Fantastic Elements Research Articles

Literary Realism, Speculative Fiction, and Queer African Futures in Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater

ABSTRACT: This article positions Akwaeke Emezi's novel Freshwater (2018) as a text that challenges definitions of multiple genres, namely literary realism and speculative fiction. I argue that Freshwater 's seemingly fantastical elements are in fact iterations of Igbo cosmology, which recognizes coterminous human and spiritual realms as part of material reality. By positioning Igbo ontology as the grounding principle of earthly existence, Freshwater contests the division of realism into multiple subsets (magical, animist, literary). Furthmore, I argue that the novel playfully refigures ogbanje identities and Igbo cosmological structures to envision new horizons for future kinship. Rather than speculating about futures that respond to African histories of European colonization, Freshwater reconfigures uniquely Igbo concepts such as ogbanje and iyi-uwa into means for queer agential re-destination. Thus, the novel shifts the speculative focus away from postcolonial efforts to "write back," and instead locates the basis for speculative futures within Igbo ontological structures. Freshwater 's complex navigation of not only multiple realisms and speculative fiction, but also tradition and change, defies easy categorization and instead offers open-ended avenues for queer Igbo and other African futurities.

From Esoteric Religiosity to Ethical Inclusivity: An Investigation of the Detrimental Effects of Religious Trauma in The Saint of Bright Doors

In fantasy, the conflation of disparate familiar conventions and concurrent subverted delineation of the same often renders a reimagination of the essentialist socio-political norms. Such transgressions of recognizable circumstances by dint of fantastical elements also engender a feeling of ‘hesitation’, as argued by Tzvetan Todorov, which also encourages readers to eulogize the protagonists for their prowess in undertaking an arduous quest to resolve a multi-layered mystery. However, the celebration of magical environments and supernatural characters by popular imagination often surpasses the protagonists’ emotional challenges and intermittent indecisiveness to acquire empowerment. Sometimes, their objective of seeking the truth is hindered by the cognitive deficiencies induced by childhood abuse, domestic violence, the necessity of achieving belongingness, and so on. In this regard, this study attempts to analyze the detrimental effect of religious trauma on the individual pursuit of redefining fantastical traits in The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera. With the seamless unification of traditional fantasy elements such as invisible ‘antigods’, lethal catechism, and magic doors, with the modern socio-cultural developments in terms of ringing phones, emails, quarantines, and social distancing, the select fiction depicts the protagonist’s journey into a world that is imbibed with both mundane and mystic implications. This study further seeks to investigate the consequences of indoctrinated religiosity in restraining agency hued with fantastical peculiarities.

CONFLICT OF REALITY AND FANTASTIC FICTION IN THE STORY OF ALEXEY N. TOLSTOY “COUNT CALIOSTRO”

The article examines the story “Count Cagliostro” by Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, completed during the emigration period: based on a real historical fact (the visit to Russia in 1779-1780 of the Italian adventurer Giuseppe Balsamo, who called himself Count Cagliostro), it combines reality with fantastic fiction, and turning to works using a fantastic element is very relevant today. At first glance, the complex vicissitudes of life should have determined the preference of fantasy over reality, but in “Count Cagliostro” fantastic fiction enters into a conflicting relationship with the world of reality, proof of this thesis becomes the purpose of the article. Using problematic, comparative-contrastive, cultural-historical, chronological, and biographical methods, the author solves the goal by comparing “Count Cagliostro” with the story written at the same time – A.N. Tolstoy’s “Nikita’s Childhood” and the previously created poem by A.K. Tolstoy – “Portrait”, a simultaneous comparison of these works has not been previously made and represents the scientific novelty of the presented article. The author comes to the conclusion that in difficult times of moral searches A.N. Tolstoy does not want to hide from life’s problems in the world of a fantasy universe; the conflict between reality and fantastic fiction is resolved in favor of the triumph of real earthly love. This ability to prefer harsh reality to fairy-tale fiction will affect both the subsequent work and the life path of A.N. Tolstoy.

Genie in a Cola Bottle: The Multiple Worlds (and Genres) of G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen (2012)

Abstract: Winner of the 2013 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen brings some new perspectives into the fantasy genre with its Middle Eastern setting and its basis in Islamic mythologies. It generates additional energies by mixing its fantastic elements with elements from other (very Western) genres (including cyberpunk science fiction and the technothriller). At the same time, it makes extensive use of the motif of parallel worlds, which has long been a staple in fantasy fiction. The parallel worlds of Alif the Unseen are particularly interesting in the way they converge, intersect, and bleed into one another at various points, just as the novel also collapses the boundaries between genres. Ultimately, the collapsing boundaries of Alif the Unseen deconstruct Orientalist polar oppositions between East and West by allowing worlds that might be associated with one or the other to meet and interact as equals within the novel.

Magic Realism in Rabindra Sameer's Mrityuko Aayu

This article analyzes the novel Mrityuko Aayu in the light of Magic Realism. Applying magic realism is methodological approach for critical analysis of the novel in this article. It follows interpretive textual analysis. Free translation has been used while taking the citation from the novel. I have drawn the conclusion that the novel is a magic realist novel as it has introduced innovative style of narrating the story. The story begins from the death of the protagonist, but he is capable of seeing everything even after the death. It has blended mundane and supernatural, ordinary and extraordinary and real and fantastical elements in an unquestionable way. The novel's extracts are analyzed within five parameters that include fantastical elements, real world setting, incorporation of myth, meta-fiction and social/ political critique. Even after the death of the protagonist, the story moves ahead from the spirit's perspective. The spirit is capable of seeing, feeling and experiencing everything. The readers accept all such actions and happenings as normal without questioning the reliability of them and feel sorry for his painful and pathetic condition. Therefore, the writer is successful in using magic realism in the novel. It is hoped that this article will encourage researchers to study other works of fiction from the point of view of Magic Realism.

Duck, Death and the Tulip in the triangle of fantasy, reality, and death in preschool education

One of the most important concepts that children in preschool and primary school try to perceive and understand is “death”. Making the phenomenon of death comprehensible to a child is a very difficult and laborious process. The difficulty of defining death, which is an abstract concept, for a child, combined with the pedagogical fear (negative perception that this can cause in a child) and the inability to develop an appropriate discourse (destructive style), leads the adult and parents to an even greater impasse. There are different opinions, especially on whether the phenomenon of death can be included in children’s books and how and in what way this phenomenon should be expressed if it is to be included. One of the publications that successfully answer the question of how and in what way death should be explained to children is the children’s book Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch. In this work, the abstract phenomenon of death is made tangible for children with the help of fantastic elements, and death is characterized. Duck, Death and the Tulip, in which values such as “friendship”, “love” and “respect” between a duck and death are treated with pedagogical care, are of great importance for shaping and developing the concept of death in the minds of child readers. This study sought to examine how the concept of death is treated in Wolf Erlbruch’s children’s book Duck, Death and the Tulip based on embodiment, child psychology, and pedagogy.

Stylistic peculiarities of Edgar Poe’s and Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s gothic novellas

The article deals with the comparative analysis of stylistic features of selected short stories (novellas) by the American writers Edgar Poe and Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Using a set of methods (theoretical analysis, holistic text analysis, stylistic analysis), relying on the creative manifestos of the two authors, as well as on the results of stylistic analysis of the corpus of short stories, the authors of the article trace the continuity and distinctive features in the work of the two writers. The obtained results allow to state the presence of similar features in the short stories of Edgar Poe and Howard Lovecraft, such as gothic chronotope, mystical and fantastic elements, common type of narrator, characterised by a borderline state, and deliberate fear-mongering. At the same time, however, the texts of both authors demonstrate specific features. Poe’s Gothic novellas are characterised by increased psychologism, which manifests itself in the prevalence of such stylistic devices as repetition, gradation, aposiopeisis, rhetorical question and exclamation, which eloquently testify to the “inner horrorˮ of the characters. The high allusiveness of Poe’s short stories testifies to the close connection of the described events with reality. The prevailing stylistic devices of Lovecraft’s novellas (epithets, personifications) testify to the author’s attempt to breathe life into inanimate objects, to extract them from non-existence, and to make the reader experience a “cosmicˮ horror of the unknown and external. The author’s complicated syntax combined with irrational enumerative rows suggests that Lovecraft’s work might be influenced by modernist aesthetics.

Chronotopische Landschaften in den fantastischen Romanen Raphaela Edelbauers

The works of Raphaela Edelbauer share a common theme in terms of the surrealistic landscapes in which they are set. Her historical novel Die Inkommensurablen (2023) features a village referred to as Weiler, which can seemingly be visited by multiple characters in their dreams. This dreamscape is not only a fantastic element in an otherwise realistic novel, but also an allegory of the shared belligerence within the Austrian society just before the outbreak of World War I. Similarly, the surreal setting of her contemporary novel Das flüssige Land (2019) functions as an allegory as well. The ground beneath the town of Groß-Einland is hollowed out, threatening its very existence, just as the shared guilt of the population’s crimes under the Nazi regime still lingers beneath the idyllic surface. Finally, her science fiction novel DAVE (2021) departs from the established pattern in that its setting is not the manifestation of a shared sentiment, but rather the mind of the eponymous artificial intelligence that narrates the story. In all these cases, however, the landscape is used to transform a subjective and abstract experience into a physical space.

(Re)Animating “Comfort Women” Memories: Fantastical Abstractions and Metaphorical Violence

This project explores the intersection of public memory, violence, and the relationship between new media representations and the viewer in the context of Sujin Kim’s (2021) animated short film, Unforgotten. To expand on current discussions of “comfort women” activism and the intersection of public memory and animation studies, I use a close reading method to identify four main representations: “comfort women” as metaphorical objects; “comfort women” as surreal alternative bodies; “comfort women” as the physical land; and “comfort women” as unseen and implied bodily forms. I explore the affordances and the limitations of the animation form and investigate the nuances of the film’s relationship with the viewer. This documentary demonstrates the powerful potential of animation as a site for exploring sensitive subjects with metaphorical and fantastical elements to create disjointed narratives that replicate the traumatic, fragmented memories of “comfort women”. Throughout history there have been efforts to render their narratives unintelligible through silencing and discrediting the survivors; but they and others have continually attempted to tell their stories. Despite their stories’ suppression and the film’s limitations, Kim’s film provides an alternative mode of representing and witnessing stories of the past.

Temporal Journeys and Human Perception: Analyzing Nonlinear Narratives and Scientific Fantasy in the Film Arrival

This paper explores the nuanced interaction between temporal journeys, nonlinear narratives, and human perception, using the highly acclaimed film Arrival as its focal point. Drawing from theoretical frameworks in time perception, cognitive psychology, and narrative theory, we investigate the convergence of these perspectives in the analysis of nonlinear storytelling. The literature review encompasses studies on the impact of nonlinear narratives on audience perception, relevant theories on time cognition, and scholarly works dissecting Arrival within the science fiction genre. The film analysis section dissects Arrival, highlighting its nonlinear narrative structure, the portrayal of temporal journeys, and the role of language in shaping temporal perception. The paper explores how Arrival challenges traditional notions of time and reality, scrutinizing cognitive aspects like memory and consciousness, and the linguistic impact on temporal understanding. The scientific fantasy within Arrival, notably linguistic relativity, is scrutinized for its balance between scientific grounding and fantastical elements. Audience reception and impact investigate how nonlinear narratives, exemplified by Arrival, influence audience expectations, preferences, and broader cinematic trends. The paper concludes with reflections on the implications of Arrival within the context of temporal journeys, human perception, and the lasting impact on the science fiction genre.

Ecology of the ‘Other’: A Posthumanist Study of Easterine Kire’s When the River Sleeps (2014)

In Posthuman Ecology, anthropocentrism, based on the binary division between the privileged human and the ‘other’, gets deconstructed, leading to an acknowledgment of humans as essentially tangled in an intricate web of the natural world. In such ecologies, boundaries between the human and the more-than-human (non-human) worlds become porous, creating fluid identities and conditions of being within a framework of active interplay between the human and the non-human world. The ecology of folktales is replete with Posthumanism, as their narratives consistently break the unbridgeable gap between the human, non-human, and the spiritual and/or supernatural worlds and present certain non-naturalist ontologies that are mostly at odds with naturalism or modern empirical science. Such tales provided much-needed templates for sustainable development in the time of the Anthropocene. This paper attempts to study Easterine Kire’s When the River Sleeps (2014) as a posthumanist narrative where Vilie (a hunter) goes on a fantastical journey to find a fabled magical stone from the bottom of the ‘sleeping river’. Vilie’s journey comes out as a playground for both mundane and fantastic elements. He grows as a human being, and this happens as he transacts with the non-human and the supernatural world and comes across deep metaphysical questions and presents keys to understanding balance-in-transcendence.

«Преступление и наказание» и британская готика ужасов

The article considers Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment alongside several works of the British Gothic tradition of horror (Matthew Gregory Lewis’s The Monk, John William Polidori’s “The Vampyre”) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus that essentially is the first representative of science fiction in British literature. The fantastic element in the gothic of horror was very important for Dostoevsky as a visible manifestation of the level of being beyond the material plane. “The Vampyre” and The Monk manifest certain commonality of themes and motifs with both Dostoevsky’s oeuvre in general and Crime and Punishment in particular. These include “vampiric” descriptions of heroes (Svidrigailov and Stavrogin), the consequent motif of the “living dead,” the theme of sensuality. These parallels are particularly topical for Crime and Punishment as they emphasize Dostoevsky’s key recurrent motifs that are not always immediately visible in Svidrigailov. However, the most interesting typological parallels emerge between Dostoevsky’s overarching plot (human beings’ attempts at self-deification, i.e. at going beyond their nature and toward godhood) and the plot of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. While the subject of self-deification as such is not innovative (Shelley’s and Dostoevsky’s predecessors in this regard include epic poems of different peoples and eras, tragedies by Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare), Shelley and Dostoevsky pioneered the subject of human inability to rival God not in their creative or destructive power, but in their ability to love. Inability to love in a true Christian way was also part of The Monk, but it was Shelley’s work that foregrounded it. Therefore, the English gothic of horror and Dostoevsky’s oeuvre are connected both at the level of individual themes and motifs and at the level of religious and philosophical conceptualization of human teleology.

Маркери філософії абсурду в романах Кобо Абе «Зошит кенгуру» та Валерія Шевчука «Срібне молоко»: порівняльний аспект

The article is devoted to the study of the philosophy of absurdity in the works of Japanese writer Kobo Abe and Ukrainian author Valery Shevchuk. The work examines the novels «Kangaroo Notebook» and «Silver Milk» with the aim of identifying common and different markers of absurdity, as well as analyzing their existential basis. The study of absurdity in these works allows a deeper understanding of their uniqueness for their time and relevance for the modern reader. Absurdity in the works of Abe and Shevchuk is presented as a way of reflecting human alienation in a world that has lost its meaning. They address the theme of an individual's search for his place in a world where traditional values and social structures cease to be effective. Existentialism, as the philosophical basis of their works, helps to reveal the inner conflicts of the heroes struggling with their own identity and the absurdity of existence. The novels of Kobo Abe and Valery Shevchuk are unique for their time due to their innovative approach to exposing human nature through the lens of the absurd. Abe's Kangaroo Notebook explores the boundaries between reality and illusion, using symbolism and metaphor to convey an absurd worldview. «Silver Milk» by Shevchuk, in turn, demonstrates the absurdity of human existence through fantastical elements and psychological portraits of heroes searching for meaning in a senseless world. A comparative analysis of these two works allows not only to identify common features in approaches to the topic of absurdity, but also to emphasize the cultural and national features of their expression. Such studies are important for the expansion of the literary base and a deeper understanding of the influence of different cultures on the interpretation of philosophical concepts. The relevance of the works of Kobo Abe and Valery Shevchuk does not diminish over time, because they offer universal answers to questions that remain important for humanity in any era. This article highlights the importance of intercultural dialogue in literature and the potential of such comparative studies to understand global literary processes.

Metatextual Commentary to the Heroic Poem Suvoroida by I. I. Zavalishin: Authorial Manifestation and Understanding of the Genre

Issues concerning the emergence and decline of the epic poem are fairly well researched in Russian literary criticism. Irinarkh Ivanovich Zavalishin was the second author who successfully completed works of this genre following in the footsteps of M. M. Kheraskov. Yet, this author’s poems are often considered superficially as having had no serious influence on the literary process or the consciousness of contemporaries. This article looks at the unique aspect of his poem, Suvoroida, its extensive metatextual and paratextual structure, its relation to the core text and impact on the further development of the genre. The article demonstrates how in his commentary on the poem, the author expresses a new approach to the genre itself, i.e. a decisive rejection of classical fantastic elements of the traditional epic poem of the eighteenth century, postulating the value of historical accuracy and personal attitude to historical events. The article considers the immediate features of historical commentary, noting that, first of all, the author seeks to convey accurate historical information about the obstacles overcome by Suvorov and the losses of the enemy, which serves to formalize the image of the invincible hero. Finally, attention is drawn to the conceptual tension between the text of the poem and the author’s commentary on it, manifesting an active authorial presence in the text. From this tension comes the complexity in the interpretation of Suvorov’s image. As a character of the poetic text, he appears in the image of a classicist hero, sublime, magnificent, formidable, and gracious. The Suvorov of the metatext is down-to-earth, surrounded by everyday details and realities, and easy to deal with.

Усадьба как «дом на краю времени» в текстах английских детских писателей XIX — начала XXI в.

Since the 19th century, British literature addressed to young readers begins to emerge an unusual image of the world, in which, without the intervention of a fantastic element and almost imperceptibly for the reader, different times and eras are harmoniously combined. The crucial technique for creating such a universe is an anachronism, skillfully used by the author and not exposed to him; the latter, in turn, can leave clues for an attentive reader ready to join his “game.” The image of such a space turns out to be consonant with ideas developed in literary studies in recent years, such as the concept of “mythical (nonlinear) time” (M. Nikolaeva), “closed world” (P. Hunt), “palimpsest world” (M. Certeau), etc. The most important locus of such a world in the texts we are considering (Water Babies by Ch. Kingsley, The Wind in the Willows by K. Grahame) turns out to be a noble estate, to denote which we propose to use the term we introduced — “house on the edge of time.” As an additional task, we will analyze the world of W. Maine’s novel Earthfasts (1966), a fantastic “borderland,” which, in our opinion, serves as a development of the image of the Vendale in the tale by Charles Kingsley.

Images of Ethnic Others in Western Medieval Art

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the characteristic traits of the images of the ethnic Others, the connection of these images to the fundamental ethic and aesthetic categories, as well as the political events of the medieval epoch. Medieval art depicted various ethnic groups like Jews, Saracens, Mongols, Blacks, and eventually, people from the New World. Their representations share both common and distinct characteristics. Common traits encompass distinct appearances, clothing details, associated attributes, and their correlation with political events. They also exhibit imprecision, conventionality, and fluidity in defining the boundaries between these different groups. Moreover, they reflect cultural and political influences and blend real and fantastical elements, often intertwined with religious and ethical categories, which were fundamental in the medieval worldview. Herewith, the images of the Others also had some specific traits.

Kechirib berish: Harry Potter romanlaridagi fantastik elementlarni o'zbek tiliga tarjima qilishga doimiy tushuncha

This article explores the process of translating the fantastical elements ofJ.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels into Uzbek, highlighting key concepts in translation studies. The procedure involves the integration of cultural adaptation, where the rich characteristics of Uzbek traditions come across the wizarding world's British roots. The article also addresses the need for consistency across novels, ensuring a seamless transition for Uzbek readers through the whole novel.

The Pied Piper as a Killer in London: China Miéville’s Novel King Rat

This study examines how the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin is re-told in China Miéville’s novel King Rat in London by combining elements of urban fantasy and arguing that the boundaries between the real and the fantasy world are blurred in the city of London. China Miéville is regarded as one of the most remarkable contemporary British Fantasy literature writers. In King Rat, blending the familiar cityscape with elements of myth, magic and horror creates a rich environment where ordinary lives intersect with extraordinary forces. By analysing the thematic and stylistic features of the novel, this study will reveal how King Rat exemplifies the basic elements of urban fantasy, focusing on the setting, characters, and fantastic elements and how it makes an important contribution to the genre. This analysis will provide readers with a detailed panorama of the interplay between urban settings, fantastic elements, and dark themes in contemporary literature.

The Ideological Characteristics of Balzac’s Novel “The Magic Skin”

This article details the work of the French realist writer Honore de Balzac, “The Magic Skin.” The use of opposites is an important feature of Balzac's romantic work in the novel The The Magic Skin. Contrasting additions serve to show the evolution of the image of the main character and the restoration of his thoughts and mental states; they are used to describe the main characters of the novel and describe the location of the action, the main plot twists; they also play an essential role in realistic depiction. The interpretation of the fantastic element of the work is also revealed. O. De Balzac’s novel “The Magic Skin” shows the superiority of the romantic creative style.

The Concept of Cossack Fantasy in Literary Studies Discourse

The article is devoted to a general overview of the concept of fantasy and its typology, as well as to the results of research into the position of Cossack fantasy in the literary discourse. During the work on the article, materials devoted to the following main areas were used: fantasy in academic discourse; types of fantasy classifications; essential elements of a fantasy narrative; examples of Cossack fantasy in scientific research. The article uses a comparative research method. The author of the scientific study introduces the most common definitions of fantasy and the main types of classification of this type of literature. To confirm the originality of fantasy, as well as other vectors of intellectual activity that build their complex structure around the Cossack heritage, we proposed the concept of "Cossackopeia" to describe this complex and sometimes fragmentary phenomenon. In the article, we paid more attention to the artistic and literary vector of Cossackopeia. Based on the ideas of John Clute about taproot texts, Brian Atterbery about the "fuzzy set" of fantasy texts, Fara Mendelsohn and her thoughts about how the fantastic element penetrates the narrative, as well as Robert Boyer and Kenneth Zagorsky and their spatiotemporal system of events, we formed a definition of "Cossack fantasy". This allows us to say that the Cossack fantasy, using the Western European canon, has every opportunity to expand it to create original pseudo-historical worlds and even form a narrative projection of space-time far from Earth. Cossack fantasy is unjustifiably in the shadow of scientific research; therefore, it deserves a detailed analysis of its genre and typological features. In the future, the article's author sees the development of the metaconcept of Cossackopoeia and the establishment of the Cossack fantasy in this artistic phenomenon.