Fantasy Novels Research Articles

Bitwa pod Brenną czy pod Starymi Pupami? O nazwach bitew i wojen w polskich powieściach fantasy

Battle of Brenna or battle of old Bottocks? War and battle names in Polish fantasy novels Proper names are a very important element of language in every literary work, especially in fantasy novels. They compose a map of reality unknown to the reader but they also tell the story of imagined world. Chrononyms are an example of proper names which appear in fantasy novels. They are names of historical events. Names of wars and battles are often used in books written by Andrzej Sapkowski, Ewa Białołęcka, Anna Brzezińska, Feliks W. Kres and Krzysztof Piskorski. This publication analyses how writers create chrononyms, how similar to real chrononyms names of wars and battles in fantasy books are, and what functions they perform in novels.Key words: literary onomastics; proper name; chrononyms; names of wars; names of battles;

“The Vast Expanse of Interstellar Space”: Alan Gregory's Science Fiction Theology

Vast Expanse of Interstellar Space: Alan Gregory's Science Fiction Theology Science Fiction Theology : Beauty and the Transformation of the Sublime. By Alan P. R. Gregory. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2015. $59.95 (cloth).The late Marion Hatchett, professor of liturgies and author of the massive Commentary on the American Prayer Book,1 once told this writer that he believed that the Reverend Howard Galley had written Eucharistic Prayer C in 1969 on a washing machine in a laundromat in the New York City neighborhood of Chelsea. vast expanse of space is a well-known line from it.2 One aspect that might give the anecdote credibility is that by that year, the television series Star Trek3 had impressed such words as interstellar upon the imagination and vocabulary of the American public.Watching episodes of it today, it is perhaps difficult to conceive the impact the show had then. The special effects, costumes, and makeup are cheesy by 1960 standards, never mind todays. The acting was uneven, to say the least. Star Trek made its mark, however, by the mix of characters, especially the half-human, half-alien Mr. Spock. Lieutenant Uhura, a strong and competent leader, was thefirst significant television role played by an African-American woman. Japanese and Russian officers showed that humanity had made peace with its past. The tension between Spock and Captain Kirk was the mainspring of the drama, as they gradually become friends.The stories were by and large well-conceived riffs on social and political themes of the day, as well as some metaphysical musings, especially on the question of what does it mean to be a human being. That is arguably the constant underlying plot line of all the program s episodes, and the five series which have followed it. Because it is set in space, specifically where no man has gone before, with technology like faster-than-light spacecraft drives and teleportation, Star Trek is quintessential science fiction. As such, it is also rife with theological musings. For as John Calvin pointed out, to know is to know oneself, to know what it is to be truly human.4More Star Trek movies are on the way, continuing to follow Spock and Kirk as young officers. The Martian is presently at the top of the box office. Gravity was a recent huge success, as well as Prometheus (the latest of the Alien franchise) and Interstellar, all films with significant theological underpinnings. At this time of writing, there is a storm of publicity to prepare for the imminent release of the seventh film in the Stars Wars series. May the Force be with you! has been a colloquial staple since the first film in the series was released in 1977. is a valediction that is also almost a prayer: God be with you! Those who consider science fiction to be beneath them need to pay attention: these films are all intentionally proclaiming various perspectives on God, humanity, creation, and the sublime to huge global audiences. They affect us all, in one way or another.Therefore, theologians must be conversant in science fictions multitude of theologies, and preachers must become fluent in its major conventions and vocabulary, as well.5ScientifictionClive Staples Lewis is perhaps best known for his fantasy novels set in Narnia. But he wrote three major science fiction novels as well, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.6 They are all allegories on Christian themes, seen through the eyes of the recurring character, Dr. Elwin Ransom. Lewis also wrote a reflection on science fiction, or scientifiction, as it was then still being called. In On Science Fiction, Lewis attempts a defense of the genre. He makes a number of points that are still relevant. First, not all readers enjoy science fiction. is mythopoeic, and some people simply loathe such literature, whether fairy tales or fantasies like J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: It would seem from the reactions it produces, that the mythopoeic is rather, for good or ill, a mode of imagination which does something to us at a deep level. …

Zastępstwo i przebaczenie w Opowieściach z Narnii

Children’s contemporary literature often presents an ambiguous and even immoral world of values, not to speak of Christian virtues, which are neither emphatically mentioned nor even faintly evoked. Theological virtues enhance human capacities and elevate every person to their highest being, to the supernatural order they are created for. Directly related to the Scriptures, for they are revealed, the theological virtues suggest an unavoidable and clear connection to God. In C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia we find a useful counterexample to teaching morals through literature: these seven fantasy novels provide multiple examples of how to be faithful, hopeful and even how to practice the virtue of charity. Considering that through a fictional evocation of certain concepts these might be apprehended more significantly, in this paper we aim to explore new readings of the saga that go beyond a general approach in order to transcend its allegorical mechanisms and respond to criteria such as the virtue of charity and its two main features: vicariousness and forgiveness.

From Fantasy to Franchise

This essay examines the relationship between genre and franchise though a discussion of the Dragonlance series, a collection of pre-fabricated adventures for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adapted into a series of novels. Because of the sheer number of these novels (approximately 200), the fiction set in the AD&D campaign setting known as Krynn far surpasses the scope of the original adventures in terms of narrative, character, geographical location, and historical situation. The sprawling nature of the novels, which implicitly seek to be an exhaustive account of Krynn and everything that happens there, would make Dragonlance one of the longest series in the history of generic fantasy. However, as I demonstrate, the development of the Dragonlance narrative takes place in the context of a franchise that turns away from the conventions of genre fantasy. The double origin of Dragonlance as both a setting for adventures in the AD&D game system and as a series of fantasy novels creates both the mechanistic feel...

"Typescript of the Second Origin". Counterculture and Politics in the 1970s'

This article explores how, like other science fiction and fantasy novels, Typescript of the Second Origin relates to 1970s counterculture, radical politics and anti-establishment movements. Pedrolo, a leftist and pro-independence strongly committed author, echoes the radical left’s breakaway from the bourgeois reactionary way of life and consumer society in the novel. The beginning of a post-apocalyptic era in the novel stands for some of the values attached to hippie culture: the search for an ‘authentic’ —natural, primitive, non-technological— life; anti-establishment activity —as shown in self-organisation and the dissolution of the political system—, universal solidarity —the first member of the new humankind is Mar, Alba and Dídac’s mixed-race son—, as well as sexual liberation —Mar’s parents are teenagers and sensuality and eroticism permeate the novel. However, the violent origin of the new era is ambivalent: whereas in other novels peaceful resistance to oppression brings about social change, the author’s stark message seems now that humankind must succumb to create a different world. Thus, the story resonates with the debate within counterculture and radical groups of the 1970s as whether the use of violence is legitimate or not to resist power. Despite violence, Pedrolo’s story depicts a melancholic feeling for change that the transition to democracy thwarted.

Reader and author gender and genre in Goodreads

There are known gender differences in book preferences in terms of both genre and author gender but their extent and causes are not well understood. It is unclear whether reader preferences for author genders occur within any or all genres and whether readers evaluate books differently based on author genders within specific genres. This article exploits a major source of informal book reviews, the Goodreads.com website, to assess the influence of reader and author genders on book evaluations within genres. It uses a quantitative analysis of 201,560 books and their reviews, focusing on the top 50 user-specified genres. The results show strong gender differences in the ratings given by reviewers to books within genres, such as female reviewers rating contemporary romance more highly, with males preferring short stories. For most common book genres, reviewers give higher ratings to books authored by their own gender, confirming that gender bias is not confined to the literary elite. The main exception is the comic book, for which male reviewers prefer female authors, despite their scarcity. A word frequency analysis suggested that authors wrote, and reviewers valued, gendered aspects of books within a genre. For example, relationships and romance were disproportionately mentioned by women in mystery and fantasy novels. These results show that, perhaps for the first time, it is possible to get large-scale evidence about the reception of books by typical readers, if they post reviews online.

Revisionary Fantasy: Children’s Spatial Practice and the Cambridgeshire Landscape in John Gordon’s <i>The Edge of the World</i>

In The Edge of the World (1983), John Gordon’s young protagonists must journey through the fantastic landscape of a nameless fantasy world. This exotic realm of deserts, glass palaces and ghouls recalls countless children’s fantasy novels, but it differs in its close yet obscure relationship to Kit and Tekker’s mundane home landscape of Wisbech and the Cambridgeshire Fens. Local history and features of the real world’s landscape regularly erupt into Kit and Tekker’s journey, by turns guiding and disorientating them and prompting a highly subjective experience of ‘place’ and its production. Their navigation of these real and unreal worlds, evading enemies (and dodging parents) in a quest to heal a symbolic fracture, suggests a specialised form of what Michel de Certeau calls practice. This essay explores how this representation of children’s spatial practice in John Gordon’s work relates to Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1963), another story of fantastic place co-existent with the mundane one, and of being lost in them both. It argues for important differences in Gordon’s approach, influenced by early twentieth century trends in landscape history, and the revisionary power of the archaeological imagination.

Teaching English Fantasy in the Nineteenth Century Using Alice in Wonderland

This study introduces methods of teaching nineteenth century English fantasy novels using Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland by. Alice in Wonderland has become a part of English literary canon as criticism of life. This work, interesting but serious, is primarily considered as entertainment for children. The novel, however, is ripe with criticism of life that might well fascinate adult readers as well as childeren: conducting a literary experiment inspired by fairy tales, Carroll created an interesting story for children with an eye on human reality. Alice in Wonderland is thus a search for the conditions of human life and a delicate and humorous satire in fairy-tale form. This has enabled the novel to enjoy a large readership to this day and establish itself as a canonical work within the English literary tradition.

The Castle in the Mist by Amy Ephron

Reviewed by: The Castle in the Mist by Amy Ephron April Spisak Ephron, Amy The Castle in the Mist. Philomel, 2017 [192p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-399-54698-3 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-399-54699-0 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-6 It doesn’t seem like there’s going to be much to do in Tess’ aunt’s quiet little English village, but that’s where Tess and her brother Max are planted for the summer. Of course, that’s exactly the sort of place that lends itself to magical adventures in fantasy novels, and this village doesn’t disappoint, as Tess quickly encounters a mysterious boy named William of whom nobody has heard, carnival rides that must be paid for in wishes, and other unusual elements. There are scenes, particularly on the carousel that is a key location in the novel, that are transcendent in their beautiful, ethereal descriptions; these are the spots where the talents of Ephron, an adult author trying her hand at books for kids, come through the most clearly. However, the book hits some wrong notes (the sibs’ mother’s illness is disclosed to the readers up front but never to the protagonists themselves), and the magic plot pairs uncomfortably with a non-magical mystery about who William is (and when he was actually alive) and what’s up with an old untended house. Readers who don’t mind these issues may appreciate this short, ultimately uplifting novel about family and connection. [End Page 213] Copyright © 2017 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Fantasy and Taoism in <i>The Earthsea Cycle</i>

The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin, regarded as one of the most successful Western fantasy novels worldwide, constructs for the readers a fantasy Earthsea world where the harmonious combination of Oriental philosophy and Western literature lays the pillar. Drawing upon the philosophy of Taoism and Tao Te Ching, and resorting to the analysis of the three most significant elements in the book, true name, this essay conducts a profound and comprehensive exploration of the Taoist wonders in The Earthsea Cycle. This essay illustrates the connections among true name, language creation view and Tao to reveal how true name reflects the nature of life and existence. At last, the essay concludes that The Earthsea Cycle is a literary work of Western fantasy entwined with Oriental Taoist philosophy. True name is the essence of existence in the Earthsea world, while magic originates from the need to develop while following the course of nature. All things in The Earthsea Cycle rely on nature and inaction, and grow within the circle of life.

"Faces of Evil in Modern Fantasy"

Fantasy literature has enjoyed a vast increase in cultural prominence in the last quarter-century. What was once considered a marginal genre of scant literary merit is now enormously popular, enjoying huge sales and steadily increasing critical respectability. This change is partly due to the fashion in the early years of this century for cinematic adaptations of fantasy novels. Film “franchises” such as The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter sold tens of millions of tickets apiece and prompted sympathetic reappraisals of their source material among both popular and academic audiences. Though this trend seemed to have run its course by about 2010, the television show Game of Thrones (2011-present) appears to have taken it to a new level. After six seasons the show continues to break ratings records and seems likely to be remembered as part of the zeitgeist of this decade. This success has naturally prompted renewed interest in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, the series of novels on which the show is based. Recent editions of Martin’s books have become runaway bestsellers and the forthcoming installments will no doubt do the same. Martin has also become a success with the critics, who praise the complexity of his characters and the moral depth of his work. Long-time readers and scholars of fantasy obviously welcome this.

Trollism, Reality Hunger, and Vulnerability. Trolls in film and literature in the 2000’s

Abstract Trolls have become increasingly salient in contemporary Nordic film and literature. This article sets up to understand the dissemination of cinematic and literary trolls of the 2000’s by providing a comparative analysis of three contemporary texts: the Norwegian mockumentary Trollhunter (André Øvredal, 2010) and two fantasy novels, Troll: A Love Story by Finnish writer Johanna Sinisalo (2000) and Stallo by Swedish author Stefan Spjut (2012). In addition to comparing contemporary trolls to more established troll conceptualizations from Nordic folklore and children’s literature, I will also analyze trolls in a larger cultural and socio-political context by tying them to aesthetic movements such as the reality hunger in contemporary Scandinavian art and the vulnerability of the contemporary socio-political moment.

동아시아 전기소설을 통해 본 글쓰기치유로서의 자산계승

이 논문은 동아시아 전기소설을 통해 본 글쓰기치유로서의 자산계승을 밝히는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 이는 동아시아 전기소설이 전대의 글쓰기양식을 이어 받았 으며, 이를 통해 전기소설이 가지고 있는 유형을 확보하고, 그 유형을 자산으로 계 승하고 있다는 데 착안한 것이다. 이때 전기소설은 奇異가 바탕이 되므로 ‘있는 세계’와 ‘있어야할 세계’로 나누어 지며, ‘있어야할 세계’는 종교적인 세계로 용궁, 지옥, 천당 등과 같은 별세계인 환 상의 세계이다. 작중 주인공의 행적은 환상의 세계와 실재를 함께하는 幻實槪念을 나타내고 있다. 곧 주인공이 별세계를 다녀왔는데, 그것이 현실에서 현현되는 것 이다. 이런 전기소설의 자산은 전기소설 작가들이 전대의 글에서 계승을 하여 작품을 썼으며, 실제로 詩·序·跋 등에서 언급하고 있었다. 이를 본고에서는 전기소설의 글 쓰기치유로서의 자산계승으로 봤고, 그 자산에 대한 가설을 세워서 실제로 전기소 설을 언급하고 있는 독후시나 서발을 통해서 증명하였다. 그런 자산계승이 후대로 계속됨을 알 수 있었다. 이런 전기소설이 가지고 있는 글쓰기치유로서의 자산계승은 실제 작품에서 유 형화 하여 나타나고 있었다. 이 유형의 실제는 용궁을 배경으로 하고 있는 <유의전 >·<수궁경회록>·<용궁부연록>·<龍宮の上棟>·<용정대송록>을 통해서 밝힐 수 있 었다. 그 유형은 ‘주인공의 절대고독→기이한 사건 발생→별세계여행→고독의 치 유’였다. 이를 통해서 전기소설의 작가와 독자들이 모두 고독을 치유하는 것이었다.

The Etnogenez Project: Ideology and Science Fiction in Putin's Russia

ABSTRACT This essay examines the Etnogenez series of science fiction and fantasy novels. Launched in 2009 by the media producer, “political technologist,” and Kremlin insider Konstantin Rykov, Etnogenez has enjoyed truly phenomenal success, developing into one of the most ambitious publishing projects of the post-Soviet period. At present it numbers more than fifty works, which circulate in millions of copies and additionally are broadly disseminated on the Internet and as e-books, audiobooks, and podcasts. There are Etnogenez fan clubs, computer games, and dozens of Internet discussion groups. Although the novels in the series differ widely in their plots and subjects, and are written in a variety of different science fiction genres, all of them are loosely inspired by the work of the historian and geographer Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev, in particular his theories of ethnogenesis (from which the project takes its name), passionarnost', and Eurasianism. The essay explores the powerful resonances between the Etnogenez project, the Gumilevian legacy, and the leading political and social narratives of Putin's Russia.

VERTIMO POETIKA, ETIKA IR POLITIKA: GEORGE’O R. R. MARTINO ROMANO A GAME OF THRONES VERTIMO Į LIETUVIŲ IR PRANCŪZŲ KALBĄ ANALIZĖ

The article embarks upon the discrepancy in time between the establishment of the first translation schools in Europe and in Lithuania, where the first translation school dates back as late as the last decades of the twentieth century, after regaining Independence. The historical overview accounts, in a sense, for at times lesser importance of the quality of translation than anticipated. The article aims at a study of Lithuanian and French translations of A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin; the novel opens a series of books under the title A Song of Ice and Fire. The analysis is based on Henri Meschonnic’s concepts of poetics of translation, ethics and policies. It also adopts Anthony Pym’s principles of translation ethics. George R.R. Martin’s phenomenon is briefly discussed in the article, his role in the contemporary world of science fiction genre, specifically in the niche of epic fantasy novels is presented. Having discussed concepts of poetics of translation, translation and translator’s ethics, as well as policies of translation, the author procedes with selected samples of French and Lithuanian translations and presents them in problem-based units, such as translation of proper names of the literary characters, metaphorical expressions and literal translation. Having analysed the corpus of samples in Lithuanian and French the author arrives at the conclusion that the translator into French has preserved the poetics of the original and has demonstrated adherence to the principles of translator’s ethics, while the translator into Lithuanian has failed in her attempt to reveal the poetics of the text, and the big number of word-for-word translation passages indicates some lack of fidelity to the original text and its translation, as well as translator’s ethics in general. Thus it may be assumed, from a broader perspective, that the recently established school of translation in Lithuania lacks some tradition of quality as applied to translation text and that may cause such unfortunate results as the study has revealed.

Między „swoim” a „obcym”: figura pośrednika w powieściach „Świat Rocannona” Ursuli K. Le Guin i „Pan Lodowego Ogrodu” Jarosława Grzędowicza

The article delivers an analysis of Stephen Greenblatt’s figure of middleman read through the lenses of Bernhard Waldenfel’s notion of “the Third”, attributed to a comparative readin of two science fantasy novels: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Rocannon’s World, considered a hallmark of the ganre, and Jarosław Grzędowicz’s tetralogy The Lord of the Ice Garden. In both of these work protagonist engage in a role of middlemen which allows pointing at specific similarities in the storytelling, creation of two worlds and a symbolical “gate” in between them. Nevertheless, it is the identity created within the sphere of intermonde, which remains here the most prominent issue, as it belongs neither to the world abandoned by the Third, nor the one wherein the Third has finally found him/herself.

Life(and)death in Harry Potter : The Immortality of Love and Soul

This essay examines various features belonging to the liminal area between life and death in the world of Harry Potter . Being fantasy novels, Rowling’s works are free of the reins of empirical thinking. The border they posit between possible and impossible may be displaced; still, it is more or less firmly set.

Analyzing the public discourse on works of fiction – Detection and visualization of emotion in online coverage about HBO’s Game of Thrones

This paper presents a Web intelligence portal that captures and aggregates news and social media coverage about “Game of Thrones”, an American drama television series created for the HBO television network based on George R.R. Martin’s series of fantasy novels. The system collects content from the Web sites of Anglo-American news media as well as from four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. An interactive dashboard with trend charts and synchronized visual analytics components not only shows how often Game of Thrones events and characters are being mentioned by journalists and viewers, but also provides a real-time account of concepts that are being associated with the unfolding storyline and each new episode. Positive or negative sentiment is computed automatically, which sheds light on the perception of actors and new plot elements.

남북한 아동문학 판타지의 통일담론 연구

남북한 아동문학 판타지의 통일담론 연구

The Allegory of Fantasy Novels and the Ecriture of Korean Children’s Writers

The Allegory of Fantasy Novels and the Ecriture of Korean Children’s Writers