Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

1.4.3
 
Fantasy 
Since time immemorial fantasy
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and its
elements have permeated first oral traditions, 
then written literary history. For instance, Homers Iliad or Odyssey, Beowulf, Everyman, but 
also some of Shakespeare’s plays rely on the strong influence and fascination fantasy exerts 
on authors and recipients, be it as a mode of writing, a genre in its own right or simply as a 
narrative or dramatic element. During its long history, phases of esteem alternate with phases 
of marginalisation or neglect. This fluctuation is mutually linked to cultural and social factors 
such as the prevailing spirit of the age as well as the political, economical and religious 
orientation of the respective society. It is mainly during a crisis or comparably unstable times 
that fantasy experiences an enormous upsurge. In the face of catastrophes or other uprooting 
events fantasy may offer a liberating, more comforting point of view reality too often fails to 
provide. By introducing exotic features, worlds or entire universes, fantasy creates an area 
safely distanced from the current disturbing reality. It is in this fantastic realm that space is 
allowed for a detached discussion of actual issues. Transposition into another realm can 
facilitate a coming to terms with problems or offer a temporary escape
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from real life
.
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Compare Saxby, Books, p. 20.
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Fantasy can be defined as “texts depicting the impossible and/ or involving the supernatural or some other 
unreal element.” Sarah Godek. “Fantasy – Postwar, Postmodern, Postcolonial: Houses in Postwar Fantasy”. In: 
Kimberley Reynolds (Ed.) Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction. Basingstoke; New York: 2005, pp. 
89-107, p. 91.
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This term is contested in criticism. In the majority of cases, critics pejoratively reduce “escape” in fantasy to 
describe a refuge for people out of touch with real life, implying starry-eyedness and cowardice. Tolkien 
opposes this interpretation by emphasising
that escape can have a positive meaning: The liberation
from
restraints towards opportunities for development and freedom of the imagination in richer fields of fantasy 
which reality is unable to provide.

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Its fascination lies within its possibilities. Fantasy literature frequently suggests 
different conditions of space, time, nature, economy, religion and society in general; realms or 
situations essentially different from “normality”.
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Yet, despite strange features, they remain 
recognisable enough to be of current interest to the reader. However, new or deviating 
physical or psychological realities, above all magic, expand the room for manoeuvres. Like 
this, potentialities can be tested, solutions sought, found or suggested. Through giving new 
insights and different points of view, fantasy contributes ways for discussing and shaping 
reality.
At the end of the millennium, fuelled by world-wide crises and terrorism, fantasy 
witnesses another periodical heyday. The instability and fragility of the present-day world is 
met with increasing uncertainty and fear by many of its inhabitants. Those feelings demand to 
be channelled, faced and eventually to be coped with. By offering hope and solutions, 
transferred into seemingly distant realms, this kind of literature may be more sustaining than 
portrayals of hopeless, bleak reality. So in the end, fantasy can help to cope better with reality.