Academic literature on the topic 'Fantasy fiction, American'

S.King is a modern American writer of supernatural, horror fiction, science fiction and fantasy. His works are powerful because he integrates his life experiences and observations into idiosyncratic stories. He uses a free style of writing. Generally By the help of supernatural beings, vampire, demon, insubstantial events he mystifies and shocks readers, confuses their minds. The writer’s psycho-emotional situation, inner world rebound his works. This article is devoted to the conceptual interpretation of S.King’s creativity. In his works he tries to show the depth of his imagination. Key words: modern American literature, fantasy, horror fiction, psycho-emotional creativity, mystical elements

The article shares the author’s experience of teaching interfaculty science fiction (sci-fi) and fantasy lecture courses at Lomono-sov Moscow State University, attended by students of all departments. In the period between 2013 and 2020 six such courses were taught, the number of students varying from 250 to 450 each. The courses comprised sci-fi and fantasy theory, sci-fi and fantasy status among other types of fiction narratives, the main stages of Russian and foreign sci-fi and fantasy history, the creative activity of outstanding sci-fi and fantasy writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Apart from the Russian, West European and North American writers, works by East European (Slavic) authors were thoroughly examined. The article contains neat observations on the degree of Slavic sci-fi and fantasy writers’ popularity among young Russian readers and on the most inter-esting fiction texts for students. The data obtained through the analysis of the students’ assignments comprise their answers to the questions about their favorite sci-fi writers and books lists, on the reasons of certain fantastic worlds’ attractiveness, on their preferences in sci-fi or fantasy. The article also clarifies the principles of writers and their works selection for the lecture cours-es, it characterizes the creative activity of Slavic writers and reveals the interrelation between Slavic writers’ fiction works and the general scope of problems discussed at interfaculty sci-fi lecture courses. Taking into account the students’ interest in works by Karel Čapek, Stanislaw Lem, Andrzej Sapkowski and other Slavic authors, we suggest some ideas about the potential structure of a specialized lecture course focusing on science fiction and fantasy in Slavic countries.

The subject of this research is the unique literary technique of the prominent American fantasy and science fiction writer Roger Zelazny, the author of the world-renowned novels, such as “The Chronicles of Amber”, “This Immortal”, "The Lord of Light”, etc. The article is dedicated namely to determination of the key peculiarities of the poetics of his works. Special attention is given to characterization of his literary path, its periodization, the impact of Zelazny's predecessors – the authors of science fiction and classical world literature – upon his prose. It is noted that R. Zelazny was fascinated with various mythological systems, such as Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Celtic, and Christian. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the attempt to reveal and systematize the most remarkable features of the works of the American fantasy and science fiction writer, whose impact upon the modern fantasy literature can hardly be overestimated; however it has been poorly studied within the Russian literary studies. The conducted analysis of the poetics Roger Zelazny’s iconic novels, created within the framework of the four main stages, indicates the use such postmodernist literary technique as intertextuality. The matter of R. Zelazny is also characterized by psychologism, interpreted as the author's attention to the meticulous reconstruction of the inner cosmos of the hero, which resembles the result of the writer's passion for the ideas of psychoanalysis. Along with the other representatives of the New Wave, Zelazny was prone to the experiment with forms, as well as to the synthesis of the various fantasy genres. Therefore, many of his novels demonstrate the fusion of science fiction, fantasy, space opera, mystery, and detective fiction.

The article under studies deals with the issue of regeneration of genre forms of science fiction literature through its evolution. In the context of topical issues of poetics, it outlines the genrological status of science fiction and fantasy in terms of genre modifications – genre, genre variety, sub-genre, mega-genre, and meta-genre. Particular emphasis has been placed on the fact that the evolution of science fiction into a meta-genre format is due to a number of factors, such as the simulative nature of the chronotope of possible and parallel worlds, the change in the anthropological vector of texts, and the involvement of samples of other art forms (intermedial components). In addition, the activation of intertextual narratives in the personosphere (which becomes an important parameter of the meta-genre) has been identified as a marker of the genre evolution of fantasy. The creative activity of the American classic of science fiction prose Clifford Simak (1904–1988) may be regarded as a typical example of how science fiction writers appeal to “other authors’ texts”. This research relies on the analysis of his novel “Shakespeare’s Planet” (1976), in which the reader’s attention is mainly focused on the intertextual parameters of the personosphere, which significantly expands the hyper-real chronotope of the science fiction world. The works by William Shakespeare are identified as the prototexts for fantasy texts. Interpreted by Simak, the Shakespearean imagological narratives are implemented through quotations, reminiscences, anthropological allusions (the use of Shakespeare’s characters’ names), as well as through the introduction of the figure of Shakespeare himself into the fantasy personosphere. What is more, the figure of the English classic occasionally appears as the very center of the personosphere, its confocal axis. It has been determined in the article that the mystified and ironic story of Shakespeare’s timeless existence ferments the internal content of the fantasy text. Besides, the personosphere of a fantasy novel with several fictional narratives also includes the classic’s texts, such as “Hamlet”, “Twelfth Night”, “The End Praises the End”, “The Comedy of Errors”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Othello”, “Pericles”, “The Taming of the Shrew”, “Richard III”, and “Titus Andronicus”. In this case, in Simak’s “Shakespeare’s Planet”, they perform the function of additional (implicit) narratives, and, consequently, as a particular (intertextual) link in the personosphere. In conclusion, the article claims that the consistent generation of new literary genre formats in the field of the cultural continuum is an immanent feature of the complex literary process, which can be fully realized only with the help of the reader’s rich receptive background.

Based on the methodological proposals of literary anthropology, in particular on the conceptual ideas of C. Levi-Strauss (structural anthropology), J. Ortega y Gasset (“dehumanization of arts”), J.-M. Schaeffer (“the end of human exceptionality”), M. Foucault (the fall of a human being from the humanistic pedestal of culture), the article under studies emphasizes the violation of the anthropological dominant in science fiction, which is very typical of the fantasy genre. Consequently, there arise new principles of constructing personosphere of a literary text. On the example of the novel “City” (1953) by an American science fiction writer Clifford Simak, the article traces the way a human being shifts from the center of personosphere to the “outskirts” of narration, whereas its image acquires fictional parameters. This all happens due to the phenomenon of “anthropocene” (the term by G. Canavan), which implies the harmful consequences of the human reigning over the nature. In addition, the author of the article introduces the notion of “phantasoid’ – a character of the fictional world of fantasy (outlined by the narrator) that functions exceptionally in the imagination of a certain fantastic character and is somehow related to his previous experience. The novel by C. Simak outlines a gradual shift of the anthropological vector: the heterogeneous image of a human turns into a counter-image, whereby particular significance is attached to the change in the attitude towards mankind. In the text, human culture is perceived as something alien, while Simak’s image of a human being ruins the so called imagological stereotype, along with the reader’s receptive expectations. The role of the attractor in the novel is assigned to “antromorphized” and “humanized” creatures (plants, animals, objects, robots, mutants), which indicates the drastic breach with the previous genre tradition, as well as higlights a peculiar polemic connection with classical literary science fiction. This all proves the metamorphic nature of science fiction and its transition into the hyperreal dimensions of fantasy, where different artificial forms of life and mentality can peacefully coexist with each other.

Abstract This essay argues that early American novelists’ sustained commitment to epistolary fiction reflects their recognition that the mediated access it offered to inner life made it a potent vehicle for highlighting the limits of our ability to decipher the concealed interiorities of other people. Faced with the question of how novels might best prepare readers for republican social and political life, novelists such as Charles Brockden Brown and Susanna Rowson turned to this increasingly outmoded form because it foregrounded the uncertainties inherent in reading inner life. Eschewing third-person fiction’s fantasy of direct access to another mind, these novels foster an epistemological humility regarding other interiorities that would be valuable in negotiating civic life in the early republic. While early American novels have long been regarded as encouraging sympathetic identification as a means of establishing political union, novels such as Brown’s Clara Howard and Rowson’s Sincerity instead harness the epistolary novel’s partial, uncertain revelations of interiority to highlight our inability to access fully someone else’s thoughts or feelings. These novels warn readers that successfully navigating the epistemological challenges of this new democratic social order requires resisting the fantasy that another person’s true feelings can ever be fully known.Rowson and Brown saw epistolary novels as a means of not just teaching Americans how to read inner life, but also of cautioning them that they could never do so with certainty.

The article is devoted to theoretical exploration of modern hybrid speculative fiction. This term comprises a huge body of creative works which are written at the intersection of genres related to speculative prose. On the one hand, hybrid speculative fiction is rooted in post-modern epoch, on the other hand, it returns to the principles of hybrid genre genesis, which flourished at the beginning of the 20th century. The tendency to genre eclecticism is a common feature of a great number of modern creative works and seems to be an efficient way out of conceptual crisis emerged in speculative fiction at the close of the 20th century, that is why the future development of speculative fiction is expected to be closely connected with the expansion of hybrid genre forms. The overall goal of the article is to scientifically comprehend hybrid genres in modern speculative fiction of the United States and Russia. The investigation of hybrid speculative fiction as a genre and cultural phenomenon leads to setting three goals. Firstly, it is necessary to determine genre taxonomy of such genres of traditional speculative fiction as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Secondly, it is necessary to investigate genre-forming models, which underlie modern hybrid works. Thirdly, it is important to understand common features of the works of hybrid speculative fiction. The study of the genre interaction in modern speculative fiction is based on the descriptive and functional methods. The comparison of Russian and American works involves the use of comparative, typological and cultural-historical methods. Using the genre blocks common for both literary criticism, readers’ expectations and publishing practice, it is possible to identify such genre-forming models of hybrid speculative fiction, as: science fiction+fantasy; science fiction+horror; fantasy+historical novel; fantasy+postmodernist novel. It is also possible to sum up such common features of the works of hybrid speculative fiction, as: irrational world outlook; distortion of the very structural basis of traditional science fiction; shift of sociocultural model of world outlook; polyphonic principle of narration and potentially an endless unravelling of the plot without a pronounced climax; postclassical narrative model; the complexity of storyline. To conclude, modern hybrid speculative fiction can be treated as a separate literary and sociocultural phenomenon in the literature of the U.S. and Russia. It destroys inner canons of traditional science fiction, it is deeply influenced by post-modern cultural paradigm, and could be described as a significant cultural movement, which is aligned with demands and values of modern society.

Literary criticism has debated the usefulness of the trauma paradigm found in much post-9/11 fiction. Where critiqued, trauma is sometimes understood as a domesticating concept by which the events of 9/11 are incorporated into sentimental, familial dramas and romances with no purchase on the international significance of the terrorist attacks and the US's response to them; or, the concept of trauma is understood critically as the means by which the boundaries of a nation or “homeland” self-perceived as violated and victimized may be shored up, rendered impermeable – if that were possible. A counterversion of trauma argues its potential as an affective means of bridging the divide between a wounded US and global suffering. Understood in this way, the concept of trauma becomes the means by which the significance of 9/11 could be deterritorialized. While these versions of trauma, found in academic theory and literary practice, invoke the spatial – the domestic sphere, the homeland, the global – they tend to focus on the time of trauma rather than on the imbrication of the temporal and the spatial. If, instead, 9/11 trauma could be more productively defined as the puncturing of national fantasies of an inviolable and innocent homeland, fantasies which themselves rest on the (failed) repression of foundational violence in the colonial and settler creation of that homeland, and on subsequent notions of American exceptionalism at home and, in the exercise of foreign policy, abroad, then the traumatic can be spatialized. In other words, understood in relation to fantasy, trauma illuminates the terroritalization and deterritorialization of American history. After working through various examples of post-9/11 fiction to demonstrate parochial renditions of trauma and trauma's unrealized global resonances, this article turns to Cormac McCarthy's 9/11 allegory The Road for the way in which its spaces, places and territories are marked by inextricable traumas of the past and present – and therefore for the way in which it models trauma's relation to national fantasy.

Science Fiction/Fantasy and the Representation of Ethnic Futurity examines the influence of science fiction/fantasy (SFF) as applied to twentieth century and contemporary African American, Native American and Latina/o texts. Bringing together theories of racial identity, hybridity, and postcolonialism, this project demonstrates how twentieth century and contemporary ethnic American SFF authors are currently utilizing tropes of SFF to blur racial distinctions and challenge white/other or colonizer/colonized binaries. Ethnic American SFF authors are able to employ SFF landscapes that address narratives of victimization or colonization while still imagining worlds where alternate representations of racial and ethnic identity are possible. My multicultural approach pairs authors of different ethnicities in order to examine common themes that occur in ethnic American SFF texts. The first chapter examines SFF post-apocalyptic depictions of racial and ethnic identity in Samuel Delany's Dhalgren and Gerald Vizenor's Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles. Chapter two explores depictions of ethnic undead figures in Octavia Butler's Fledgling and Daniel José Older's "Phantom Overload." Chapter three addresses themes of indigenous and migrant colonization in Celu Amberstone's "Refugees" and Rosura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita's Lunar Braceros: 2125-2148.

This collection of short stories studies the elements of genre fiction and applies them to literary fiction. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror have specific manners in which they speak to an audience. By using these elements, for example the desensitization of the current generation of readers to most horrors, an author can demonstrate the core of the human relationship to pain, faith, or hope. Though some genre fiction seems to fit certain formulas, there are also horror or science fiction stories which do not fit a conventional mold. This collection sets forth to break away from genre fiction conventions. Also, this project utilizes the genre of magical realism, which is the medium between genre fiction and literary fiction, by using fantastic events within a mundane setting to emphasize the author's ideas. By bridging the gap between genres, magical realism reveals how interrelated the elements of all genres are. In this study stories use magical and horrifying events while maintaining an intention beyond the formulaic thrill. Therefore, genre fiction can have a place amongst literature.<br>Department of English

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2007.<br>Title from file title page. Elizabeth West, committee chair; Layli Phillips, Kameelah Martin Samuel, committee members. Electronic text (52 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Jan. 30, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-52).

This thesis is a collection of nine short stories about real people dealing with unreal problems. In one story, a small-town man answers a knock at his door, only to find three wisemen, who have followed a star and proclaimed him as their new messiah. In another, a reporter travels across the snowy length of Canada looking to interview people who have witnessed the Virgin Mary materialize above Toronto. Deranged Egyptologists, vampires with diseased blood, wacky witches, and unhappy mediums all inhabit tales whose landscapes span the distance between Chattanooga, Tennessee and the afterlife.

Speculative fiction allows an expanded view of literature and so allows scholars to explore new boundaries in the way words and ideas work. In the titular character of The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, the reader sees an expansion of self through liminality while A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick explores its collapse. In order to portray each of these the character examined must move though one seems to move upward and the other downward. This idea of movement is only part of what expands the idea of liminality past the traditional idea of a doorway to create a hallway that the character might traverse on the way from place to place. This is not a redefinition of the term but a revision, a change in the way that we look at the concept as we accept and explore newer genres.

In this thesis, I examine three works of modern German fantasy fiction for young adults, their common grounding in the Romantic aesthetic framework and in particular the Romantic notion of creativity, and the implication of their unique fantasy fiction paradigm in our modern day. The novels are Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story (1979), Inkheart (2003) by Cornelia Funke and The City of Dreaming Books (2006) by Walter Moers. They represent a Germany-specific narrative paradigm which can be seen in the protagonist readers’ transformation from mere readers into storymakers/storytellers, and in the conflict between a book-loving hero and antagonists who are against literature. The protagonists embody the Romantic notion of creativity that involves the sublimation of a poet’s crisis into an exploration of the self. The mundane is infused with fantasy, thereby elevating reality to an idealised state. These Romantic storytelling readers act as tricksters, a fairy tale archetype that shares similarities with the figure of the Romantic poet. I employ the theoretical frameworks of German Romanticism, Frankfurt School critical theory, and postmodern models, including those by Deleuze and Guattari. I argue for a modern version of the trickster archetype which explains how a complacent, passive reader becomes an active storyteller.<br>Graduate

Los megadesarrollos turísticos de sol y playa han sido impulsados por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) como proyectos de estrategia de desarrollo turístico, en México nacen los Centros&#x0D; Integralmente Planeados (CIP´s) para dar orden urbano, descentralizando grandes inversiones turísticas principalmente de origen extranjeros. Son identificados ante la promoción turística por la inversión de&#x0D; insumos y tecnología. Los emplazamientos turísticos de sol y playa han crecido y destinan espacios para el hospedaje turístico temporal y permanente. Este tipo de emplazamientos destacan por ser &#x0D; representaciones de exclusividad, privacidad y seguridad, manifestando enclavamiento en la serie de conjuntos turísticos construidos para integrar el megadesarrollo turístico, demarcando un acceso que indica el inicio del montaje realidad-ficción, conformando el montaje de ficción, que llevan a construir una realidad a partir del imaginario.&#x0D; Lo sucedido fuera del montaje será considerado como realidad, al establecerse una serie de compaginaciones que fabricarán la nueva realidad, la realidad-ficción, entre representaciones de fantasía&#x0D; visuales, de sonidos y sobretodo de ideas por transmitir, como es lo motivante que resultan para los turistas las guías turísticas. Las representaciones son basadas en imágenes de paisajes, personas, ciudades, entre otros emblemas simbólicos. Cada espacio por destacar será retomado para enfocar el montaje en dibujos, pinturas, danzas, arquitectura, entre otras dinámicas de conquista turística, igual sucede con la reproducción de sonidos relacionados con la exclusividad, privacidad y seguridad para el&#x0D; turista al interior del conjunto. Toda construcción de la realidad se realiza en un espacio y un tiempo definido a partir del imaginario, ya que existe el objetivo de cautivar al visitante, dentro de una serie de&#x0D; montajes continuos donde será eliminada la línea de corte entre montajes, convirtiendo la ficción en realidad para el turista, el montaje correcto y el escenario indicado, señalan el orden constante de los montajes.&#x0D; Del trozo de imágenes fabricadas y rescatadas del ambiente natural o real, se conformara una relación argumental a través de la compaginación con la secuencia adecuada de cada una de las escenas plasmadas por el imaginario, unir y encauzar los montajes para el cumplimiento de la representación en un filme. De los ejemplos más destacados son las creaciones a partir del imaginario en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, representados en los hoteles como torre hilton baynunah, jumeirah Beach burj al-arab, hotel w, hotel apearon island y hotel eta, los cuales exponen servicios como compras de lujo, centros spa con instalaciones exclusivas para el deporte y el tiempo libre, habitaciones equipadas, climatizadas y con lo último de la tecnología. Se distinguen los colores y las formas por resaltar ante la cultura árabe, pero es importante señalar que cada uno de esos megadesarrollos turísticos marcará su filme con esta serie de montajes, que permitirán compaginar la serie de trozos de imágenes fabricadas ante la fantasía imaginada.&#x0D; Los megadesarrollos turísticos se distinguen por crear escenarios turísticos a partir del imaginario,&#x0D; destacando el enclavamiento a través de la búsqueda del concepto de seguridad, con un marcado interés&#x0D; para conformar comunidades nuevas, asimismo elementos como los acceso se encuentran custodiados&#x0D; por personal de seguridad que indicara la bienvenida al turista, sin conocer que será guiado y vigilado por&#x0D; cámaras de video ocultas en la masa de la edificación, también se distinguen elementos de seguridad&#x0D; para la movilidad y accesibilidad al conjunto, destacando vía aérea, naval ó terrestre, el recorrido al&#x0D; interior marcándose bajo un escalonamiento de cota descendente a nivel de playa, mostrara cada uno de&#x0D; los escenarios turísticos montados para indicar el recorrido al turista al interior del conjunto turístico. The sun and beach tourist megadevelopments have been stimulated by the Inter-American Bank of Development (BID) as projects of strategy of tourist development, in Mexico there are born the Integrally&#x0D; planned Centers (CIP's) to give urban order, decentralizing big tourist investments principally of origin foreigners. They are identified before the tourist promotion by the investment of inputs and technology.&#x0D; The emplacements have grown and destine spaces for the tourist temporary and permanent. This type stand out for being representations of exclusivity, privacy and safety, demonstrating interlock in the series&#x0D; of tourist sets constructed to integrate the tourist megadevelopment, limiting an access that indicates the beginning of the montage reality - fiction, shaping the montage of fiction, that they lead to constructing a&#x0D; reality from the imaginary one.&#x0D; The happened out of the montage will be considered to be a reality, on there having be established a series of page lay-outs that will make the new reality, the reality - fiction, between visual representations of&#x0D; fantasy, of sounds and overcoat of ideas for transmitting, since motivation is that the tourist guides prove for the tourists. The representations are based on images of landscapes, persons, cities and symbolic&#x0D; emblems. Chaque espace pour se faire remarquer sera repris pour mettre au point le montage dans des dessins, des peintures, des danses, une architecture, entre d'autres dynamiques de conquête touristique, égale il succède avec la reproduction de sons relatifs à l'exclusivité, confidentialité et sécurité pour le touriste à l'intérieur de l'ensemble. Toute construction de la réalité est réalisée dans un espace et le temps&#x0D; défini à partir de l'imaginaire, puisqu'il existe l'objectif de captiver le visiteur, à l'intérieur d'une série de montages continuels où la ligne de coupure sera éliminée entre des montages, en changeant la fiction en réalité pour le touriste, le montage correct et la scène indiquée, ils marquent l'ordre constant des montages.&#x0D; Of the chunk of images made and rescued of the natural or real environment, a plot relation was conforming across the page lay-out to the suitable sequence of each one of the scenes formed by the imaginary one, to join and to channel the montages for the fulfillment of the representation in a movie. Of the most out-standing examples they are the creations from the imaginary one in the United Arab Emirates represented in the hotels as tower hilton baynunah, jumeirah Beach burj al-arab, hotel w, hotel apearon island y hotel eta, which expose services as purchases of luxury, centers spa with exclusive facilities for the sport and the free time, equipped rooms with the last technology. &#x0D; The colors and the forms are distinguished for standing out before the Arabic culture, but it is important to indicate that each of these megadevelopments will mark with this series of montages, which will allow to&#x0D; arrange the series of chunks of images made before the imagined fantasy. The megadevelopments differ for creating tourist scenes from the imaginary one, emphasizing the interlock across the search of the&#x0D; safety concept, with a marked interest to shape new communities, likewise elements like them I access they are guarded by safety personnel that was indicating the welcome to the tourist, Without knowing that&#x0D; it will be guided and monitored by secret video cameras in the mass of the building, also safety elements are distinguished for the mobility and accessibility to the set, emphasizing airway, navally ó terrestrial, the tour to the interior being marked under an stairs of descending level to beach level, there was showing each of the tourist scenes mounted to indicate the tour to the tourist to the interior of the set.