History of “fantasy” in literature

Now the word “fantasy” has become familiar; the term appeared in the 60-70s. XX century and only after the 90s. fantasy is turning into a holistic phenomenon of modern culture. However, the phenomenon itself appeared much earlier and still causes numerous disputes regarding the history of its occurrence, the relationship between fantasy and the categories of “fantasy” and “fantastic”, etc.d. It is most logical to explain such contradictions by the “youth” of fantasy as a phenomenon of modern culture. This is what I will try to tell you about.

One might assume that "Fantasy" in its modern meaning has its roots in fairy tales. But that’s not entirely true.

As Stanislaw Lem wrote, the folk tale is subject to the principle of moral determinism. The whole world, all its attributes are designed so that the main character can pass certain tests and get what he deserves. A folk tale is like a well-oiled machine where there is nothing superfluous. The action develops according to a clearly established, strictly deterministic scheme; there is no room for any chance here, except for the so-called “happy chance”, which was initially reserved for the hero. The heroes of such texts have practically no free will, even if formally they have a choice, because what the hero chooses is also predetermined by the very structure of the narrative. The heroes of fairy tales are devoid of psychology and character; they are simply functional masks. The world of fairy tales is described abstractly, using stereotyped epithets – the forest is dark, the earth is damp. The tower is tall, the arrow is hot… Fantasy is written using the entire arsenal of means and techniques developed by literature throughout the history of its development.

Sapkowski wrote well about the origins of fantasy in his "Pirug, or no gold in the gray mountains", By the way, I advise you to read. I learned a lot from it for this post. There are extremely few classic works of this genre that exploit fairy-tale motifs, get to the bottom of symbolism, and postmodernistically interpret the message; works that enrich the fairy tale plot with a developed background and play with highlighting the already mentioned determinism of chance, trying to create a logical mathematical equation from the previously cited “non-zero-sum game”. There are no such books at all or very few. The reason is simple. The Anglo-Saxons, who dominate fantasy and created the genre itself, have much better material at their disposal – Celtic mythology.". The main basis for Anglo-Saxon fantasy is the "Legend of King Arthur" and to a lesser extent Irish sagas and beliefs; the Breton or Welsh Mabinogion is better suited as source material for fantasy. The fairy tale, at its core, has a more primitive and infantile construction.

The Arthurian myth of the Anglo-Saxons was firmly rooted in culture with its archetype and is comparable to our epics about the “Three Heroes” or Ancient Greek myths. It is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table who stand at the origins and are the prototype for most works in the fantasy genre. Here is what Sapkowski says about this: “If anyone wishes, let him close his eyes and reach out to the shelf with books to pull out any fantasy novel from there at random.”. And let him check. The book describes two kingdoms (countries, empires) – one is the Land of Good, and the other is quite the opposite. There is a Good King, deprived of his throne and inheritance and trying to restore them, which is opposed by the Forces of Evil and Chaos. The Good King is supported by Good Magic and the Good Wizard, as well as the Brave Squad of Well Done gathered around the just ruler. To completely defeat the Forces of Darkness, you still need a Miraculous Artifact, a magical object of unprecedented power. This object, in the power of Good and Order, has the properties of integration and peace, but in the hands of the Forces of Evil it becomes a destructive element. Therefore, the Magic Artifact must be found and mastered before it falls into the clutches of the Arch Enemy. »

The above is fully characteristic of "Le Morte d’Arthur" by Thomas Mallory. And if this is a completely alien legend for us, it is no worse or better than others, such as Eskimo tales. But for the Anglo-Saxons, the Arthurian myth is extremely strongly entrenched in culture and is completely integrated into it. It should also be said that this myth is not fabulous but quasi-historical. Even now in England there is serious debate as to whether Camelot was actually located on the site of present Winchester.

A simplified comparison between Le Morte d’Arthur and The Lord of the Rings shows the following parallels: Arthur is Aragorn, Anduril is Excalibur, the Ring is the Grail, Frodo is Galahad, Merlin is Gandalf, and Sauron is a combination of Morgan le Fey and the wild Saxons who were defeated at Mount Badon/fields of Pellenor. The names change, but not the essence, namely the struggle of the Forces of Good and Progress, represented by Arthur, Merlin, Excalibur and the Round Table, with the Forces of Darkness and Destruction, embodied by Morgana, Mordred and the forces behind them.

The legend of Arthur became not only an archetype, a prototype of fantasy – it was also a field of opportunity to show their skills for those authors who chose to creatively exploit the myth itself, instead of basing their “own” plans on it, such as T.White and his "Once and Future King".

However, it is not fair to attribute the origins of the genre to Arthur and his knights. No less influential on Tolkien were the Old English poem Beowulf, the German Song of the Nibelungs, the Old Icelandic saga “The Younger Edda” and a real treasury of Icelandic myths and tales – the “Elder Edda”. “Beowulf,” according to most experts, dates back to the 7th–8th centuries. He influenced Tolkien’s mythology in many ways; he even dedicated an article to the epic “Beowulf” entitled “Beowulf: Monsters and Critics,” where he tried to reveal the true meaning of the Old English text.

Despite the monumentality of the figure of J. R.R. Tolkien and the established tradition, the question of the progenitor of fantasy is not so simple. For example, Lord Dunsany is often called the creator and founder of the literary genre of fantasy (E. J. M. Dunsany) with his "The King of Elfland’s Daughter" (1924).); U. Morris, author of a series of novels about the “House of the Sons of the Wolf”, (1880-90s.); R.AND. Howard, who created the saga of Conan the Barbarian (1932).), etc.

Many believe that the founder of the genre is Edward John Morton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany (1878 – 1957) – a British aristocrat. Lord Dunsany created the imaginary country of Pegana. The collections “The Gods of Pegana” (1905), “Time and the Gods”, as well as stories from the book “Tales of the Three Hemispheres” are dedicated to her. No less famous and important for the history of the genre is the novel “The Daughter of the King of Elfland” and the collection “The Book of Miracles”. It was not Tolkien, as many people think, who was the first writer to create a non-existent world with its geography, mythology and history – but Dunsany. His series of stories “The Pegan Gods” was dedicated to this world, the roots of which go back to the Irish epic. Then there was Gowar, with Conan and Hyboria, and only then Tolkien.

In fact, Lord Dunsany was the author who for the first time formed in his work something clearly meaningful and landmark, which can now confidently be called “fantasy”. Edward the Eighteenth singled out, one after another, those facets that later became the main features of most fantasy works. It is not surprising that later authors followed the logic of his “magic stories” and further developed these achievements, exploring, expanding and improving them. Anne Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, Merritt and Clark Ashton Smith can also be considered the progenitors of fantasy. In a certain sense, even Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be considered fantasy. Fantasy also has some similarities with such a literary phenomenon as mysticism. Mysticism can be defined as a genre that describes otherworldly interference in our real everyday life.

The modern genre of fantasy has its origins in the European romance of chivalry, Scandinavian sagas, myths and legends such as the Arthurian cycle, the so-called Gothic novel, and the works of mystics and romantics of the 19th century. In Europe, among the progenitors of fantasy one can name the names of Hoffmann and Walpoll, t.e. representatives of German romanticism and English Gothic novel. There is probably not a single writer in Great Britain who has not written at least one ghost story. Even such a realist and writer of everyday life as Ch. Dickens wrote the story “A Christmas Carol”, where one bad character is guided on the right path by a ghost. WITH. Maugham wrote an entire novel called “The Magician,” and its content fully corresponds to the title.

The aesthetics of fantasy https://slotstarscasino.uk was greatly influenced by the great European style in art, the so-called Art Nouveau style, also known as Art Nouveau, Belle Epoque, Stilo Floreale, Jugendstil, Secession Style. This style developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, lasted a little more than half a century – its development was interrupted by the First World War.

But if we talk about the development of commercially successful fantasy aimed at the widest consumer, then the roots should be sought in the so-called “pulp-magazines”.

In 1905, a certain Windsor McCay began publishing a comic book about the adventures of a hero named Nemo. The comic was published once a week and was published for quite a long time. Among similar comics, McKay’s comics were distinguished by one rather characteristic feature – the adventures of the aforementioned Nemo take place in an amazing country that McKay called Slumberland – where there were full of castles on the rocks, beautiful princesses, brave knights, wizards and terrible monsters. McKay’s Slumberland became the first truly popular Never-Never Land. Land of Dreams. McKay’s comic couldn’t be classified as an adventure, nor was it science fiction. It was a fantasy. In English – “fantasy”.

In 1930, Robert I. Howard, twenty-one, invents Conan of Cimmeria. The first Conan story was published in 1932 in Weird Tails magazine. In 1936, Howard committed suicide, leaving a legacy in the form of several short stories and novellas, the action of which takes place in something somewhat similar to our Earth – Hyboria. Howard left only one major work about Conan, namely “The Hour of the Dragon”. After his death, the work was published again under the title "Conan the Conquerior" ("Conan the Conqueror"). Howard created a new, popular, and commercially successful genre – sword and sorcery ("sword and sorcery"), sometimes also called heroic fantasy ("heroic fantasy").

In 1937, the then unknown J. R. R. Tolkien published a children’s book in England called The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.

Tolkien’s concept of “Never-Never Land” (fairy-tale world), called Middle-earth, was born in the twenties of our century. But it was not until 1954 that Allen & Unwin published The Lord of the Rings. The creation of the work, a trilogy, took the author twelve years. K was ahead of him.WITH.Lewis published “Narnia” in 1950, but, nevertheless, it was not Lewis, but Tolkien who became the creator of the concept, which is used by the authors today. But this happened on a large scale only in 1965/1966 after the publication of a pocket version in the States.

It is worth noting that all this spectacular success and the “Tolkien mania” that began in the USA occurred with the absolute resistance of the author and his literary agent, who did not agree to a cheap, pocket edition. So we can safely say that the rise of fantasy occurred as a result of piracy by publishers. By the way, this pirate was Donald Wollheim, who is very well-deserved for science fiction. Also, the pocket, paperback edition of the trilogy coincides in time with the re-release (and new edition) of the complete Conan series, which was carried out by L.Sprague de Camp.

Despite different points of view regarding the origin of fantasy, the undeniable fact is that it was the British professor of linguistics J.R.R. Tolkien at one time created a sample or canon of a fantasy novel, which became a classic and the starting point for the development of the literary genre of fantasy. The Celtic-British complex of legends and myths that forms the basis of J’s trilogy. Tolkien thus became the traditional basis for the creation of subsequent fantasy novels. The worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings has pushed publishers to pay serious attention to fairy-tale-magical fiction.

The genre is developing like an avalanche, more and more milestones are appearing in it, and the Hall of Fame is quickly filling with portraits. In 1961, the Elric and Hawkmoon sagas by Michael Moorcock appeared. In 1963, the first “World of Witches” by Endre Norton was born (in Russian translation – “Witch World”). “Fafrd and the Gray Cat” by Fritz Leiber appears in the pocket edition. And finally, with great fanfare – “Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin and at the same time, “The Last Unicorn” by P.Biggle’s two books are absolutely cult-like in nature. In the 1970s, Stephen King’s books appear and break all sales records. True, these are more horror stories than fantasy. Coming soon are "Doubting Thomas" by Stephen Donaldson, "Amber" by Zelazny, "Xanth" by Piers Anthony, "Derini" by Katherine Kurtz, "Born of the Grave" by Tanith Lee, "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley, "Belgariad" by David Eddings and many others.

Faith in science and technological progress, fearlessness in the face of any futurological forecasts, conviction in the boundlessness of the prospects for human development – all these conceptual pillars of science fiction determine the popularity of this deeply rational (and rationalistic) genre of literature in eras of increased social optimism. Such a time of technocratic euphoria and social progressivism, for example, was the 50-60s of the last century, when science fiction “turned into the sphere of almost everyday thinking of the average American,” and a brilliant galaxy of science fiction writers came to literature: A. Azimov, R.E. Heinlein, K.D. Simak, R.D. Bradbury; in Great Britain Arthur Clarke created the best works, in Poland – Stanislaw Lem; in the USSR – Ivan Efremov, and later the Strugatsky brothers, Kir Bulychev.

So, in 1969 Katharina R. Simpson wrote: “Tolkien is not original…, boring and sentimental. His celebration of the past is a comic for adults… it codifies the despair of modernists. "The Waste Land" with comments, without tears".

In the 70s, fantasy experienced its highest rise, it was a period of experimentation and, as one little-known character said, “the age of great innovation”. It is logical that it was then that the need for a thematic award became apparent. This became the “World Fantasy Award” in 1975, or WFA (World Fantasy Award), it is awarded at the “World Fantasy Convention”, which is held mainly in the USA but has been held several times in Canada and the UK. The WFA is currently the most prestigious award in the field of fantasy.

The essentially irrational fantasy genre, on the contrary, flourishes in eras
social breakdown, reduced passionarity as – in the apt words of Tsvetan Todorov – “the restless conscience of the positivist age”, pushing the imagination into the compensatory spaces of neo-mythology. The special role of fantasy in the culture of the twentieth century, which departs from the canon of modern European classics and establishes its own mode of interaction between the rational and the irrational, the individual and the mass, turns it into a generally recognized “way of destroying taboo topics,” because “if in the age of positivism a breakthrough into the reality of the unconscious could occur, it would only be in the form of fantasy.”. It is not without reason that the system of genre forms of fantasy, since the time of Gernsback, along with classical fantasy (narration about heroes and wizards, as a rule, of some kind of conventional Middle Ages), sometimes includes the genres “mystery” and “horror”, which widely open the door to the subconscious.

In short, “fantasy” is the future as the past; a world with a rigid hierarchy, inequality, cultural and moral decline, and archaic consciousness. Science fiction in its classic form demonstrated “the bright future of victorious communism in the Strugatskys / the triumph of democracy and individual freedom in Star Trek”. Even in such a classic work by Heinlein as “Starship Troopers,” humanity built its own utopia, which was already attacked by Bugs.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of fantasy led to the birth of role-playing games. In them, a party of one/multiple players travels through a fantasy world in search of various adventures. Moreover, each player has various characteristics that change with increasing experience. Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most successful gaming systems.

Role-playing games in turn spawned a new wave of fantasy fiction. Game companies publish books based on their fantasy universes. Some of the most popular series: “Forgotten Realms” and “Warhammer”. Speaking of Warhammer, my friend Greez made a corresponding post.

As “one of the alternative cultural forms; a genre built on other people’s artifacts, incorporating elements of both archaic and traditional pictures of the world,” fantasy fulfills the social order of society for escapism, replacing reality with an artificial, more understandable world, be it wild Cimmeria from the story of G. Howard about Konnan the Barbarian; Tolkien’s Middle-earth; Earthsea from the tetralogy by Ursula Le Guin (“A Mage of Earthsea”, “Tombs of Atuan”, “The Farthest Shore”, “Tehanu”); the magical land of King Arthur (“The Crystal Grotto” – The Cristal Cave – translated in the same way as “The Crystal Grotto” (Merlin Trilogy), Mary Stewart, 1970); The Mists of Avalon by Morion Zimmer Bradley, 1983; "The Forever King" by Molly Coran and Warren Murphy, 1992); idealized Ancient Egypt (“Book of the New Sun” by J. Wolf, 1985); The Witch World by Andre Norton; unprecedented Oceania (“Cloudy Castles” M.WITH. Rohena, 1992) or pagan Rus’ (“Rusalka”, “Chernevog” K.J. Cherry).

As you can see, a huge number of “masterpieces” very quickly cluttered the market. And by the mid-90s, sales of all this stuff had noticeably decreased. The genre needed an injection of fresh ideas.

The logical next step in the evolution of fantasy, which coincided with the advent of the “new wave,” is the game of destroying the stereotypes of classic fantasy as a means of artistic expression, be it the replacement of ethical attitudes with diametrically opposed ones in the so-called “black fantasy” (X. Ellison "Birds of Death", J. Martin “A Song of Ice and Fire”, partly Nik Perumov during the “Ring of Darkness” – and “Black Spear” period, but we’ll talk about Russian fantasy later), deheroization of the hero and problematization of the finale of the work (M. Moorcock "Saga of the Eternal Hero", R. Zelazny in the series “The Chronicles of Amber” (1970–1991), Chronicles of the “Black Company” (1984-2000) by Glen Cook, and how not to mention Andrzej Sapkowski with his “The Witcher” (1986-1998), plus “Season of Thunderstorms” (2013). Tanith Lee and J. K. Rowling took a different path by displacing the generally accepted mythology with their own. In Russia this process went a little differently. As I already mentioned, science fiction was popular in the USSR, but fantasy didn’t work out for ideological reasons.

But the “Iron Curtain” collapsed and now Western mastodons came to the Russian Federation, and after them streams of some other fantasy flowed. This was generally a feature of the time when, just a few years ago, unknown culture poured into Russia. Inspired by all this, the authors began to create their own, copying Western gurus. Perhaps the most important imitator is Nika Perumov. He didn’t just imitate Tolkien, but began his career with a fanfic based on “The Lord of the Rings,” albeit a fairly elaborate one, entitled “The Ring of Darkness” (1993). For a long time he held a monopoly on “epic fantasy” in Russia. During this time, Perumov moved away from Middle-earth and began to create his own, but strictly within the framework of the usual concept of the struggle between good and evil, with magicians, elves and other canonical things. When in the West the era of such literature was coming to an end and preference was given to “dark fantasy”, while in Russia everything was just beginning, and finding a worthy Western analogue or new wave fantasy was problematic. Alexey Pekhov took advantage of this situation with his “Chronicles of Siala” (2002), Alexander Zorich with “Circle of Lands” (1997) and others. A definite step forward can be called Vera Kamsha with “Chronicles of Arcia” (2001), although Perumov’s ears still stuck out from every page. Since Sunset Blood (2002), the spiritual guide has changed to J. Martina. True, secondaryness has not gone away.

Maria Semyonova took a different path when she wrote “Wolfhound” (1995). The point here is not even that the difference between Semyonova and Perumov is like between Tolkien and Howard. This, by the way, largely characterizes these authors. The only difference is that Semyonova’s Conan is Slavic, while Perumov’s world is Anglo-Saxon. Decent literary level and innovative approach (Slavic mythology). The collapsed, well-deserved, success obliged him to write numerous sequels. The same situation as with R. Howard. He could have been doing the same thing if he had not committed suicide at the age of 30. Of the pillars of the genre, I didn’t mention Lukyanenko, known primarily for the mystical novels “Night/Day/… Watch” (1998-…), more reminiscent of Stephen King, and also the fact that he wrote and writes a lot of science fiction, although he doesn’t disdain fantasy and yet, this is no longer quite a format.

Oh, I already feel how tired you are of my sheet, so I’ll make a knight’s move and recommend you a detailed post about Lukyanenko’s work, overflowing with fan love and adoration from my friend Tizare.

Let me just note that he is a laureate of the EuroCon (European Science Fiction Convention) award for 2003. Eurocon was organized in 1972 and started as an award for achievements in the field of science fiction, and not fantasy, as is obvious from the name.

One would think that in the Russian Federation the genre is no more than a quarter of a century old. But that’s not entirely true. Now I’m not even talking about Bulgakov and Gogol, and not even about “Koshchei the Immortal”. Why not about them, you ask?? After all, I put Harry Potter on the list, but here the principle is the same, especially in “The Master and Margarita”. Fantasy is an Anglo-Saxon genre, and the article is devoted specifically to its development path. But as a small digression, I’ll mention fantasy – with all the classic signs of the genre. Modeling of secondary worlds in a pseudo-historical setting, conventional mystical-medieval paraphernalia, processing of the canonical mythological system, swords, magic, infernal forces of evil and a love-adventurous plot – “adventure” – all this is present in the novels of three authors of Russian fantasy: M. Chulkova, M. Popova and V. Levshina. Mikhail Dmitrievich Chulkov is the author of a pentalogy novel "Mockingbird, or Slavic Tales". The first four parts were published in 1766–1768. The stories in the book are very different – heroic adventures, where Slavic heroes perform feats not only within the Slavic lands, but throughout Europe, everyday ones, replete with descriptions of wedding rituals, fortune telling, and proverbs; there are even satirical stories. For the first time in Russian literature, the author, introducing epic characters, boldly using not only Slavic but also ancient mythology, mixing them every now and then, created his own secondary world, where real historical events and names of tribes coexist with fictional ones, where documentary meticulousness to facts is intertwined with deliberate distortions.

In the preface to the first edition of the novel, Chulkov directly admits: “There is very little or no moral teaching in this book.”. It is inconvenient, it seems to me, to correct rude morals; again, there is nothing in it with which to multiply them; So, leaving both of these aside, it will be a useful way to spend boring time, if they take the trouble to read it.”. And yet, the innovation of Mockingbird is obvious – Chulkov introduced a completely new genre and new heroes into Russian literature. Chulkov was the first to attempt to systematize Slavic mythology, to streamline the pantheon of pagan gods, equating it with the ancient.

Chulkov’s friend and like-minded person, translator, poet, writer Mikhail Ivanovich Popov also went down in history as one of the “creators” and systematizers of the Slavic pantheon of gods. In 1768 he published "A Brief Description of the Ancient Slovenian Pagan Fable". This book is the first example of the genre of scientific and artistic prose and at the same time is one of the best descriptions of Slavic pagan creatures.

Levshin’s attention is focused not so much on pagan times, but on the period of the reign of Vladimir the Red Sun. In essence, "Russian Fairy Tales" – this is an adaptation of Russian epics in the spirit of Western European chivalric novels. “Russian Fairy Tales” has surpassed the works of Chulkov and Popov, although it is clearly inferior to “Ancient Curiosities” in terms of plot development. As you can see, the approach is in no way inferior to Tolkien, so keep this in mind.