Basic Categories of Fantastic Literature Revisited

A unique collection of essays on selected aspects of science-fiction, fantasy and broadly understood fantastic literature, unified by a highly theoretical focus, this volume offers an overview of the most important theories pertaining to the field of the fantastic, such as Tzvetan Todorov’s definition of the term itself, J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay ‘On Fairy Stories,’ and the concept of ‘Gothic space’. The composition and order of the chapters provide the reader with a systematic overview of major theoretical perspectives and serve as an accessible introduction to the topic of fantastic literature.

The book combines reflection on various genres such as fantasy, science fiction, horror, Gothic writing, and even drama, offering a comprehensive overview of the fantastic across generic lines. The authors whose works are addressed by the volume’s twelve chapters include some of the most popular household names in fantastic literature, such as H.P. Lovecraft, George R.R. Martin, Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman. In addition, the volume also includes readings of contemporary fantastic literature against the backdrop of world literature classics, such as Homeric poetry, Edmund Spenser and the drama of the English Renaissance.

Andrej Wicher is Full Professor in the Institute of English Studies of the University of Łódź, where he teaches medieval and early modern English literature. He is the author of Selected Medieval and Religious Themes in the Works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (2013).

Piotr Spyra is Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Drama and Pre-1800 English Literature at the University of Łódź, where he teaches medieval and early modern English literature. He is the author of The Epistemological Perspective of the Pearl-Poet (2014).

Joanna Matyjaszczyk is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Studies in Drama and Pre-1800 English Literature at the University of Łódź, and is a co-editor of the journal Analyses/Rereadings/Theories.

"In the process of renewing our understanding of common attributes and variations on the fantastic, the notions and really base definitions of epic, drama and even poetry are reexamined as well. Take for example the Spenserian tradition of allegory found in the Faerie Queene as a touchpoint for examining Gaiman’s Neverwhere, or even more striking, the use of Webster’s Duchesse of Malfi as a means to understanding lycanthropy as a reflection of the diseased mind, even the Lovecraftian approach to disjunctive spaces as a reaction to Einstein’s theories of Timespace. Each of these analyses represents a thoroughly fresh take on what it means to deem a work fantastic, using disparate disciplines ranging from psychology, to physics to evolutionary Darwinism as tools to reanimate and reinvigorate traditions of mimesis. [...] Overall, this collection of essays succeeds in its reinvention and expansion of the traditional fantastic first established as a literary genre by Todorov."

—Sharon Bolding, Mythlore 129 (2016)

"This collection offers a stimulating discussion of fantastic literature in its varied forms ‘high and low’. The essays contribute to the discourse of the field by means of a theoretical analysis of concrete examples of fantastic literature and posit the individual texts within the wider framework of ‘literature’. The volume makes compulsory reading for all who are interested in the fascinating and protean genre of fantastic literature."

—Professor Thomas Honegger, editor-in-chief of Fastitocalon: Studies in Fantasticism Ancient to Modern, series editor Walking Tree Publishers

"What constitutes the fantastic in literature? Why should J.R.R. Tolkien, a writer about hobbits and elves, criticise H.G. Wells’s Time Machine for being ‘preposterous and incredible’? And why should he write that ‘Drama is essentially hostile to fantasy’? How far can the impossibilities of fantasy focus the mind on what is possible in reality? These questions are addressed and probed in this fascinating collection of essays, in which the use of fantasy in modern literature, including drama, is discussed in relation to its use in earlier works of literature, whether by Homer or Spenser, and in the light of theoretical approaches, whether by Aristotle or Todorov. With the range and depth of insight that it brings to its subject, this book itself deserves the label of ‘fantastic’!"
—Professor Rory McTurk, University of Leeds

Bartlomiej Blasziewicz

Maria Blaszkiewicz

Bartlomiej Blaszkiewicz

Robert Gadowski

Zbigniew Glowala

Przemysław Gorniak

Asa Josefson

Halszka Lelen

Imke Lichterfeld

Joanna Matyjaszczyk

Andrzej Wicher

Maciej Wieczorek