The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature

by Edited by Edward James , Farah Mendlesohn

• ISBN13: 9780521728737
• ISBN10: 0521728738
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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).

Table of Contents

Note on the contributors	p. x
Chronology	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Histories	p. 5
Fantasy from Dryden to Dunsany	p. 7
Gothic and horror fiction	p. 21
American fantasy 1820-1950	p. 36
The development of children's fantasy	p. 50
Tolkien, Lewis and the explosion of genre fantasy	p. 62
Ways of Reading	p. 79
Structuralism	p. 81
Psychoanalysis	p. 91
Political readings	p. 102
Modernism and postmodernism	p. 113
Thematic criticism	p. 125
The languages of the fantastic	p. 134
Reading the fantasy series	p. 147
Reading the slipstream	p. 154
Clusters	p. 165
Magical realism	p. 167
Writers of colour	p. 179
Quest fantasies	p. 190
Urban fantasy	p. 200
Dark fantasy and paranormal romance	p. 214
Modern children's fantasy	p. 224
Historical fantasy	p. 236
Fantasies of history and religion	p. 248
Further reading	p. 257
Index	p. 262
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