How does Attebery (1980) define Fantasy? Find at least five definitions.
Attebery asks, "how can the word be precisely and usefully defined without falling into the vague, the arbitrary or the ponderous?" He then goes on to say we "have to decide just what characteristics were the essential, the defining ones." This is a list of five of the different characteristics Attebery picks out.
1. "Any narrative which includes as a significant part of it's make-up some violation of what the author clearly believes to be natural law - that is fantasy."
2. "By demanding a straightforward treatment of impossible characters objects or events, we can distinguish between fantasy and related genres."
3. "The most important thing [works of fantasy] share is [a] sense of wonder... fantasy invokes by making the impossible seems familiar and the familiar seem new and strange."
4. Fantasy must "explore the unknown."
5. "Fantasy will have the"preponderance of the marvelous."
Attebery mentions other peoples' explanations, but doesn't hold much stock in them, such as Todorov and Rabkin, so I felt it more important to mention his specific ideals that he wrote down. (Although, his explanations could be considered not good enough by someone else.) It's all dependent upon how you see the literature, and how you understand it, as to how you define it.
The five definitions that you have presented clearly answer the question of Fantasy from Atteberry’s point of view. It is a perfect observation you have made which is told in the line “It’s all dependent on how you see the literature and how you understand it as to how you define it” because in order to be familiar with a particular genre we need to understand it and its world(s) further. Fantasy as defined by Todorov and Rabkin also bring out another version of this genre quite intricately
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