2007-02-27 13:40:28 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Definition of Fantasy: In literature, fantasy is a form of speculative fiction in which physical laws differ from our own through a reason for which no scientific explanation is offered, or which take place a world wholly different from our own.
Loosely, Fantasy encompasses:
•High Fantasy: wholly created new worlds like The Blue Sword, The Tale of Despereaux and Wren to the Rescue
•Imaginary Tales: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Borrowers, The Golden Compass
•Modern stories of talking beasts, personified toys and other inanimate objects: Redwall, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, Catwings
•Humorous fantasy: Mary Poppins and Dr. Seuss.
•More specifically, fantasy literature encompasses many kinds of works: legends, ballads, romances, myths, literary fairy tales, magic realism, animal fantasies, time-slip fantasies, and science fiction.
Fantasy Characteristics:
•In fantasy novels, social hierarchies, taboos, supernatural creatures, magic, high moral standards, quests, and villains operate in a world in which chaos is ultimately dispelled and virtue rewarded. More simply, good triumphs over evil after a quest and or a struggle.
•Fantasy shares characteristics with other genres:
•Domestic fantasies are family stories,
•Harry Potter is closely aligned with traditional school stories,
•The Hobbit is a quest narrative.
•And while these stories contain magic, the magic usually doesn’t solve the problem.
2007-02-28 01:12:38 · answer #1 · answered by suzykew70 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The true definition of fantasy is you can't get there from here. There's some system of magic or mythos in place.
With science fiction, you CAN get there from here. No magic.
The major publishers have garbled the definition to the point that they throw low tech science fiction like the Pern and Darkover novels into fantasy. They have not yet split science fiction into low tech and high tech like the smaller publishers have done. Low tech science fiction has few of the scientific trappings, but it is not fantasy. High tech science fiction demands a high level of science and visible trappings.
2007-02-27 13:52:30 · answer #2 · answered by loryntoo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To quote the late, great Rod Serling: "Science fiction is the improbable made possible; fantasy is the impossible made probable." I couldn't have put it better myself. Fantasy contains elements of great imagination, but those elements are not limited to the merely possible, but encompass and embrace the impossible as well. That the fantastic, the impossible, seems real, is the mark of great fantasy.
2007-02-27 14:05:37 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fantasy deals with magic and/or fantastistical creatures like unicorns, dragons, centaurs, etc. In some of my favorite stories, the magic is subtle but still there.
2007-02-27 13:47:57 · answer #4 · answered by tkron31 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It often takes place in an alternate universe or made up country.
2007-02-27 13:50:39 · answer #5 · answered by The Goddess of Demons 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
is made up, totally not true and includes mystical, fantastical creatures and magic and stuff
2007-02-27 13:49:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋