ФЕНТЕЗІ ЯК НЕОМІФ У КІНЕМАТОГРАФІ

Abstract

The genre of fantasy started taking important shapes in the second half of 20th century. But even more importantly it emerges in the 21st century, pacing its way in the literature and on the screen.One can even consider it being a ‘meta-genre’ or ‘poly-genre’.It is worth starting with the definitions. What is fantasy? Previously, we talked only about the fantastic and science fiction. Fist one was putting on the screen some fairy tales, and the second one was an attempt to predict the future with its incredible discoveries, fantastic inventions, and journeys into some unknown and endless outer space.However, as early as in the first half of the 20th century, the works, which are different from the traditional fantastic start emerging. Their authors create very strange simulacrum worlds, which appear to have nothing in common with the existing ones. But in the meantime, the reader recognizes in their inhabitants the heroes of the ancient legends and sagas, of the myths and legends. In most of the cases they remind us of the Middle ages, about which we know more from the myths then from the history of science.The worlds are inhabited with the magic forces, elves and fairies, wizards, dragons and incredible monsters. Their existence is taken as given, it does not violate the laws of that universe. Other characters, from flesh and blood, who look like the heroes of myths and sagas, leave side by side with those creatures.That is how the genre of fantasy has emerged, where the fantastic events, taking place either in the depth of the history, or inside the Cosmos, are taken as absolutely natural ones. This makes it different from the fairy tales, where one know right away that everything is unreal and fantastic.The modern scientific literature makes an accent on the neo-mythological character of fantasy. Fantastic worlds created by the author’s imagination, acquire their ontological justification, carry multifaceted life meanings.The fantasy world has its own system of coordinates. Authors of novels of create the geography of unknown lands, where dramatic and tragic events unfold. The time of fantasy is very close to that of mythology. As a rule, events unfold cyclically according to the pattern of "eternal return". What has happened in the ages must be repeated in the present.However, it is not for nothing that a surge of interest in the genre occurred in times that were called the era of postmodernism. The ambiguity, the fluidity of forms, the displacement of certain moral values, the transformation of the cosmos into chaos, their unity and mutual flow, the emergence of chaos is characteristic of postmodern texts.The analysis was centered around the films of the "Arthurian cycle", such as "Lord of the Rings" and the series "Game of Thrones".