Week 3 - How does Attebery (1980) define Fantasy? Find at least five definitions

Attebery (1980) uses the writings of fantasy authors such as J.R.R Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), C.S Lewis (Narnia), Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) and Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the Willows) to determine and decide what includes fantasy. He finds such works to have a variety of themes ranging from Gothicism to Science Fiction and uses their characteristics to define Fantasy.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Something that seems very ordinary and mundane however once we go deeper into it, it is distorted or exploited to create a fictional world. It contradicts the reality that we are used to and brings out situations which seem impossible to our minds as intellectual human beings. To the extent that the reader is made to believe that “these impossibilities can come true”. “Any narrative which includes, as a significant part of its make-up, some violation of what the author clearly believes to be natural law”                                                                                        

The reader and writer are committed to maintaining the illusion during the entire course of the fiction. The creator shows the reader, circumstances, events and other related elements in constant view throughout the story in such a way that the reader is kept attached to the vision of it until the very end. For example throughout Bram Stoker’s Horror Novel, The Jewel of Seven Stars, he has retained a very descriptive tone to nearly every event or situation which extends the concept of the title character (The Mummy) coming to life.

“Fantasy is a game of sorts and it demands that one play whole-heartedly , accepting for the moment, all rules and turns of the game and the reward for this is the overall experience of wonder for the reader” (Attebery, B. 1980). The reader does not question the rules of the game which are issues or unacceptable points to a certain part in the piece because the reader is anticipating the outcome of that plot in wonder. Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park Novels keeps readers guessing what may happen to the main characters at nearly every point, whether or not they may survive major situations
“Fantasy invokes wonder by making the impossible seem familiar and the familiar seem new and strange”. Fantasy is sometimes loosely based off many real-life events, mostly historical or important in our world. For example, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle was based on the legends and (occasionally) sightings of Black Dogs which haunted the English countryside; or the Novel Jaws by Peter Benchley drew inspiration from the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916. Sometimes fantasy works may also take inspiration from other fantasy like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum has themes and lines which are evident in Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland

“More than realistic fiction, it (fantasy) can clarify philosophical and moral conflicts embodying them in storylines that may not be directly applicable to our own complex and muddled lives but which can please or inspire because of their open and evident design”. Fantasies like C.S Lewis’ Narnia or J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan show that even the most ordinary characters are able to transcend the most difficult situations and come out victorious.

Attebery defines fantasy to be made up of impossible events blended into realistic features which are continuously built into interweaving situations and events which keeps the reader guessing until the very end. The reader in turn is rewarded with wonder and inspiration by clarifying philosophical and moral conflicts



References

Attebery, B (1980). The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guin. In B. Attebery, (pp. 1-10). Indiana: University Press