Twentieth-Century Fantasists is a collection of essays which examine the way in which fantasy literature functions as cultural and social criticism. Essays on Tolkien, Le Guin, Angela Carter, H.G. Wells and C.S. Lewis are included: and also works by William Burroughs, Ford Madox Ford, and Salman Rushdie are discussed. The book surveys the social and cultural changes of the twentieth century as reflected in the works of fantasy writers.
Filmer argues that, in secular society, the psychological need to hope is met in the literature of fantasy. She illustrates her thesis using the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Peter Beagle, Susan Cooper, Madeleine L'Engle, George Orwell, Russell Hoban, James Thurber, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Alan Garner, Ursula LeGuin, and Patricia Wrightson. Paper edition (unseen), $13.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This Encyclopedia offers an indispensable reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English-language. With nearly 500 contributors and over one million words, it is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English language. Contains over 500 entries of 1000-3000 words written in lucid, jargon-free prose, by an international cast of leading scholars Arranged in three volumes covering British and Irish Fiction, American Fiction, and World Fiction, with each volume edited by a leading scholar in the field Entries cover major writers (such as Saul Bellow, Raymond Chandler, John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf, A.S. Byatt, Samual Beckett, D.H. Lawrence, Zadie Smith, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Nadine Gordimer, Alice Munro, Chinua Achebe, J.M. Coetzee, and Ngûgî Wa Thiong’o) and their key works Examines the genres and sub-genres of fiction in English across the twentieth century (including crime fiction, Sci-Fi, chick lit, the noir novel, and the avant-garde novel) as well as the major movements, debates, and rubrics within the field, such as censorship, globalization, modernist fiction, fiction and the film industry, and the fiction of migration, diaspora, and exile
In this comprehensive study, Williamson traces the literary history of the fantasy genre from the eighteenth century to its coalescence following the success of Tolkien's work in the 1960s. While some studies have engaged with related material, there has been no extended study specifically exploring the roots of this now beloved genre.
Stories contained in this book: The Swords of Faerie Jack of all Arts: William Morris Two Men in One: Lord Dunsany Eldritch Yankee Gentleman: H. P. Lovecraft Superman in a Bowler: E. R. Eddison The Miscast Barbarian: Robert E. Howard Parallel Worlds: Fletcher Pratt Sierran Shaman: Clark Ashton Smith Merlin in Tweeds: J. R. R. Tolkien The Architect of Camelot: T. H. White Conan's Compeers
Fantasy has been an important and much-loved part of children's literature for hundreds of years, yet relatively little has been written about it. Children's Fantasy Literature traces the development of the tradition of the children's fantastic - fictions specifically written for children and fictions appropriated by them - from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, examining the work of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, C. S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, J. K. Rowling and others from across the English-speaking world. The volume considers changing views on both the nature of the child and on the appropriateness of fantasy for the child reader, the role of children's fantasy literature in helping to develop the imagination, and its complex interactions with issues of class, politics and gender. The text analyses hundreds of works of fiction, placing each in its appropriate context within the tradition of fantasy literature.
A FINALIST FOR THE 2020 WORLD FANTASY AWARD • Unearth the enchanting origins of fantasy fiction with a collection of tales as vast as the tallest tower and as mysterious as the dark depths of the forest. Fantasy stories have always been with us. They illuminate the odd and the uncanny, the wondrous and the fantastic: all the things we know are lurking just out of sight—on the other side of the looking-glass, beyond the music of the impossibly haunting violin, through the twisted trees of the ancient woods. Other worlds, talking animals, fairies, goblins, demons, tricksters, and mystics: these are the elements that populate a rich literary tradition that spans the globe. A work composed both of careful scholarship and fantastic fun, The Big Book of Classic Fantasy is essential reading for anyone who’s never forgotten the stories that first inspired feelings of astonishment and wonder. INCLUDING: *Stories by pillars of the genre like the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Mary Shelley, Christina Rossetti, L. Frank Baum, Robert E. Howard, and J. R. R. Tolkien *Fantastical offerings from literary giants including Edith Wharton, Leo Tolstoy, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston, Vladimir Nabokov, Hermann Hesse, and W.E.B. Du Bois *Rare treasures from Asian, Eastern European, Scandinavian, and Native American traditions *New translations, including fourteen stories never before in English PLUS: *Beautifully Bizarre Creatures! *Strange New Worlds Just Beyond the Garden Path! *Fairy Folk and Their Dark Mischief! *Seriously Be Careful—Do Not Trust Those Fairies!
This book examines how contemporary fantasy literature offers critical insights into western society and culture by drawing on the ancient myths of Wales. These books emphasise the need to have a set of social and personal values in order to be free from a sense of dislocation and alienation in a highly technologised society and in order to satisfy the sense of 'hiraeth' or longing for a place where one truly belongs.
Four British Fantasists explores the work of four of the most successful and influential of the generation of fantasy writes who rose to prominence in the "second Golden Age" of children's literature in Britain: Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Penelope Lively.
