WEEK THREE - Ethan

How has fantasy as a genre been defined? Can the genre legitimately be defined by examples?

The fantasy genre is often described as a story that is based on impossibilities Attebery(1980). An example of this is ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy which is based in an imaginary world with things such as magic that are deemed impossible in the real world. As W. R. Irwin has said that the primary feature of fantasy is “an overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility.” He also goes on to say “whatever the material, extravagant or seemingly commonplace, a narrative is a fantasy if it presents the persuasive establishment and development of impossibility, an arbitrary construct of the mind with all under the control of logic and rhetoric”. The fantasy genre cannot be defined down to a few certain texts as it can involve a lot of characteristics such as Gothicism, science fiction, utopia and much more. As long as it presents the persuasive establishment and development of impossibility it can be classed as a fantasy, W. R. Irwin.

References:
Extract: Atterbery, B. The Fantasy Tradition in America Literature: From Irving to Le Guin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980, 1-10