History of fantasy
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Though the fantasy genre in its modern sense is less than two centuries old, its antecedents have a long and distinguished history. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning.
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[edit] Differences between fantasy and earlier fantastic works
Even the most fantastic myths, legends and fairy tales, however, differ from modern fantasy genre in three respects:
Modern genre fantasy postulates a different reality, either a fantasy world separated from ours, or a hidden fantasy side of our own world. In addition, the rules, geography, history, etc. of this world tend to be defined, even if they are not described outright. Traditional fantastic tales take place in our world, often in the past or in far off, unknown places. It seldom describes the place or the time with any precision, often saying simply that it happened "long ago and far away." (A modern, rationalized analog to these stories can be found in the Lost World tales of the 19th and 20th centuries.)
The second difference is that the supernatural in fantasy is by design fictitious. In traditional tales the degree to which the author considered the supernatural to be real can span the spectrum from legends taken as reality to myths understood as describing in understandable terms more complicated reality, to late, intentionally fictitious literary works.
Finally, the fantastic worlds of modern fantasy are created by an author or group of authors, often using traditional elements, but usually in a novel arrangement and with an individual interpretation. Traditional tales with fantasy elements used familiar myths and folklore, and any differences from tradition were considered variations on a theme; the traditional tales were never intended to be separate from the local supernatural folklore. Transitions between the traditional and modern modes of fantastic literature are evident in early Gothic novels, the ghost stories in vogue in the 19th century, and Romantic novels, all of which used extensively traditional fantastic motifs, but subjected them to authors' concepts.
By one standard, no work created before the fantasy genre was defined can be considered to belong to it, no matter how many fantastic elements it includes. By another, the genre includes the whole range of fantastic literature, both the modern genre and its traditional antecedents, as many elements which were treated as true (or at least not obviously untrue) by earlier authors are wholly fictitious and fantastic for modern readers. But even by the more limited definition a full examination of the history of the fantastic in literature is necessary to show the origins of the modern genre. Traditional works contain significant elements which modern fantasy authors have drawn upon extensively for inspiration in their own works.
The history of French fantastique literature is covered in greater detail under Fantastique.
[edit] Development of fantasy
[edit] Medieval European fantasy
With increase in learning there appeared beside earlier myths and legends also literary fiction. The one of the first to appear was the genre of romance. This genre embraced fantasy, and not only simply followed traditional myths and fables, but, in its final form, boldly created new marvels from the whole cloth.
Romance at first dealt with traditional themes, above all three thematic cycles of tales, assembled in imagination at a late date as the Matter of Rome (actually centered on the life and deeds of Alexander the Great), the Matter of France (Charlemagne and Roland, his principal paladin) and the Matter of Britain (the lives and deeds of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, within which was incorporated the quest for Holy Grail).
Another genre which exerted important influence on fantasy was allegory. One of the most famous allegories in the Middle Ages was Roman de la Rose, which included many fantastic elements.
The most important allegorical composition, however, was undoubtly Divine Comedy. It is worth mentioning for its influence on fantasy genre. It can, again, be called fantasy only from the modern point of view. For its author, it was science fiction - he tried to show nearly complete image of the world according to best scientific knowledge of the time, but enlivened with characters and action.
- Roman de la Rose, Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun 1230
- The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1321)
[edit] Medieval Persian and Arabian fantasy
Fantasy fiction in the Muslim world was mostly based on ancient Persian and Arabian mythology. The most well known fantasy fiction from the Muslim world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), which was a compilation of many earlier fantasy stories. This fantasy epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century. The Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran, is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story, which has influenced some modern works of fantasy fiction, such as The Heroic Legend of Arslan.
A number of elements from Persian and Arabian mythology are now common in modern fantasy, such as genies, bahamuts, magic carpets, magic lamps, etc.
- The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), compiled by Abu abd-Allah Muhammed al-Gahshigar (9th century)
- Shahnameh, by Ferdowsi (10th century)
- Amir Arsalan, by Mohammad Ali Naqib al-Mamalek (18th century)
[edit] Renaissance fantasy
During Renaissance romance continued to be popular. The trend was to fantastic fiction. Exemplary work, such as the English Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471), and the Spanish Amadis de Gaula (1508), (both written in prose) spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well-received, producing such masterpiece of renaissance poetry as Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso and Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata and other 16th century literary works in the romance genre.
The best known romance epic poem in English language is The Faerie Queene of Edmund Spenser. The poem is deeply allegorical and allusive, Leaving allegory aside, however, the action is that of a typical knightly romance, involving knightly duels, and combats against giants and sorcerers. That is probably the first work in which most of the characters are not men, but elves (although the difference seems to be rather little). There are mentioned also the wars between goblins and elves, which were destined to have a great future in fantastic fiction.
In France, François Rabelais wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel, the story of two giants, a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein. There is much crudity and scatological humor as well as needless violence.
Also during this time, Giambattista Basile wrote and published the Pentamerone, a collection of literary fairy tales, which includes the oldest recorded form of many well-known (and more obscure) European fairy tales. This was the beginning of a tradition that would both influence the fantasy genre and be incorporated in it, as many works of fairytale fantasy appear to this day.
Although witchcraft and wizardry were both believed to be actual at the time, such motifs as the fairies in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Weird Sisters in Macbeth and Prospero in The Tempest (or Doctor Faustus in Christopher Marlowe's play) would be deeply influential on later works of fantasy.
The tale of Don Quixote, while not containing especially "fantastic" elements, in addition to being one of the earliest novels in modern European language, is important because it is nearly only romance which survived as a living, popular book. Paradoxically, it is at the same time a deep critique of romance and fantasy as a whole.
Its protagonist suffers from magical thinking, sometimes called the fantasy-driven mind. As such, the story directly addresses medieval fantasy, legends, and fairytales in much the same way that Mazes and Monsters (1982) addressed fantasy role-playing games -- albeit in not quite so negative a light.
- Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory (1485)
- Orlando Furioso, Ludovico Ariosto (1516)
- Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais, between 1532 and 1552
- La Gerusalemme liberata, Torquato Tasso (1575)
- The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser (1590)
- The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe, (1592)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare, mid-1590s
- Macbeth, William Shakespeare, between 1603 and 1606
- Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes (1604)
- The Tempest, William Shakespeare, (1611)
- Pentamerone, Giambattista Basile, (1634)
- Paradise Lost, John Milton (1667)
[edit] Utopian Fiction of Renaissance
In year 1516 Sir Thomas More wrote a book under the title "De Optimo Reipublicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia" (translated On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia) or more simply Utopia. The name of the place, Utopia, is derived from the Greek words ou ("not") and topos ("place"), meaning the name of the island is literally "no place." The book depicts a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. It can be regarded as an ideal society, although some of its institutions are written with tongue in cheek (eg chamberpots made of gold, to encourage contempt of riches).
Thomas More was influenced by Lucian of Samosata and Plato's Republic, the word Utopia overtook More's short work and has been used ever since to describe this kind of imaginary society with many unusual ideas being contemplated. Although he may not have founded the genre of Utopian and dystopian fiction, More certainly popularised it.
Utopia created a whole new genre of Utopian and dystopian fiction. Works in it include:
- The City of the Sun (1602) by Tommaso Campanella,
- Description of the Republic of Christianopolis (1619) by Johannes Valentinus Andreae,
- New Atlantis (1626) by Francis Bacon
[edit] Fantasy Literature during the Enlightenment
Literary fairy tales, such as were written by Charles Perrault, and Madame d'Aulnoy, became very popular, early in this era. Many of Perrault's tales became fairy tale staples, and influenced latter fantasy as such.
Following somewhat in the footsteps of Don Quixote, Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift used satire in the form of fantasy to parody many of the political and social conventions of its time, and can be considered the earliest work of modern-style fantasy. Swift's use of fictional countries and other lands was likely a major influence on what would later become the fantasy genre.
Enlightenment authors used widely speculative fiction for the purposes of argumentation and education. Their works tend to follow somewhat in the tradition of Utopia by Thomas Moore, and also of Apuleius and Lucian of Samosata. Their protagonist tends, similarly to Gulliver, to transverse strange and foreign countries with even more strange customs (usually invented as a criticism of some more real tradition). In some there is a strong influence of the picaresque novel. The closest modern equivalent to them are the Dying Earth tales by Jack Vance. It is difficult to classify the Enlightenment romances as science fiction or fantasy - in reality they are neither, but belong to their own, now nearly defunct, genre of speculative fiction, sometimes called conte philosophique (a philosophical tale).
The first after Swift, and certainly most famous in his time of those authors was Voltaire. His Candide has only slight elements of fantasy. Sardonic in outlook, it follows the naïve protagonist Candide from his first exposure to the precept that "all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds," and on through a series of adventures that dramatically disprove that precept even as the protagonist clings to it. The only fantastic element is the strange society of Eldorado, clearly influenced by Moore's utopia, that he encounters.
Micromégas (1752) is more similar to the later science fiction. Micromégas, the protagonist, is a gigantic being, nearly five kilometres tall, from the star Sirius. In his travels between the stars he befriends a native of the planet Saturn who is only a kilometre high, a mere dwarf beside the protagonist. Together these two travel to Earth, and converse with various philosophers.
The need for fantastic literature did not disappear during the Age of Enlightenment. The general antipathy to the medieval European fantasy, however, caused the near disappearance of the old romance genre. In its place — and alongside fairy tales — appeared works imported from the East. The most influential of these was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba. Part of its popularity may have sprung from the increasing historical and geographical knowledge, so that places of which little was known and so marvels were plausible had to be set further "long ago" or farther "far away"; this is a process that continue, and finally culminate in the fantasy world having little connection, if any, to actual times and places.
It was first imported into Europe in a translation into French (1704 - 1717) by Antoine Galland. This book "Les Mille et une nuits, contes arabes traduits en français" (in 12 volumes) was widely popular and was followed by translations into other European languages. Perhaps the best-known to English speakers is the translation by Sir Richard Francis Burton, published as The Arabian Nights. Unlike previous editions, his 16-volume translation was not bowdlerized. Though published in the Victorian era, it contained all the erotic nuances of the source material.
- Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose, Charles Perrault, (1697)
- Les Contes des Fees, Madame d'Aulnoy (1698)
- Contes Nouveaux ou Les Fees a la Mode, Madame d'Aulnoy (1698)
- Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift (1726)
- Micromegas, Voltaire (1752)
- Candide , Voltaire (1759)
- The Book of One Thousand and One Nights
[edit] Romanticism
In reaction to Enlightenment's cult of Reason, Romanticism highly prized the supernatural, tradition and imagination, together with the age in which they were supposed to rule - Middle Ages. These traits readily borrowed traditional elements of the fantastic.
One of the first literary results of this fascinations was Gothic novel, a literary genre that began in Britain with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. It is the predecessor to both modern fantasy and modern horror fiction and, above all, has led to the common definition of "gothic" as being connected to the dark and horrific. Prominent features of gothic novels included terror, mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted buildings, castles, trapdoors, doom, death, decay, madness, hereditary curses, and so on.
Ann Radcliffe, who became most popular of gothic writers, created the gothic novel in its now-standard form. Among other elements, Radcliffe introduced the brooding figure of the gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero. Unlike Walpole's, her novels, beginning with The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), were best-sellers, and virtually everyone in English society was reading them. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) is undoubtedly one of the most important literary triumphs of this period.
Other important authors included Matthew Gregory Lewis, author of The Monk (1796), a shocking at the time tale of sex, violence and debauchery, and William Thomas Beckford, author of Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1786), inspired by The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
At about the same time, parallel Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe: the Roman noir ("black novel") in France and the Schauerroman ("shudder novel") in Germany. Writers of the Roman noir include François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard d'Arnaud, and Madame de Genlis.
In the later part of the Romantic tradition, in another reaction to the spirit of the Enlightenment, folklorists were collecting folktales and bringing them out in printed form. The Brothers Grimm were inspired in their collection, Grimm's Fairy Tales, by the movement of German Romanticism. Many other collectors were inspired by the Grimms and the similar sentiments. Frequently their motives stemmed not merely from Romanticism, but from Romantic nationalism, in that many were inspired to save their own country's folklore: sometimes, as in the Kalevala, they compiled existing folklore into an epic to match other nation's; sometimes, as in Ossian, they "constructed" folklore that should have been there.
Despite the nationalistic elements confusing the collections, this movement not only preserved many instances of the folktales that involved magic and other fantastical elements, it provided a major source for later fantasy. Many later works that are now called fantasies were called fairy tales at the time of the writing, when the genre had not been defined clearly; J.R.R. Tolkien's seminal essay on fantasy writing was titled "On Fairy Stories."
- The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
- Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1786) by William Thomas Beckford (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
- The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
- The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
- The Italian (1797) by Ann Radcliffe
- Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley (Full text at Wikisource)
- The Vampyre; a Tale (1819) by John William Polidori (Full text at Project Gutenberg)
- Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Robert Maturin (Full text at HorrorMasters.com)
[edit] Modern fantasy
The modern fantasy genre first took root during the 18th century with the increased popularity of fictional travelers' tales, influencing and being influenced by other early forms of speculative fiction along the way, finally unfurling in the 19th century from a literary tapestry of fantastic stories and gaining recognition as a distinct genre (mainly due to the nigh-ubiquitous recession of fantastic elements from "mainstream" fiction) in the late 1800s.
[edit] Early modern fantasy
It was in the late 1800s and early 1900s, that modern fantasy genre first truly began to take shape. The history of modern fantasy literature begins with George MacDonald, the Scottish author of such novels as The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Their literary group, The Inklings was originally created for the purpose of studying MacDonald's work and creating new writings in the author's style. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, a socialist, an admirer of Middle Ages, a reviver of British handcrafts and a poet, who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the century, of which the most famous was' 'The Well at the World's End.
Despite MacDonald's future influence, and Morris' popularity at the time, it was not until the turn of the century that fantasy fiction began to reach a large audience. Edward Plunkett, better known as Lord Dunsany established the genre's popularity both in the novel and short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time including Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard. These authors, along with Abraham Merritt, building on the convention established by H. Rider Haggard developed what came to be known as the Lost World sub-genre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th. However, several classic children's fantasies such as Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz were also published around this time.
- Phantastes, George MacDonald, (1858)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (1865)
- The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald, (1872)
- King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard, (1885)
- The Well at the World's End, William Morris (1892)
- Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum (1900)
- Peter Pan (originally Peter and Wendy), J.M. Barrie (1911)
- The Worm Ouroboros, Eric Rucker Eddison (1922)
- The King of Elfland's Daughter, Lord Dunsany (1924)
- Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees (1926)
[edit] Modern fantasy
In 1923 the first all-fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales was created. Many other similar magazines eventually followed, most noticeably The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity at this time and was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines also played a large role in the rise of science fiction and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other.
Several of the genere's most prominent authors began their careers in the afore mentioned magazines including Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury and most noticeably H. P. Lovecraft, who with his Cthulhu Mythos stories became one of the most influential writers of fantasy and horror in the twentieth century. The early works of many Sword and Sorcery authors such as Robert E. Howard also began at this time.
By 1950 Sword and Sorcery fiction had began to find a wide audience, with the scucess of Howard's Conan the Barbarian, and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. However, it was the advent of high fantasy and, most importantly, the popularity of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings which finally allowed fantasy to truly enter into the mainstream. Tolkien had published The Hobbit in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s, but although they had been successful in Britain it was not until the late 1960s that they finally became popular in America. The impact that his books, combined with the success of several other series such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, helped cement the genre's popularity and gave birth to the current wave of fantasy literature.
- Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard (c. 1930)
- The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien (1937)
- The Incomplete Enchanter, Fletcher Pratt & L. Sprague de Camp (1941)
- The Dying Earth, Jack Vance (1950)
- Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake (1950)
- The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis (1950) - (1956)
- The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien (1954-1955)
- The Once and Future King, T. H. White (1958)
- A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (1962)
- A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin (1968)
[edit] Post-Tolkien Fantasy
With the immense success of Tolkien's works many publishers began to search for a new series which could have similar mass-market appeal. For the first time publishing fantasy was looked at as a proffitable business venture and fantasy novels began to replace the fiction magazines as the heart of the genre.
Although many fantasy novels of this time proved popular, it was not until 1977's The Sword of Shannara that publishers found the sort of breakthrough success they had hoped for. The book became the first fantasy novel to appear on, and eventually top New York Times bestseller list. As a result the genre saw an incredible boom in the number of titles published in the following years.
While fantasy has remained somewhat of a niche market, that has began to to change in recent years. Thanks largely to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, which have become the best selling book series of all time, fantasy is becoming increasingly intertwined with mainstream fiction. The blockbuster success of several film adaptations of fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has helped further this trend.
Today fantasy continues as an expansive, multi-layered medium encompassing many sub-genres of literature; from traditional high fantasy and sword and sorcery, to magical realism, fairytale fantasy, horror-tinged dark fantasy and more.
- Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny (1970)
- The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia A. McKillip (1976)
- Little, Big, John Crowley (1981)
- The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe (1981) - (1983)
- The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (1983)
- The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan (1990) - (2007)
- His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman (1995) - (2000)
- The Icewind Dale Trilogy, R.A. Salvatore (1988) - (1990)
- The Harry Potter Novels , J.K. Rowling (1998) - (2007)
