| Fantasy is agenre that usesmagic and othersupernatural forms as a primary element ofplot,theme, and/orsetting. Many works within the genre take place on fictionalplanes or planets where magic is common. Fantasy is generally distinguished fromscience fiction andhorror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific andmacabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (which are subgenres ofspeculative fiction). In popular culture, the genre of fantasy is dominated by itsmedievalist form, especially since the worldwide success ofThe Lord of the Rings byJ. R. R. Tolkien. In its broadest sense however, fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, from ancientmyths andlegends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today. Fantasy is a vibrant area of academic study in a number of disciplines (English, cultural studies, comparative literature, history, medieval studies). Work in this area ranges widely, from the structuralist theory ofTzvetan Todorov, which emphasizes the fantastic as a liminal space, to work on the connections (political, historical, literary) between medievalism and popular culture. The identifying traits of fantasy are the inclusion of fantastic elements in a self-coherent (internallyconsistent) setting, where inspiration from mythology and folklore remains a consistent theme. Within such a structure, any location of the fantastical element is possible: it may be hidden in, or leak into the apparently real world setting, it may draw the characters into a world with such elements, or it may occur entirely in afantasy world setting, where such elements are part of the world. American fantasy, starting with the stories chosen byJohn W. Campbell, Jr. for the magazineUnknown, is often characterized by internal logic. That is, the events in the story are impossible, but follow "laws" of magic, and have a setting that is internally consistent. |  |
