1. Fantasy

3. Fantasy: Two meanings
Fantasy can be seen as a psychological phenomenon
Fantasy can be seen as a form of literature

5. Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature (and film, TV, etc.) presents the audience with a world, characters, events or circumstances that are either ‘impossible’ or so unlikely that any reasonable person would not believe that they either had previously happened or are likely to happen in the ‘historical world’

7. Influences on fantasy
Fairy stories are sources of much of the content found in contemporary fantasy
Elves, dwarves, dragons, witches, etc.
Classic myths have often inspired the plotlines as well as contributing characters to the fantasy genre
Heros, quests, fairy stories, Greek myths, conflicts between good and evil

8. Related genres or subgenres
Dark fantasy Horror
Science fantasy Science fiction
Superhero fantasy

11. What attracts us to fantasy?
Pure escapism
Simplification, clarity of exposition
Basic, primal themes and characters
Invokes a sense of wonder
1. One argument is that we enjoy pure escapism
Simply being immersed in a fantasy land with mystical or nonhuman characters is said to be enjoyable in and of itself
Questionable
2. Another argument is that by taking control over the environment the author can simplify the conflicts, provide clear characterization that is not muddied by experience, etc.
3. A third explanation is that these timeless stories are that way because they touch something basic and primal in the human psyche
Freud’s views on the conflicts involved in maturation, the id, the ego, the superego
Jung’s archetypes as collective unconscious
4. A fourth explanation is that they invoke in us a sense of wonder
The sense that has declined in the face of secularization, science
The same need for a sense of wonder that sparked the religious revival of the 1970s and 1980s

12. Common features Magic/mysticism Monsters Non-human characters
Often taken from Nordic mythology
Classic sexist stereotyping
Recent moves toward less stereotyped portrayals
Human heroes
Knights, kings, common men pressed into service