Fantastic Creatures Research Articles

Of Shadowcats and Pipeweed: Fantastic Animal and Plant Names in a Cross-linguistic Comparison

The paper focuses on the names of fictitious species of animals and plants and on their position in the creation of fictional worlds. The examined sample of occasionalisms, or nonce words, is drawn from popular and influential writings, which include J. R. R. Tolkien’s works, Terry Pratchett’s texts, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games series and George R. R. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire series. The position of the sign in the word-formation system of both the original language of the work and of selected translations is analyzed – mainly English, German, and Czech versions are taken into account. A cross-linguistic comparison leads to the conclusion that the choices made by the writer or the translator in naming fictional species correspond, on the one hand, to the linguistic habits of the language in question, while, on the other hand, providing room for linguistic experimentation and influence from the language of the original text. The paper also shows how the chosen texts, through the usage of fictitious names of species, attempt to meet the readers’ expectations for speculative literature. The presence of boundary crossing, hybridization, and linguistic creativity makes foregrounded world-building possible. However, accentuated connections between the words and between the species of the fictional and the actual world also show that an unambiguous, simpler world is presented this way. Word-formation is presented by the study as a way to link the actual world and the simplified speculative world, thus highlighting its importance.

Selling the nation: the commodification of monstrous, mythical and fantastical creatures

ABSTRACT This paper addresses a lacuna in animal geographies, extending the limits of this area of scholarship to include considerations of inanimate nonhuman animals. Drawing upon insights from animal geographies and interdisciplinary monster studies, a case is made that, in having effect and impact, monstrous, mythical and fantastical creatures exert agency which can be harnessed to support the creation and commodification of tangible assets. The Scottish tourism industry has commodified legendary creatures that feature prominently in folklore, tradition and cultural heritage. The Loch Ness Monster, kelpies and unicorns are used to support three facets of contemporary heritage tourism, namely (i) Scotland the theme park, (ii) post-industrial commodification and economic regeneration and (iii) a search for the authentic, or subversive nationalism. There is potential for further studies to elucidate how monstrous, mythical and fantastical creatures are intertwined with how people understand and engage with the world that they live in.

Salman Rushdie’s Novels in the Perspectives of Postmodernism in the Third Millennium

The text is dedicated to the novels of Salman Rushdie, one of the world's novelists of the third millennium, who preserve the importance and significance of postmodern fiction. Different novels from different decades are presented that employ a variety of postmodern practices and forms such as intertextuality, metafiction, heteroglossia, remitification, parody and the grotesque. The author builds a colorful world in which images and plots from the dynamic present, but also historical and mythological creatures and heroes are intertwined. Main attention is focused on the novel Quixote, which follows the lives of the fictional Quixote and Sancho in the very real American world. With a colorful palette of fantastic creatures, but also real characters from different eras, the author raises pressing issues about racism, consumer gluttony and obsession with the media spectacle. A brief review of the latest novel, Victory City, with which the author returns to India, building a magical, magnetic, fairy-tale world in which "the conventions of the outside world lose their meaning and melt away", but at the same time references are made to reality. In conclusion, the importance of Salman Rushdie as a global and postmodern author is reaffirmed.

Donkeys, Genies, and Demons: Fantastical Creatures in Ancient Egyptian Ritual Texts and Funerary Assemblages

Donkeys, Genies, and Demons: Fantastical Creatures in Ancient Egyptian Ritual Texts and Funerary Assemblages

Birds Beyond Words: Fantastic Animals and Other Flights of Imagination

In ‘Nature in the Active Voice’, Val Plumwood called for a ‘thorough rethink’ of the logic of domination that has authorized both colonialism and the exploitation of animals (113). But this mandate creates a conundrum: that logic elevates mind over matter and cognition over emotion. If Audre Lorde was right that ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house’ (110), then we are unlikely to succeed in undermining that logic by rethinking it. We need practices that will expose the tedious nonsensicality of human supremacy while simultaneously awakening our capacities for empathy, imagination, and full-bodied ecological reasoning. Plumwood noted the power of poetry, but nonverbal methods of cognition and communication such as music, dance, and visual art may be even more vital to the struggle to think truly differently. Underground currents of art and activism including Dada, Tropicália, Afrofuturism, and surrealisms from around the world may offer both instructive and cautionary lessons. Kiwi and other category-defying animals, whose minds are very different from our own but whose ideas may be legible through their ways of being in the world, may be especially important instructors in the praxis of eco-logic.

Folklore сomponents of Finnish Rock Poetry

This article explores the folklore components of Finnish rock poetry in Finnish and Swedish. It highlights how Finnish rock culture has revived an ancient tradition where poetry and music were intertwined. While musicians of Amorphis reference “Kalevala” mythology in the songs like “Tuonela”, “Sampo” and “Kantele”, they do not explicitly mention the names of “Kalevala” heroes in their adaptations of runes. The themes of their lyrics seem to take on a universal quality and are set in modern times. The influence of folklore traditions on Finnish authors is evident even in their English-language works. Ville Sorvali of Moonsorrow interprets the runes, trying to understand the intention of their creators, believing that these lyrics resonate with people worldwide. Similarly, Jan Jämsen (Katla), a Swedish-speaking Finn, infuses his native Swedish lyrics for Finntroll with imagery of fantastical creatures and incorporates Sámi folk chants joik to emphasize their uniqueness. Modern Finnish rock poetry stands out for its multilingualism and references to mythological themes from Finnish and Scandinavian folk poetry. However, the resurgence of metrics and imagery from the “Kalevala” and “Kanteletar” in rock poetry was unexpected. Authors use figurative symbolism that may require a deep understanding of Finnish culture to fully appreciate, even in Englishlanguage works. Finnish rock poetry is a diverse and vibrant art form that resonates with universal themes and emotions.

The golden winged bull (griffins) images in ancient religions

The article analyzes images of fantastic animals accidentally discovered on the territory of the Lerik district in southeastern Azerbaijan. These noteworthy discoveries are currently stored in the valuables collection of the National Museum of History of Azerbaijan. These objects testify to the high development of art in ancient times. Considering the resemblance of these images to those in West Asian regions, it is evident that Azerbaijan's ancient metalworking and jewelry art had extensive connections. This can be linked to religious beliefs, cultural-ethnic ties, and longstanding trade relations. Nevertheless, in the South Caucasus, particularly in Azerbaijan, the origins of these bull images are more ancient, primarily represented by clay and bronze figurines. This underscores the continuity of traditions in ancient art, with these finds likely dating back to the Mannean period (9th–8th centuries BC).

Специфика реализации мотива пути-дороги в отечественном городском фэнтези

The article analyzes the implementation’s variations of the fairy-tale motif the way-road in modern domestic fantasy on the example of its urban variety, which is characterized by the obligatory presence of dual world principle (the world of reality coexists on an equal footing with the fantasy world) and the presence of a protagonist, who, like a romantic hero, feels tragic discord with the reality. It turns out that the path-road is closely connected with the folklore motif of magical escape: the hero sets off on a journey around the city, because he tries to escape from the fantastic creatures pursuing him, eager not only to deprive him of supernatural abilities, but also to kill him, however in the final, when the protagonist reaches the end point of his path, he defeats all antagonists. The author decides, that the path-road motif is equated to a quest and determines the entire plot of urban fantasy: the protagonist moves along a path limited by the boundaries of urban space, which becomes an initiation for him, allowing him to improve himself both ethically and in supernatural skills. It is established that urban fantasy can be partially attributed to a variety of adventure novel, but there is a fundamental difference between them: in an adventure novel, the focus is on the fact of the adventures themselves, their presence, while in urban fantasy, on the fact of the transformation experienced by the hero in the process of passing tests.

ЕЩЕ ОДНА НАХОДКА ВОСТОЧНОГО ЗЕРКАЛА СО СФИНКСАМИ НА СРЕДНЕМ ЕНИСЕЕ

The article is devoted to the publication of another metal button mirror with paired figures of sphinxes and a floral ornament with a Kufic inscription, recently discovered on the territory of the Middle Yenisei. In this region, similar items are not only rare (exhibits of the Minusinsk and Abakan museums), but are also markers of the northern border of the distribution of these items in the Mongolian time. The сlarity of the decoration details of the product gives every reason to consider it far from being the latest copy from the original. Sufficiently good preservation of the images on the mirror (epigraphics, fantastic animals and floral decorations) makes it possible to analyze in detail not only individual artistic details, but also to make a probable attribution of the origin and chronology of this object. The peculiarities of the style of the Kufic inscription and images of sphinxes make it possible to date the mirror no later than the 11th–12th centuries, and also to include it in the circle of objects produced in Iran or Central Asia. The absence of such imported items in the south of Western Siberia north of the middle reaches of the Yenisei River is probably due to the historical features of the cultural ties of the medieval population in the initial period of the 2nd millennium AD. Overall, the new find of a mirror with a Kufic inscription and a paired image of the sphinxes on the background of a floral ornament makes it possible to clarify the local and general features of the distribution of such items in Eurasia in the Middle Ages. This, in turn, provides certain grounds for reconstructing the dynamics of the changes in the external relations of Southern Siberia over the past millennium.

The Scary in Acmeist Poetry as a Marker of Modernist Artistry

In its self-affirmation in the cultural field and its defiance of the extremes of Symbolism, Acmeism insisted on the diversity of its creative possibilities, the preference of the worldly content to the otherworldly, the development of a clear and transparent artistic form, the self-identity of artistic realities, and their balance. All this testified to the tendency to classical artistry, which determines not only the form of works (language and poetic style, composition) but the content (circle of ideas, problems, themes and images, and plot). The author examines how this system comprehends the chaotic and disharmonic that are part of life within its boundaries of cosmographic properties (harmonious, bright, optimistic). Earthly life as a reality declared a priority in the Acmeist paradigm is full of hostility, threats, and danger. Also of interest are the questions of how the negative category of the scary manifests itself and whether its presence testifies to the connection of Acmeism with the non-classical artistry of modernism. Answers to these questions form and represent the problems of this article. Referring to the works of N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova, and O. Mandelstam, the author explores the image and artistic understanding of the scary in Acmeist poetry. The article demonstrates a variety of objects, phenomena of reality, life processes, connections, and relationships that cause unpleasant feelings and experiences in poetic perception. On the one hand, the poets’ fears are due to personal characteristics and predilections, i. e., they have an individual nature and, on the other hand, they express the general tendencies of Acmeism. For Gumilyov, the dangers are associated with his love of travel. Hence the presence of a spatial component in the adventurous topic of his poems: the characters participate in battles with the sea, evil animals – the inhabitants of the African savannah, fantastic creatures, for example, with a dragon, visit the afterlife. The fears of Akhmatova’s lyrical heroine are motivated by dramatic collisions of the interpersonal, primarily love and relationships. The terrible thing for Mandelstam lurks in the fatal illness predicted to him, the sacred depth of religious faith, and the collapse of the world of cultural values that feeds his spiritual self-sufficiency. Acmeists were not afraid to depict and comprehend death, bearing the emptiness of non-existence, promising a frightening collision with the unknown and otherworldly, and plunging into a stupor of hopelessness. The scary made it possible to expand the thematic and pictorial possibilities of the works, address sociocultural issues, and reflect the tragedy of life becoming a marker of the high standard artistry of modernism.

Review: Screening the Posthuman, by Pansy Duncan, Claire Henry, and Missy Molloy

Book Review| March 01 2023 Review: Screening the Posthuman, by Pansy Duncan, Claire Henry, and Missy Molloy Screening the Posthuman, by Pansy Duncan, Claire Henry, and Missy Molloy. Oxford University Press, 2023. 320 pp./$125.00 (hb) ISBN 978-0-19-753856-2; 320 pp./$35.00 (sb) ISBN 978-0-19-753857-9. M. Sellers Johnson M. Sellers Johnson M. Sellers Johnson is an independent scholar who currently serves as the Citation Ethics Editor for Film Matters and works in the Archives department at Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts in Wilmington, North Carolina. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2023) 50 (1): 62–67. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2023.50.1.62 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation M. Sellers Johnson; Review: Screening the Posthuman, by Pansy Duncan, Claire Henry, and Missy Molloy. Afterimage 1 March 2023; 50 (1): 62–67. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2023.50.1.62 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAfterimage Search Much of our collective interest in cinema revolves around the figure of the human as something affectively familiar. Through the humanist approach that defines most cinematic narratives, viewers can see these relatable figures as mirrors to themselves. This interest is further stimulated by drama, comedy, horror, and other genres that animate our understanding of on-screen characters as refractions and reflections of ourselves. And yet, in our evolving world, the notion of traditional humanism has been recently challenged by developing critical understandings of posthumanist theory, which decenters the original notions of centralized humanism, by involving medical technologies, genetic aberrations, fantastical creatures, cyborg embodiments, and other outlying factors that disrupt typical perceptions of what it means to be human. By deflating anthropocentric perspectives, posthumanism conversely provokes our conceptions of the human as nonexceptional and increasingly enmeshed with surrounding technologies and environmental and internal factors that transmute the initial human into something more... You do not currently have access to this content.

Fantastic Creatures of the Mountains and Seas: A Chinese Classic, By Jiankun Sun, Siyu Chen

Fantastic Creatures of the Mountains and Seas: A Chinese Classic, By Jiankun Sun, Siyu Chen

Symbolism of Images and Motives in the Image Texts of the Nagada Culture and Their Transformation in the Cultural and Historical Development of Ancient Egypt

Motives of hunting and battles were the most popular in the fine arts of predynastic and early dynastic time. This article analyzes the painted vessels of type C and D, related respectively to the early and middle phases of the Nagada I (amrat) and Nagada II (gerzean) cultures, as well as ceremonial slate palettes of the protodynastic period (Nagada III) with their complex compositions. These artifacts reflectedmytho-religious ideas and the ritual that played the most important role in the struggle of order against chaos. It served as the main mechanism for the preservation of the cosmos as a cosmogonic principle. The ritual consolidated society around a social leader (king), who was symbolized on some artifacts by images of animals: a bull, a lion, fantastic animals projecting magical power, mana onto him. Along with geometric ornamentation, including floral and figurines of the inhabitants of the Nile waters: hippos and crocodiles, type C vessels were painted with scenes of hunting, battles and the victory of leaders - leaders or regional kings over enemies. The visual arts of Nagada II-III were still dominated by the motifs of hunting and battles, but they were executed in a new stylistic manner. Symbolically, the motif of hunting and battles, culminating in the triumph of the leader / king, reveals the internal identity of the theme of hunting the inhabitants of the Nile, wild animals of the desert and defeating enemies in the dynamics of the development of ancient Egyptian culture.

What is a γρυπαίετος (Aesch. Fr. inc. fab. 422 R. )?

The purpose of the following paper is to identify what kind of mythical creature Aeschylus’ γρυπαίετος (‘griffin–eagle’) that caused such a scandal for ‘Euripides’ in Aristophanes’ Frogs 928–930 (= Aesch. fr. inc. fab. 422 R.) was. The term has usually been interpreted in three ways: (a) as a poetic form of ‘eagle’; (b) as a poetic form of ‘griffin’; (c) as ‘eagle of the griffin species’. The testimony of Aristophanes’ Frogs and vase-painting suggests that it may have been an idiosyncratic, archaic type of griffin, called by modern specialists ‘griffin-bird’ and characterised by having two legs, not four, and the body of a bird, not a lion. This fantastic creature appeared quite frequently on Archaic black-figure vases in Athens, but had completely disappeared by the end of the 6th century BC. As a result, its appearance would be unknown to Aristophanes’ public, making the term γρυπαίετος impossible to make out (Ra. 930). Thus, the following paper suggests that Aeschylus’ γρυπαίετος (‘griffin-eagle’) is a fabulous composite beast made up of griffin and eagle parts, as its name suggests: a griffin head (with an open hooked beak, long pointed ears, a protuberance or horn over the eyes, and a curl or plume falling down one side of the neck) crowning an eagle body (two-legged, feathered, with wings and talons).

La pantera, el unicornio y la sirena: la evolución de tres motivos zoológicos a través de la literatura inglesa del periodo medieval temprano

This article provides the results of a research of the impact that a group of English works have had on the reception of the knowledge of exotic and fantastic animals in the literature and culture of the Early Middle Ages in Europe. For this purpose, a series of descriptions of mythical or imaginary animals and beings is analyzed through a selection of texts: on the one hand, the Physiologus in the versions found in the Exeter Book (Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS. 3501) and in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 448; on other, Aldhelm’s Enigmata and the Liber monstrorum. In doing so, we examine, on the one hand, the idea of the exotic animal with the case of the panther and, on the other, the representation of fabulous creatures such as the unicorn or the mermaid in the early medieval period.

Dis-Oriented Desires and Angela Carter’s Intersectionality: Nationalism, Masochism, and the Search for “the Other’s Otherness”

Abstract This article examines Carter’s portrayal of the intersections of race, gender, and nationalism through imagery drawn from the nationalist tales Momotaro (Peach Boy) and through figuration of the lion and the unicorn in her writing during and after staying in Japan. Analyzing Miss Z and Fireworks, we argue that Carter’s depictions of fantastical creatures reveal a proto-intersectional awareness of complex power interconnections between race and gender, specifically in relation to ideas of whiteness and masochism. Like her contemporary Taeko Kono, Carter critiques men’s masochism and theorizes a type of feminine masochism. Carter grows in awareness of both racial politics (whiteness) and masochism in Japanese culture and attempts to grasp the “essence of the other’s otherness” therein. In doing so, she conceptualizes intersectional power relations of gender and race.

Evergreen Snake and Gamiž

Slavic folklore contains a variety of beliefs concerning magical animals and other imaginary and liminal beings, their characteristics and properties. This heritage was adopted and used in the past by various children’s authors who integrated these folklore motifs into their own work. Some recent authors, on the other hand, show a marked tendency to implement animals of their own invention in order to convey an ecological message, often employing a quasi-encyclopaedic approach (e. g. Uroš Petrović and Zoran Penevski). Others create imaginary animals in order to explore moral dilemmas and psychological depths in a form appropriate for children (e. g. Mina Todorović). When folklore heritage makes a reappearance, it sometimes takes on a comical function in a contemporary urban context (e. g. Ivana Nešić). In this paper we provide an overview and an analysis of fantastic animals and their heterogeneous origins and functions in contemporary Serbian fantasy written for children, presenting a condensed outline of the most recent developments. Our aim is to combine a traditional analysis of the literary fantastic and folklore elements with ecocriticism.

Allegorical Images in The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan

This article discusses the strategies of visual representation and the status of visual images in Mariam Petrosyan's novel The Gray House, originally published in Russian as The House in Which... The novel is an excellent example of magical realism in contemporary literature. Dispersed throughout the text, visual images have an important role in understanding the fictional world. The characters of the novel sketch animals or fantastic creatures, which become their signatures. The pattern is similar to that of a magical ritual. These drawings and graffiti help the characters to communicate with the mystical House, where they all live. The drawings represent someone or something, while being themselves the subject of representation, which complicates the structure of the novel and requires readers’ reflection. The allegorical nature of the drawings creates the semantic continuity of the House because the characters share the same way of self-expression. The images created by Smoker are special because this character belongs to the House only partially. Smoker’s drawings clearly demonstrate his alienness in the world of the House, but they provide a metaphorical understanding of the House and offer its artistic interpretation. They serve as an alternative key to deciphering the mystical nature of the space. Smoker’s drawings reveal the concept of time distorted by the House

Ancient Sea Monsters and a Medieval Hero: The Nicoras of Beowulf

This article examines the nicor (pl. nicoras) of Beowulf, a type of aquatic monster that appears elsewhere in Old English literature only in the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle and the Blickling Homily XVI. These beasts that attack Beowulf during his swimming contest with Breca and that surround the mere of Grendel and his mother are unfamiliar to modern scholars in terms of their precise nature, being assumed in previous scholarship to be generic water monsters, or hippopotamus-like beasts. Other scholarly suggestions for their underlying influence have been crocodiles and whales. I argue, however, that the nicoras can better be understood as having been influenced by the ancient traditions of the kētos (pl. kētē), the sea monster par excellence of Greco-Roman mythology, which also occupied a prominent place in the Christian imagination. The nicoras in these three Old English texts can be understood, like the dragon of Beowulf, as fantastical creatures that were primarily the product of discernible ancient traditions, rather than generic beasts or purely monstrous versions of real-world animals.

Aquatic Mythologies: Divine, liminal and fantastic creatures in the Indian tradition

This article offers an overview of some of the most peculiar mythological creatures of the Hindu pantheon related to the watery element. Starting from the analysis of the concept of liminality, which is fundamental to Monster Theory, the symbolism and functions of water in ritualism, folklore and the traditions of South Asia will be explored. Indeed, destruction, metamorphosis, transition, purification and rebirth are all concepts that in Indian traditions are frequently sublimated into the dynamics of the circulation of waters. The monsoon phenomenon, the rushing rivers flowing down from the Himalayas and the depths of the Indian Ocean abysses therefore rise here to metaphysical and existential metaphors. Their hidden meaning has been represented in an allegorical key over the centuries by monstrous, bizarre and emblematic figures that have animated art, iconography and literature and popular legends. This essay tries to explore the issue through a religious and anthropological investigative approach, but with particular reference to Sanskrit literature and the sacred texts of Hinduism.