Inner Structuring of Fantastic Literature by the Function of the Fantastic Element (2)

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Authors

DĚDINOVÁ Tereza

Year of publication 2015
Type Conference abstract
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Description I would like to introduce a concept of inner structuring of fantastic literature I am currently working on. Its purpose is to provide an alternative mode of relating fantastic works to each other for the sake of analysis, not to create a fixed taxonomy. Generally, we can distinguish two basic categories within fantastic literature: The pure fantastic is focused on a fantastic element (a fantastic change, world, event etc.), thus the fantastic element functions as the core of the text. In the fantastic as a mean of expression, the fantastic element serves as a platform for creating a story or as a tool of an allegory or a symbol. In terms of extratextual factors, pure fantastic is usually connected with a fantastic community, whereas authors using the fantastic as a mean of expression tend to be from different cultural backgrounds and relate to the fandom very loosely or not at all (refusal of any affiliation to it is not exceptional). On a four given examples, I will try to distinguish a very different attitudes toward the fantastic element and to argue that literary works using fantastic element merely as the platform for expressing something else doesn't necessarily indicate a failed Fantasy, but creates a specific fuzzy set within fantastic literature.
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