Fantastic Elements Research Articles

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.

Mother of Sharks by Melissa Cristina Márquez

Reviewed by: Mother of Sharks by Melissa Cristina Márquez Kate Quealy-Gainer Márquez, Melissa Cristina Mother of Sharks; illus. by Devin Elle Kurtz. Penguin Workshop, 2023 [48p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780593523582 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593660560 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 2-4 As the sun sets over la Playita del Condado, young Meli uses her last few minutes at the beach to explore the tide pools, where she finds a talking hermit crab who introduces himself as Jaiba and invites Meli—whom he calls "the girl with the ocean [End Page 296] in her heart"—to explore the waters further. Considering she was only minimally fazed by the talking crab, she's equally as accepting of the fact that she can now breathe underwater, following Jaiba, as they swim past dying coral and sharks tangled in nets. It's not just the ocean they explore, however; soon, they're in a university library, studying books on sharks; then, they're watching a scientist give a talk on sharks; and eventually, she observes a crew of marine researchers tag sharks. Meli returns to la Playita del Condado, with a new purpose to protect the sea and all its creatures. Meli's exploration of the ocean is a whimsical but somewhat distracting framework for this biography of Márquez, a noted Hispanic marine biologist and ocean life educator. Few facts are given regarding her life or the world she studies, but there's still appeal in the more fantastical elements that highlight the wonder and vastness of the sea. The vibrant art exudes energy and warmth, inviting readers in first with the glowing, honey hues of the sunset, and then the jewel-toned richness of the underwater scenes. Additional materials will be needed for aspiring marine biologists looking for more detail on the profession, but youngsters who find themselves drawn to the sea just for the beauty of it will find a lovely oceanic portrait here. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Репрезентация «непройденной инициации» в постмодернистской литературе в романе Дж. Апдайка «Бразилия»

The aim of the study is to determine the peculiarity of the postmodern initiation novel in the national literary tradition of the US. The paper examines the representation of initiation rites in a literary text with an accent on the transformations that can be seen in the novel “Brazil” by J. Updike referring to the myth of Tristan and Isolde and its realisation in the modern worldview. The authors highlight the world outlook strategies, architectonics, mythopoetic reconstruction of the initiation rite in modern US literature. The paper makes a theoretical contribution to the genre investigation: the analysis of the technique of “negative reception” of initiation, presented for the first time, makes it possible to see the specifics of initiation plot representation in postmodern discourse, which determines the scientific novelty of the study. A transformation of the legend of Tristan and Isolde is represented in J. Updike’s work. The novel takes place in the XX-century Brazil, the initiation of the characters involves going from one place to another, discovering the mysteries of the sacred and death, fantastic elements are included in the narrative. The authors conclude that a variant of the “failed initiation” is presented in the novel “Brazil”, since the main male character is unable to cope with the challenges that he faces on his journey. As a result, it has been proved that the theme of initiation, the outcome of which may be negative, is of crucial importance in J. Updike’s novel.

Victory City by Salman Rushdie

Reviewed by: Victory City by Salman Rushdie Yagnishsing Dawoor SALMAN RUSHDIE Victory City New York. Random House. 2023. 352 pages. PAMPA KAMPANA, the demigoddess of Victory City, Salman Rushdie's incredible new novel, envisions the kingdom she builds from enchanted seeds and whispers as a first-rate utopia. Women treated on a par with men, the flourishing of the arts, religious tolerance in perpetuity. Pampa will live for 247 years. In that time, the kingdom, known to all as Bisnaga, will pass through the hands of a series of rulers, some progressive, others bigoted, all of them men. Bisnaga thrives, falters, picks itself up again, enjoys a few golden ages (some long-lived, others transient), and then wastes away beyond repair. Pampa's "immortal masterpiece" in verse, the Jayaparajaya, survives to tell the history of Bisnaga "from its creation to its destruction." Victory City is presented as a retelling of the events recorded in Pampa's poem. Its author, we are informed, is "neither a scholar nor a poet but merely a spinner of yarns . . . who offers this version for the simple entertainment and possible edification of today's readers." Fortunately for us, Rushdie is a terrific raconteur. Bisnaga is an exaggerated, occasionally Marvelesque rendition of Vijayanagar, the historical empire that covered a significant swathe of South India between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Rushdie shakes it to life through an extraordinary admixture of facts and religious lore (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata being Rushdie's most obvious, constant sources of inspiration); side-splitting jokes and instructive asides; people real and fictional (the first two kings of Bisnaga, Hukka and Bukka, are based on the real Sangama brothers, the cowherds-turned-founders of Vijayanagar); and a ladleful of magic. At the time of its birth, when Bisnaga is still empty of people, Hukka and Bukka sit atop a mountain, surveying the cityscape. Their subjects emerge from the earth "shaking the dirt off their garments and thronging the streets in the evening breeze. Stray dogs and bony cows walked in the streets, trees burst into blossom and leaf, and the sky swarmed with parrots, yes, and crows." Within a day, the city is socially functional. The people of Bisnaga behave as if "they possessed memories and histories, and formed a long-established community, a city of love and death, tears and laughter, loyalty and betrayal." It is a delightful passage. World-building made flesh for the reader. Victory City, like Midnight's Children, Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning novel, revels in magical realism. There are shapeshifters; pink monkeys with colonial ambitions; a well-meaning panther; spying birds; and an enchanted forest where "the conventions of the outside world lost their meaning and melted away." Yet for all its fantastical elements, Victory City remains deeply invested in the real world. Bisnaga, after it comes to be ruled by the disowned fanatical son of Pampa and Bukka, Hukka the Second, recalls the fissiparous state of present-day India: "tensions between communities were running high. Now there were areas of town where it was not safe for the once-godly to go, and there were unprovoked attacks at night." Hinduism becomes the religion of the hour. Dissent is quickly quashed. Hukka the Second's reign does not bode well for women either. "A woman's place," he declares, "is, and will henceforth be, in the home." Pampa and her daughters leave Bisnaga. This grim state of affairs does not last forever, thanks to the novel's brisk linearity. Resistance grows. A sect with "an inclusive kindly syncretist worldview" racks up followers. (Its members will occupy some of the highest positions in the empire.) Pampa returns to Bisnaga to persuade the people and the new king, Hukka the Second's son, that "the cultured, inclusive, sophisticated narrative of Bisnaga that she was offering them was a better one than the narrow, exclusionary, and, to her way of thinking, barbarian official narrative of the moment." Forty years to the fall of Bisnaga, Pampa becomes the victim of a terrible lie and has her eyes put out by hot iron rods. Reading about Pampa's fate, I couldn't help but think of the vicious assassination attempt...

Sociocultural Aspect of Functioning of Toponymic Legends in Central Kazakhstan (Expeditions Materials 2012, 2017)

The article is devoted to the problem of existence and analysis of the current state of legends and toponymic legends of Central Kazakhstan. The material was the texts recorded by the authors on expeditions to the Karaganda region in 2012 and 2017. The current state of the folklore of Central Kazakhstan is marked by the functioning of certain genres: legends, wedding poetry, proverbs, toponymic legends. The main layer of the functioning of folklore samples falls on legends and toponymic legends. It is concluded that the Kazakh legends are characterized by a specific informative function. The main plot-forming component is the character, around which all the material is united, the plots themselves, as a rule, are single-motive, do not contain fantastic elements and are designed as a narration about the recent past. The paper notes that toponymic legends explain the names of localities and are associated, as a rule, with the names of famous people. The specificity of the names is the use of speaking names or similarity with natural phenomena. The authors argue that the active functioning of folklore samples indicates a favorable folklore situation and the prospects for further research on the sociocultural aspect of Kazakh non-fairytale prose.

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

The Discourse Structure of Morisco Journey Narrative Avoqai Journey – A Brief Narrative of Al-Shihab ila Liqaa’ Al-Ahbab) as a Model

Objectives: This study is dedicated to discussing the discourse structure of the journey as used by Ahmad Shihab Al-Din Ibn Qasim Al-Hajari, a well-known Morisco scholar known as the "Avoqai" or "the lawyer". His journey is titled Naser Eddeen Ala Al-Qawm Al-Kafereen. This narrative serves as a factual historical record of the most critical period experienced by the Moorish community in Andalusia. Following the downfall of Muslim strongholds in 1942 AD, the Moorish people faced severe suppression by the "Spanish Inquisition" and were subsequently forced to leave the land after Philip 3rd issued the expulsion decision in 1609 AD. The author also included the debates he conducted with Christians and Jews during his time as the Saadi ambassador in both France and the Netherlands.
 Methods: The study employed the analytical method to identify the elements of speech within the journey. This was achieved through analyzing the journey's speech, starting from the text thresholds presented in the main title and subheadings of the journey's sections.
 Results: The study highlights the discourse elements that transformed the author's journey from a mere narration of events into a distinctive discourse with an authentic literary identity, thanks to the remarkable prose employed in the text.
 Conclusions: Avoqai's journey is a literary voyage that incorporates various elements, as analyzed by narrative criticism. These elements include the introduction of the text, its chronological and captivating functions, as well as narration and characterization. Furthermore, the study examines the role of the narrator as both a speaker and a character, the abundant use of dialogue, and the inclusion of fantastical elements in the text.

Фантастические элементы в романах литРПГ («Господство кланов» Дема Михайлова, «Играть, чтобы жить. Срыв» Д. Руса, «Путь шамана. Начало Пути» В. Маханенко)

The aim of the study is to identify the fantastic elements of a new genre of literature - litRPG (literary role-playing game). The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the genre features of fiction in the works of litRPG are systematized and described using the example of several Russian authors’ works. The study presents a comparative analysis of the fantastic elements of the novels “The Rule of the Clans” by Dem Mikhailov, “Play to Live. Disruption” by D. Rus, “The Way of the Shaman. The Beginning of the Way” by V. Makhanenko (the title books in the key series were selected). The author considers the original nature of the created virtual worlds and finds a common vector of their development. As a result, it is proved that litRPG develops according to the general laws of fiction, and the genre-forming element is a computer game: the conditional reality of the events taking place in the new genre is replaced by the virtual reality of multiplayer computer games; the newly created worlds are an imitation of Medieval Europe combined with fiction; the main character is an ordinary person who enters the Other (virtual) world and acquires a new personality - a game character; in each novel, there are parallel game and earthly worlds that interact and change each other, and in addition to the combat storyline, there is a love one.

Knez Mihailo - pokrovitelj umetnosti, stvaralac i inspiracija

The figure of Prince Mihailo Obrenović is illuminated in the work through three aspects: patronage, embodied in the merits for the creation and development of cultural institutions, such as the National Theater in Belgrade and the "Vuk Karadžić" National Library in Kragujevac, financing the work of numerous artists such as Anastas Jovanovic, Branko Radicevic, Kornelije Stankovic and others, as well as educational workers such as Vuk Karadzic; authorship thanks to which we learn about the prince's relationship to the state, people, religion, mother and beloved wife; an nspiration, which is followed through the treatment of the prince's character in poetry, prose and drama. Accordingly, clear differences were established between two opposing currents in poetic literary expression. One group of poets, like Zmaj, was a fierce opponent of Mihailo's rule, while the other, which included Laza Kostic, glorified his actions with their works. As for the prose, the characteristics of male and female narratives, the chronological difference in the treatment of the literary character Prince Mihailo, the position of the narrator, as well as the aesthetic value of certain literary works in which the prince is either the main character or an episodic role, were examined. The last segment of the work follows the development of the prince's character through four plays, which are stylistically different, and in some of them we meet not only fantastical elements, but also otherworldly spaces. Based on the above, a comparison of literary and historical biographies was made and the conclusion was reached that there is no great difference between them. The last segment of the work follows the development of the prince's character through four plays, which are stylistically different, and in some of them we meet not only fantastical elements, but also otherworldly spaces. Based on the above, a comparison of literary and historical biographies was made and the conclusion was reached that there is no great difference between them. The last segment of the work follows the development of the prince's character through four plays, which are stylistically different, and in some of them we meet not only fantastical elements, but also otherworldly spaces. Based on the above, a comparison of literary and historical biographies was made and the conclusion was reached that there is no great difference between them.

The Role of the Fantastic Elements as a Means of Healing in Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News? and Ümit’s the Dervish Gate

This paper examines the relationship between the fantastic and trauma in the detective novels of Kate Atkinson and Ahmet Ümit within the theory of Comparative Literature. Based on Cathy Carruth’s Trauma Theory, the paper aims to explore how Atkinson and Ümit employ fantastic elements such as ghosts and time-traveling in their detective novels to unmask the traumatic events rooted in the memories of the patriarchal cultures where they have been living. It is suggested that both Atkinson and Ümit lead the reader to discover the silenced narratives of marginalized people such as women, children, and men that do not belong to the male dominant ruling class in their societies by creating a fictional world where the ghosts help the characters to detect their personal and cultural wounds stemming from male-dominated social environments. Thereby, the writers offer some healing to the marginalized people by giving them a voice and also contribute to creating integrity and union within their societies.

Stavovi učitelja o obradi književnih dela fantastičnog žanra u nastavi

The aim of this paper is to examine teachers' attitudes towards teaching literary fantasy novels in the classroom. Given that fantasy literature, which is rich in fantastical elements, affects the creative development of the student's personality, the paper wanted to show the opinions and experiences of teachers on this matter. The descriptive method was applied in the research, the research technique is surveying, and the research instrument is a questionnaire, which was filled out by teachers. This questionnaire contains closed-ended questions, which concern teachers' interest in reading literary works of the fantasy genre and their opinion about the influence of this genre on student development. The questionnaire also contains open-ended questions, which sought to find out which literary works of fantastic literature the teachers like to read, which works they covered in class, and which works were proposed by the students. The questionnaire was also intended to determine whether teachers read what students propose in class. At the end, teachers listed the advantages and disadvantages of applying these contents in school. The research sample consists of 56 questionnaires collected during 2021. The obtained results show that the majority of teachers is not interested in reading literary works of the fantasy genre, but believe that such content positively affects the development of the child's imagination and abilities, as well as that most teachers do not read literature recommended by students. Also, the results show that teachers teach literary works of fantasy genre in the younger grades of primary school, although they do so very rarely.

“Tokyo Cancelled” A Postmodern Reading of Rana Dasgupta: A Review

Tokyo Cancelled, the debut text of the award-winning author Rana Dasgupta, who also won a Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for his brilliant second novel Solo (2009), seeks to connect the contemporary techno-cultural world and the eerie world of myth, fantasy, magic, and imagination. Dasgupta chooses new ways of representing the world with his postmodernist experimentation Tokyo Cancelled as he continues to do in Solo as well. In a contemporary anonymous international airport, Dasgupta makes thirteen stranded passengers tell thirteen stories which in turn transport the reader to the realms of magic and fantasy. While rejecting the conventional mode of narration, and going away from the traditional concepts, Dasgupta creates a pastiche of postmodern events, occurrences, events, and characters. The author celebrates the elements of irony, paranoia, fragmentation, parody, dark humour, magic realism, and techno-culture which hold the very essence of a postmodern society and its habitants. This paper, thus, from a postmodern perspective, attempts to analyze the contemporizing of the fantastic elements existent in the text Tokyo Cancelled.

Influencias temáticas y simbólicas de Borges en Ajuar funerario y otras obras de Fernando Iwasaki

Fantastical elements are very common in the literature of Fernando Iwasaki. As a historian, and also a Peruvian, he has drawn on elements of Inca culture and mythology, and also Peruvian folklore. Although strongly influenced by Cortázar, Poe and Lovecraft , in terms of style, themes, topoi and poetics, Iwasaki is also indebted to the works of Jorge Luis Borges. Indeed, the aim of the article is to analyze the main Borgian influences present in Iwasaki’s works with a particular focus on his book Ajuar funerario (2004).

МОТИВ КАТАСТРОФІЗМУ В ПОЕТИЦІ АНТИУТОПІЧНОГО ЖАНРУ: КАДЗУО ІШІҐУРО І ЯРОСЛАВ МЕЛЬНИК

The article examines the concept of catastrophe as an art theme, which is extremely relevant in our time and is also marked by the entropy features. We can confirm that this phenomenon grows and affects many spheres of human life, both external (global, social) and internal (psychological). The author of the article focuses on how modern dystopia reflects an awareness of a catastrophe, which is happening or has already happened. We have analyzed two novels from this point of view: “Masha, or the Fourth Reich” by the French writer of Ukrainian origin Yaroslav Melnyk and “Never Let me Go” by the English writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro. The article emphasizes that the dystopias of our time correct classical dystopia attitudes, because they tend to the diffusion of new genres, acquiring the features of a parable novel, a myth novel, an alternative history fiction, and a philosophical novel. We have also noted the controversial nature of new formations, which combine signs of utopia and dystopia. Regarding the ideological and thematic component, the author of the article states that Ya. Melnyk and K. Ishiguro focus on the traditional problems of humanism and the relationship between “man and society” and on individual’s catastrophic depopulation issues in the conditions of nowadays turbulent challenges. The purpose of the article is to study the specificity of catastrophism artistic embodiment in the novels “Masha, or the Fourth Reich” by Yaroslav Melnyk and “ Never Let me Go ” by Kazuo Ishiguro and its functions in the structure of the dystopia genre. To achieve this goal we used historical-literary, cultural-historical and hermeneutic research methods. It was determined that the catastrophism motif realization in the dystopia genre contributes to searching for new experimental forms, activates the processes of transformation and diffusion in the genre creation field, paradoxically and organically combines classic and modern elements of dystopia, renewing the poetics of the genre. Conclusion. Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let me Go” demonstrates a powerful example of genre synthesis: “stream of consciousness” coexists with the classic English estate novel, which is emphasized by confessional and allegorical intonations and does not prevent the writer from resorting to some possibilities of a detective story. Features of the traditional parable form and mythological genre are also observed. Fantastic elements are interspersed with realistic ones. But allegorical, mythological, fantastic, and realistic features organically coexist in the novel, reinforcing the author’s main ideas. Yaroslav Melnyk in his novel “Masha, or the Fourth Reich” successfully synthesizes an alternative history novel, an adventure novel and a classic philosophical novel. Here conflicting utopia and dystopia also organically coexist, reinforcing each other. A dystopia genre structure becomes open and acquires unlimited hybridization, losing its classical features and even postmodern boundaries. Thus, the catastrophic reality of the 21st century promotes the search for new experimental forms, activates unpredictable processes in the genre creation field, and paradoxically and organically combines classical and modern elements of literary art. Once again, modern dystopian literature shows that “common issue” as a social slogan cannot satisfy individual human needs. The problem of egocentrism with the insufficient development of the political machine is becoming more and more acute. As a general phenomenon, consumer society does not justify itself and makes the lives of its sons doomed. Unfortunately, the heroes of modern dystopias less and less often choose to fight and more often to humble themselves or flee, which is the main difference from their classical predecessors. The prospects of further work are to deepen the understanding of the causes of stylistic and substantive differences in dystopias, the influence of socio-cultural reality on modern dystopias genre synthesis, the differences in the methods of utopian representation and artistic means of enhancing catastrophization within stories framework.

The Orc—Playing the “Wholly Other”: Investigations of Kant's Sublime and The Technological Sublime in Blizzard Entertainment's Massive Multiplayer Online Game World of Warcraft

While the complicated scheme of the philosophical sublime may at first hand seem mere platitude when brought to life in computer games, this article claims that the action/adventure game World of Warcraft wedges open a space in which to operate the sublime and navigate radically “other” subjectivities. The hypothesis is that the assembly of fantastic elements in World of Warcraft duplicates the Kantian sublime while at the same time commenting upon and even radicalizing it. The Romantic tradition of the sublime as it unfolds in Immanuel Kant's third Critique is outlined followed by an attempt to topologize elements of the fantastic in Blizzard's game design philosophy leading to a clarification of what we call “the knotted point of play” where game object, game interaction, and game subject intervene. Finally, we explore how the notion of the technological sublime relates to World of Warcraft and beyond.

Arranged Marriages and Imprisonment: The Domestic Gothic Horrors of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s La baronesa de Joux (1844) and Dolores (1851)

Cuban writer Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (1814–73) produced a number of texts that show clear Gothic characteristics as part of Hispanic Romanticism in the mid-nineteenth century. Utilizing La baronesa de Joux and Dolores, two of her tradiciones (traditions), which are stories or short novels with fantastic elements, I examine how Gómez de Avellaneda employs techniques and tropes associated with women’s Gothic writing to communicate proto-feminist messages and to reveal the potential dangers of marriage and domesticity. The stories are set in medieval castles, incorporate features such as spirits, patriarchal violence, malaise, and incarceration and have not been previously analyzed using theoretical approaches associated with female Gothic writing popularized by critics such as Anne K. Mellor and Abigail Lee Six. Through these tradiciones with Gothic features, Gómez de Avellaneda details surprising events and questions societal norms for women’s roles in matrimony.

“Into the night” and “the baby in pink Tarlatan”, by João do Rio: gothic and fantastic elements in translation

RESUMO Este artigo empreende uma análise de traduções dos contos de João do Rio intitulados “Dentro da noite” e “O bebê de tarlatana rosa” para a língua inglesa, com enfoque na transposição de elementos góticos e fantásticos nessas narrativas curtas ficcionais decadentistas. As configurações das redes temáticas do espaço, do medo e dos elementos góticos e fantásticos são analisadas nas traduções, com especial ênfase na transposição do encadeamento desses campos semânticos cotejados entre texto fonte e tradução. O aporte teórico dos estudos da tradução e da literatura comparada, nos textos de Lanzetti et al. (2009), de Berman (2007), de Baker (1992), de Venuti (2002) e de Brunel et al. (2019) são consultados. Os escritos teórico-críticos a respeito das estéticas e da obra de João do Rio, nos estudos de Levin (1996), Tardin (2021), Todorov (2017), Ceserani (2006) e França (2015), embasam as discussões acerca das estéticas e dos seus elementos observados nas traduções. Os textos traduzidos aparentam transpor as redes temáticas e lexicais ligadas a esses campos semânticos e a essas estéticas, resultando em textos-alvos em grande parte estrangeirizadores e portadores das marcas da literatura paulobarretiana para a língua inglesa.

Fantastika, Myth and Eschatology in A. Platonov’s Short Novel (Povest’) “The Ethereal Tract”

The article analyzes certain methods of expressing the author’s position in A. Platonov’s fantastic short novel (povest’) “The Ethereal Tract.” The genre structure of this short novel is based on a complex synthesis of fantastika and reality, which connects mythological and eschatological archetypes in the genre subtext and reveals the author’s general intentions. The author’s view is manifested in the choice of the genre: the short novel (povest’) as a genre is focused on the narrative of what happened in the past, the definition of “fantastic” sets a completely different vector of movement — it is a look into the future, at what only can be. Thus, the “possibility of the impossible” is asserted — this is how the writer conceived of the fantastika. Platonov also resorts to other means of expressing the author’s position in the text: to irony (and often self-irony, if we take into account the autobiographic nature of his prose), to the grotesque, as a means to “scale” what is depicted, to the antithesis as a way of revealing the contradictions of life. However, by colliding with each other and contrasting the characters and their ideas, as well as fantastika and reality, myth and eschatology, the writer tries to arrive at some kind of synthesis in order to find the truth in the spirit of the Hegelian triad; the same technique underlies his genre strategy. Platonov bases his plot structure on quite real and useful achievements of scientific and technological progress, but strengthens the fantastic element of the plot, which leads to the opposite, negative effect. Platonov’s heroes do not see the boundaries between science and fantastika, or between fantastika and eschatology. However, the author sees this, so fantastika and reality, myth and eschatology in the poetics of Platonov’s short novel (povest’) acquire new connections: fantastika destroys not only utopia, but also myth. But in place of the mythological consciousness, which is able to somehow explain certain phenomena, fruitless eschatological aspirations come. As a result, both the author and the reader come to the conclusion that, despite the successes of science, a person still knows too little about himself and the world and has not reached the level of moral perfection to be worthy of his discoveries.

Ildikó Enyedi: Testről és lélekről •

AbstractThis article is about Ildiko Enyedi's film “Testről és lélekről”. It proposes a semiotic analyse. Its thematic frame is a theory of the fantastic literature and film and refers to Tzvetan Todorov (part 1). Following Roand Barthes “S/Z” it discusses the codes in the film, the sequences and spaces in the film (part 2). In the next part the composition of the film comes into play (e. g. repetition, analogy). The fourth part is dedicated to the uncanny and fantastic element that are created by a lack of knowledge about the world in the and the figures of the movy. The article refers to Freud's “Traumdeutung”. Part 5 analyses the funktion of silence in the film on several levels (level of narrating, communication of the figures in the film). The film is seen in a post-romantic tradition which is in-written in “classical modernism”.

Deviation and Fantasy: On the Question of the Status of the Bible as Fantasy

The paper explores the possibility of classifying the Bible as a work of fantasy, or as a work including fantastic elements. It looks into the unique status of Biblical fantasy and the challenges to such a classification, including its literary features and presumption of ontological realism. The paper defines fantasy as a literary work whose content is characterized by surfeit or deviation to which no extra-textual ontological pretension is attributed. However, the argument goes beyond the ontological theme to stress the significance of the transcendent in both religious literature and fantasy. The Bible is viewed as fantasy in this sense and in some additional senses already within some of its own parts (such as Lamentation and Job). The paper studies these texts in this context and in relation to the theory of fantasy.