The Specificity of Fantasy
A special issue of Literature (ISSN 2410-9789).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 507
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
It is now a decade since Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn noted, in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, that, by contrast with science fiction, “the study of fantasy has only just moved on from attempting to define the form”. Since then, against the background of an emergent scholarly consensus on fantasy as the “literature of the impossible,” new research has explored marvellous settings, gothic monsters, children’s fantasy, invented myth, race in fantasy, high adventure and epic fantasy, and fantastic modernism. At the same time, we have seen an explosion of fantasy subgenres, innovative fantasy works celebrated internationally, cultural controversies and the politicization of awards, and a scholarly boom around writers such as JK Rowling, George RR Martin, and Phillip Pullman. In light of all of this, and of the constantly increasing popularity of fantasy literature, together with the global impact of the work of figures such as NK Jemisin, Brandon Sanderson, and Nnedi Okorafor, it is high time to sum up where it is that we think the study of fantasy has moved on to, and where it should go to next.
The aim of this Special Issue of Literature is to map this “where to?” by surveying the new diversity, mapping theoretical developments, and inviting provocative proposals for new research. We are especially interested in thinking about what is specific to fantasy, that is, how the literature of the impossible facilitates particular kinds of literary intervention or catalyzes particular sorts of imaginative response. The literature of the impossible, it must be supposed, meets some human need, makes some cultural contribution, performs some social role, or has some political implication that is specific to the form or particular to its characteristic themes and motifs. But what is it? And what do individual writers or particular works illuminate about how fantasy matters to the wider culture?
This Special Issue of Literature invites contributions around these questions, which may address the contemporary space of reflection on fantasy through theoretical arguments, general surveys, close readings of particular works, or innovative approaches to popular fiction. Responses might, but do not have to, zero in on themes such as:
- How does fantasy fit within the wider field of speculative fiction, and does it do anything that other kinds of speculation cannot do?
- What might be the formal features or substantive themes that determine the political orientation, social implications, or cultural role of a fantasy work?
- What is known about magical systems or monstrous ontologies in fantasy literature, and how might this affect the implications of fantasy?
- Are there particular genres of fantasy, or rhetorical modes, that are more likely than others to intervene culturally?
- How do innovative kinds of crossover fantasy disturb established literary boundaries and make new sorts of intervention possible?
- Is it possible to connect the politics of the reception of fantasy, especially in controversial contexts, to any formal or substantive features of fantasy?
- Do fantasy works express cultural conjectures, “what if” scenarios, and how do these relate to social reality or the natural world?
- Is there any such thing as emancipatory fantasy, or authoritarian fantasy?
Please send proposals to Dr. Geoff M. Boucher at [email protected] by 31 May 2022; completed essays are due 31 August 2022.
Dr. Geoff M. Boucher
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- fantasy literature
- speculative fiction
- popular fiction
- fantasy genres
- literature of the impossible
- the imaginary
- literary conjectures
- utopian fiction
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