British fantasty fiction in 20th century

1.Fantasty as a literay genre
For many readers, literary fiction privides desperately needed escapism so they can endure the difficulties of everyday life. Even when conjured characters inhabit a recognizable world and speak to the human condition, fictional stories can pull readers out of their own heads. This effect is even more pronounced in the fantasty genre. Untethered from scientific and societal laws, and limited only by their imaginations, fantasty authors explore themes by creating their own worlds, where dragons battle in the skies, alien diplomats tryu to maintain peace between planets, and strange creatures cohabitate Earth with humans.
Fantasty is a genre of literature that features magical and supernatural elements that do not exist in the real world. Although some writers juxtapose a real world setting with fantastical elements, many create entirely imaginary universes with their own physical laws and logic and populations of imaginary races and creatures. Speculative in nature, fantasty is not tied to realityor scientific fact.
Fantasty includes a robust and ever-growing number of subgenres, some of which writers combine in their works. There are a few essential subgenres of fantasty;
*High or epic fantasty. Set in a magical environment that has its own rules and physical laws, this subgenre’s plots and themes have a grand scale and typically centre on a single, well developed hero or a band of heroes, such as Frodo Baggins and his cohorts in J.R.R.Tolkien’s The lord of Rings.(1954)
*Low fantasty. Set in the real world, low fantasty includes unexpected magical elements that shock characters, like the plastic figurines come to life in Lynne Reid Banks’s The Indian in the Cupboard.1980.
*Magical realism. While similar to low fantasty, magical realism characters accept fantastical elements like levitation and telekinesis realistic world,as in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s classic One Hundred Years of Solitdue.1967.
*Sword and sorcery. A subject of high fantasty, it focuses on sword wielding heroes, such as the titular barbarian in Robert E. Howard’s Conan pulp fiction stories, as well as magic or witchcraft.
*Dark fantasty. Combining elements of fantasty and horror, its aim is to unnerve and frighten readers, like gargantuan, otherworldly monsters in H.P.Lovercraft’s universe.
*Fables. Using personified animals and the supernatural, fables impart moral lessons , like the stories in Aesop’s Fables and Arabian Nights.
*Fairy tales. Intended for children, these fairy tales and folk tales are typically set in distant magical worlds (with beginninhgs like “once upon a time, in a land far, far away…”) where trolls, dragons witches, and other supernatural characters are an accepted truth, as in the Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales. 1812.
*superhero fiction. Unlike stories in which a hero acquires special abilities through scientific means, such as exposure to radiation, these protagonist’s powers are supernatural.
Fantastical elements have always been a part of storytelling, as evidenced by the gods, monstrouys beasts, and magic found in ancient mythologies, folklore , and religious texts around the globe. Fantasty as a literary genre is much more recent and differs from its predecessors because its authors are known and both they and their audience understand the works to be ficititious.
Modern fantasty began in the nineteenth century following a period of chivalrous European romances and tales whose novel Phantastes features a young man drawn into a dream world where he has a series of adventures, is credited with writing the first plainly ficitious fantasty for adults. Englishman William Morris, who’s known for medieval fantasty and specifically his novel The Well at the End.1896, subsequently broke ground in the genre by completely inventing a fantasty world that existed beyond the known world.
Building upon the legacies of MacDonald and Morris, J.R.R.Tolkien penned the first high fantasty, The Lord of the Rings. Both creatively and commercially successful, the epic ushered the genre into the mainstream and influenced countless writers, making Tolkien the undisputed father of modern fantasty. If not for Tolkien and succesfulcontemporaries such as C.S.Lewis, author of Chronicles of Narnia series and Ursula K.LE Guin, author of Earthsea series, the genre might still exist on the literary periphery.
Fantasty is a broad and diverse genre, but there are several common narrative themes and features in many of its stories, such as;
*Good vs.evil
*The heroic quest for power or knowledge
*Tradition vs. change
*THE INDIVIDUAL VS. SOCIETY
*Man vs. nature
*Man vs. himself
*Coming of age
* Love
*Betrayal
*Epic journey
*The unlikely and/or reluctant hero
Of course, many of these themes are common in other literary genres as well. Young adult fiction, for example, often features a coming of age, a struggle with love and betrayal and some variation of good vs. evil such as nefarious adults or cliques of mean kids.
However, thanks to J.R.R.Tolkien’s influential classics The Hobbit 1937.and The Lord of the Rings, which features tiny hobbits saving the world, the epic journey of an unlikely or reluctant hero who realizes their true nature over the course of their quest is closely associated with fantasty. What sets fantasty apart from other genres is its untethering from reality. Stories may speak to the actual human condition, but they do so with fantastical elements such as magic prophecies of a chosen one or an impending doom; ancient mythologies from around the globe; reimagined Medievalism; and the creation of entirely new worlds, races, and creatures. While all writing requires imagination, fantasty is a playground for those who want to push the limit of theirs.
There is some overlap between these three literary genres, but each has distinct characteristics that set them apart.
*Fantasy. The genre typically has no basis in scientific fact or speculation. It includes implausible supernatural and magical elements, such as the wizrds of J.K.Rowlling’s Harry Potter series, or the dragons, giants, and white walkers of George R.R.Martin’s A Game of Thrones.
*Science fiction. By contrast, science fiction features technology and natural or technological scenarios that are currently possible or may realistically become possible in the future. For examples, in his short story, ‘’Burning Chrome’’ 1982. And novel Neuromancer 1984. Sci-fi author William Gibson coined the phrase ‘’cyberspace’’and wrote about a complex network of computer databases sharing information, predicting the internet.
*Horror. Ulikely the other two genres, which may contain horrific elements, horror is primerly focused on mood. Its fundamental aim is to create an unsettling atmosphere and provide the reader with a sense of fear and dread. The setting and circumstance of horror may be entirely realistic, as in Stephen King’s Cujo 1981., where a familu’s bat-bitten ST Bernard becomes rabid and terrorizes them. Howevere, horror can include elements of both fantasty and science fiction – take H.P.Lovecraft’s fantastical extraterrestrial deities the Great old ones, or the bloodthirty great white shark in Peter Benchley’s Jaw, for examples- readers. Learn how to write your own horror story here.