Fantasy: Impossible Worlds
Fantasy fiction is a genre of speculative fiction. Speculative fiction encompasses many genres of fiction that include science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, pandemic fiction, and more.
Suspension of Disbelief
“...that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.” --Samuel Taylor Coleridg
Suspension of disbelief is a key experience for speculative fiction. It's when the writer describes a story in such a way that the reader accepts the "reality" of the world that the writer has created. This makes the reader feel like they can be fully inside of that world. That phrase, “poetic faith,” in the Coleridge quote gets at what our brain does when we both accept the world inside of a story and recognize we're in a fictional world. What's a fantasy story that made you really suspend your disbelief? How did the writer achieve this effect?
What is Fantasy Fiction?
It's hard to settle on a hard and fast definition for an entire genre, but if we had to encapsulate fantasy in one sentence, this would be it: The impossible brought to life. Fantasy takes elements, stories, characters, worlds, powers that could never exist in our world and explores them, develops them, and uses them to tell stories. This genre is a rather robust and expansive genre of speculative fiction in which some of the events, characters, features and realities of the world in which it set could not possibly happen in the real world--at least the world and universe as we know it. The story and plot can often involve the supernatural, magic, witchcraft, fantastical creatures, and other realms, universes, or dimensions within and beyond this world. Whether through stories about dragons and wizards or any other impossible feature, fantasy takes us to and past the boundaries of our imaginations and allows us to experience a world no human will ever be able to see with their own eyes. It is a genre born from folklore, fairytales, myths, legends, history, and oral traditions. We need fantasy. Escaping into the fantastical can teach us as much about the human condition and the world in all its possibilities, brutalities, injustices, and hope that real-world stories can. Sometimes fantasy can become a way for us to learn to grapple with issues in the real world.
Writers who work with and in science fiction use the genre to explore these questions:
Writers who work with and in science fiction use the genre to explore these questions:
- Who are we?
- What do we want? Where did we come from? Where are we going?
- What makes us human?
- How do we relate to each other??
- How might people survive cataclysmic events in other realms and worlds? In the outer reaches of other spaces and places?
- What is humanity's relationship to their environments?
- What are our fears, desire, and anxieties surrounding emerging and possible changes in culture and politics?
- What kinds of adventures are possible?
- What are the ethics and morals surrounding the ways societies and politics are structured?
- What unites us and divides us?
- What causes power struggles and inequality?
- How can we reimagine the world?
Sub-genres of Fantasy Fiction
High/Epic Fantasy
Stories of high, or epic, fantasy are set in worlds of complete fiction that do not mirror real life in that they have their own rules and physical laws and, yet, the still provide commentary on the goings on in the real world. Of course, they are also full of magic and other fantastical elements.
Fairytale Re-imagining Fantasy novels that are inspired by fairytales, and often involve reimagining the events or lives of fairy tales or their characters is at the core of this method of storytelling.
The New Weird Borne of the 1990s and early 2000s, the new weird genre is a contemporary form of weird fiction, which either eschews or radically reinterprets ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and other traditional antagonists of supernatural horror and science fiction.
Sword and Sorcery This subgenre of fantasy involves stories with sword-wielding heroes and powerful sorcerers that engage in violent, supernatural adventures.
Futuristic Fantasy As the name suggests, stories of this genre involve narratives that address what life might be like in the future through the lens of magic and other fantastical elements.
Weird West Fantasy Historically western narratives mesh with supernatural elements of steampunk, horror, fantasy, and mystery. Weird West Fantasy is also a sub-genre of seemingly opposing forces: law and chaos, folklore and industrialization, natural and supernatural, and the tried and true good and evil. (DC's Weird Western Tales appeared in the early 1970s and the weird Western was further popularized by Joe R. Lansdale who "is best known for his tales of the 'weird west,' a genre mixing splatterpunk with alternate history Western almost entirely defined by the author in the early 1990s).
Allegorical Fantasy Allegory is a literary device in which characters, settings, and events are symbolic of something else outside the story. If we think of Fantasy as escapist literature then allegory doesn't seem to quite fit with its goal of transporting readers away from humdrum lives to experience the wonderful and magical. Allegorical Fantasy can still do this, but it will ultimately present a message that brings readers back to reality.
Historical Fantasy Historical fantasy is a subgenre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; such as Arthurian, Celtic, or Dark Ages could just as easily be placed in historical fantasy.
Comic Fantasy Stories under this genre are written with the intent to make readers laugh, while employing fantastical elements that are common in fantasy adventures.
Science Fantasy Science Fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy.The world of science fantasy, however, is laid out to be scientifically logical and often supplied with hard science-like explanations of any supernatural elements. The Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry is sometimes cited as an example of science fantasy because it includes semi-futuristic as well as supernatural/fantasy elements such as The Q.
Bangsian Fantasy Bangsian fantasy is a fantasy sub-genre which uses the afterlife as the main setting for its characters, who may be famous preexisting historical or fictional figures. It is named after John Kendrick Bangs.
|
Low Fantasy
Stories defined as Low Fantasy feature magical events that occur in, perhaps even intrude upon, the real world.
Portal-quest fantasy involves magical experiences that are had after a character has been transported through a portal of some kind. For example, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe features a boudoir that serves as a portal to a fantastical realm. Portal fantasy also includes the sub-genres of Isaeki and Crossworlds. Isekai, a sub-genre of portal fantasy that involves being transported into a fantastical virtual world, or parallel universe, in which the protagonist must survive. Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One in just one example of this.
Paranormal Romance Romantic love, often between a human and a supernatural being, is one of the main themes of works of this genre, each ingrained with a unique blend of fantastical, horrific, and scientific elements.
Arcanepunk Fantasy Combining the fields of science and magic, arcanepunk fantasy features stories of fully industrialized societies in any time period and in any type of world.
Superhero Fantasy Sitting in the middle of hard fiction and soft science fiction, superhero fiction features vigilante crime-fighters adorned in costumes and using their superpowers for the good of humanity.
Dark/Gothic Fantasy This genre combines fantasy with the dread, fright, suspense common in horror genres. Dark fantasy becomes gothic when death and decay, haunted homes/castles, family curses, madness, powerful love/romance, ghosts, and/or vampires are at the epicenter of the story.
Anthropomorphic Fantasy Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics, languages, behaviors, and motivations to an entity other than human. This something may be an inanimate object, natural phenomenon, or animals.
Wuxia Fantasy Wuxia (武俠 [ù.ɕjǎ]), means "martial heroes" and is a genre of Chinese fiction that relates to adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of fantasy literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms such as Chinese opera, mànhuà, films, television series, and video games.
Military/Assassin/Rogue Fantasy This subgenre is about assassins who live within a fantasy world. The stories typically involve dark ideas & themes including Intrigue, secrecy, espionage, mystery, shadows, and corruption. The worlds in which these stories are set usually take place in dystopian worlds.
Xianxia Fantasy Wuxia is made from two characters; ‘Wu’ and ‘Xia’, which literally mean ‘martial hero’. Protagonists are usually "cultivators" (修者 xiūzhě, 修士 xiūshì, or 修仙者 xiūxiānzhě) who seek to become immortal beings called xian. Along the way, they attain eternal life, supernatural powers, and incredible levels of strength. The fictional cultivation practiced in xianxia is heavily based on the real-life meditation practice qigong. The stories usually include elements such as gods, immortals, yaoguai, ghosts, monsters, magical treasures, immortal items, medicinal pills, and the like.
Occult Detective Fantasy Occult Detective Fantasy is a subgenre of detective literature that combines detective tropes with supernatural, horror or fantasy. The occult detective is typically involved not in solving traditional crimes such as theft, murder and other common crimes; but with cases involving ghosts, demons, vampires, curses & magic.
|
Urban Fantasy
Urban fantasy is a sub-genre of contemporary fantasy in which the narrative uses supernatural elements in a 19th-century to 21st-century urban society.
Magical Realism This genre can be described as fictional narratives that take place in the real world with imagined magical elements mixed in that no character in the story comments on--the magical elements are just taken as normal in the real world.
Medieval Fantasy/Arthurian Fantasy This genre is a subgenre of historical fiction that takes place primarily throughout the medieval time period.
Dying Earth Fantasy As the laws of the universe fail, life on Earth sees its demise. This could even mean the end of time altogether. This genre can be considered a subgenre of post-apocalypse or apocalypse speculative fiction, but deals with entropic exhaustion of Earth rather than epic catastrophes.
Mythic Fantasy Fantasy novels that are inspired by fairytales, mythology, legend, and folklore are considered members of the mythic fantasy genre.
Grimdark Fantasy This can be described as a subgenre of dark fantasy as it employs styles, settings, and narratives that are violently dystopian and amoral.
Hard fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literature that strives to present stories set in a rational and knowable world. Hard fantasy is similar to hard science fiction, from which it draws its name, in that they all aim to build their respective worlds in a rigorous and logical manner.
Flintlock/Gaslamp Fantasy Flintlock Fantasy is a modern, difficult-to-pin-down sub-genre of fantasy set in an era where flintlock technology is used (ie, the Victorian era). Flintlock Fantasy is different from other sub-genres in that it is not set in medieval times nor in the modern era of Urban Fantasies. It is fantasy that takes place at the cusp of industrialization, when warfare itself is changing. Thus, change and military might are common themes of the sub-genre. Flintlock Fantasy is essentially fantasy with guns.
Lost World Fantasy The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown world out of time, place, or both. It began as a subgenre of the late-Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century. Gunpowder/Steampunk Fantasy Gunpowder/Steampunk Fantasy is part of the modern fantasy trend. It features magic, fantastical creatures, and other tropes of fantasy, in addition, guns and cannons are also a part of the world. The sub-genre is still evolving and being defined, but it opens up new and exciting areas for fantasy writers to explore. Plots tend toward the complex in this subgenre with moderate to high levels of violence.
Historical Fantasy Historical fantasy is a subgenre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; such as Arthurian, Celtic, or Dark Ages could just as easily be placed in historical fantasy.
|