantasy elements in both children's and adult fiction in his 1946 article "The Little Prince Rides the White Deer".[74]
It was the advent of high fantasy, in particularJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings, which allowed fantasy to truly enter into the mainstream. Tolkien had publishedThe Hobbit in 1937 andThe Lord of the Rings in the 1950s; while the first was a fairy tale fantasy, the second was anepic fantasy that expanded upon the groundwork ofThe Hobbit.[75][76] Although Tolkien's works had been successful in Britain, it was not until the late 1960s that they became popular in America thanks to its burgeoning counterculture.[77] In the early 60s there was a renewed interest in sword and sorcery, and publishers mined the pulps for older stories to reprint along with the limited amount of new material. In demand for more, Ace Books science fiction editorDonald A. Wollheim felt Tolkien's three part novel had enough elements in common with sword and sorcery that it would appeal to the readers of the latter, after which he published an unauthorized paperback edition. On its first-page blurb, it was described as "a book of sword-and-sorcery that anyone can read with delight and pleasure". But the readers of the book would extend way beyond sword and sorcery fandom.[78] By the end of 1968,The Lord of the Rings had sold over 3 million copies in America. Its unexpected success caused American publishers to swiftly reissue a large number of older, often obscure, fantasy novels, catapulting them to belated success.[79]
It is difficult to overstate the impact thatThe Lord of the Rings had on the fantasy genre; in some respects, it swamped all the works of fantasy that had been written before it, and it unquestionably created "fantasy" as a marketing category.[80] It created an enormous number ofTolkienesque works, using the themes found inThe Lord of the Rings.[80] The author and editor ofJournal of the Fantastic in the Arts,Brian Attebery, writes that fantasy is defined "not by boundaries but by a centre", which isThe Lord of the Rings.[81]
Tolkien's works also helped fantasy literature to achieve a new degree of mainstream critical acclaim. Numerous polls to identify the greatest book of the century foundThe Lord of the Rings selected by widely different groups.[77]
While constructing original fantasy worlds with detailed histories, geographies and political landscapes had been a part of the genre from the time ofL. Frank Baum, Tolkien's influence greatly popularized the notion. This led to a subsequent decline of such devices asdream frames to explain away the fantastical nature of the setting. This stemmed not only from his example, but from his literary criticism; his "On Fairy Stories", in which he termed such settings "secondary worlds," was a formative work of fantasy criticism.[82]
The impact that his books, combined with the success of several other series such asC. S. Lewis'sChronicles of Narnia,Mervyn Peake'sGormenghast series[83] and Ursula K. Le Guin'sEarthsea, helped cement the genre's popularity and gave birth to the current wave of fantasy literature.
| This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "History of fantasy" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
With the immense success of Tolkien's works, publishers began to search for a new series with similar mass-market appeal. Fantasy novels began to replace fiction magazines as the heart of the genre.
Lin Carter edited theBallantine Adult Fantasy series, when Ballantine pursued the fantasy market; it was so titled to avert the series being filed as children's literature. The line contained mostly reprints, but introduced some new fantasy works. Reprinted authors includedWilliam Morris,Lord Dunsany, andGeorge MacDonald; more recent authors includedHope Mirrlees'sLud-in-the-Mist,Ernest Bramah'sKai Lung books, andEvangeline Walton'sThe Island of the Mighty, the success of which led to the publication of the other three novels she had written in that series, and to a distinct strain ofCeltic fantasy in later fantasy.[84] Another work in this series that was influential for the Celtic fantasy subgenre wasKatherine Kurtz'sDeryni Rising.
Although many fantasy novels of this time proved popular, it was not until 1977'sThe Sword of Shannara that publishers found the sort of breakthrough success they had hoped for. The book became the first fantasy novel to appear on, and eventually top theNew York Times bestseller list. As a result, the genre saw a boom in the number of titles published. Fantasy novels of the late 1970s and 1980s includedStephen R. Donaldson'sLord Foul's Bane (1977) the first inThe Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever series,John Crowley'sLittle, Big (1981),Raymond E. Feist'sMagician (1982),Robert Holdstock'sMythago Wood (1984) andGlen Cook'sBlack Company series.[85]
By the early 1980s the fantasy market was much larger than that of almost all science fiction authors.[86] The long-running series of light fantasies byPiers Anthony (Xanth) andTerry Pratchett (Discworld) regularly hit the bestseller lists from the 1980s onward. Notable books of the 1990s includeRobert Jordan's popular seriesThe Wheel of Time,Tad Williams'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series andGeorge R. R. Martin'sA Song of Ice and Fire (the basis of the American fantasy drama television seriesGame of Thrones).[87]A Song of Ice and Fire is considered a path-breaking work which paved the way for a new kind of fantasy referred to asgrimdark, which was less idealistic and more violent in nature.[88][89] WithJ.K. Rowling'sHarry Potter novels, which have become the best selling book series of all time, fantasy is becoming increasingly intertwined with mainstream fiction; a process aided by the international popularity of other works such asChristopher Paolini'sInheritance Cycle,Ranger's Apprentice byJohn Flanagan,Brandon Sanderson'sStormlight Archive, andPhilip Pullman'sHis Dark Materials. The success of majorfilm adaptations such asThe Lord of the Rings,Harry Potter, andThe Chronicles of Narnia film series has helped further this trend.
Since the 1990s, the genre has been marked by the rise of female-centricurban fantasy, very different from Tolkien's works, as shown by the popularity ofLaurell K. Hamilton'sAnita Blake novels andCharlaine Harris'The Southern Vampire Mysteries books.[90]
Leading works on the history of the genre includeLiterary Swordsmen and Sorcerers, 1976, andThe Encyclopedia of Fantasy, 1997.Manuscript Found in a Dragon's Cave is ametafictional a guide to fantasy literature, written in the form of an encyclopedia by Polish fantasy writerAndrzej Sapkowski.
