This study addresses the state of scholarship regarding fantasy literature and questions the position of scholars who have dismissed it as panegyric. This study notes that no accepted definition of fantasy exists, sets forth its own, and questions the value of fantasy literature. Moving from definition, this study notes that fantasy literature limits artistic freedom by supplementing the reality principle of minimal distance in mimetic fiction with penemaximal distance. Penemaximal distance affords fantasy a great remove from the actual world but adds the generic megatext as a frame of reference that defines reality. This allows fantasy literature to create semantic and episodic memory of diegetic worlds no longer limited by actual world foreknowledge and perception. Engaging narrative and cognitive theory, this study argues that authors utilize semantic memory to work within established truths of the genre, and readers hold authors to those rules unless authorial justification merits revision of generic epistemology. By maintaining a link to semantic memory (truth), fantasy texts create belief in the diegesis through an acceptance of affective and cognitive significance. An examination of Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao notes the control of the reader's semantic memory in the catalogue presented following the text that forces a reconsideration of the assumptions made by the reader. This leads to a discussion of the reader's necessity regarding diegetic creation. Brandon Sanderson's The Emperor's Soul is engaged as a metacomment on writing fantasy and links the protagonist, Shai, to the author through plot and position regarding world-building and the creation of episodic memory that alters the reader in the actual world. Lastly, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen is positioned as fantasy that satirizes generic expectations and confronts reader assumptions in the diegesis, leading to episodic memory of a meritocratic world and actual world demystification. Gary Wolfe posits the idea of deeper belief, where experiences within the text become virtual analogues for actual world experiences, and this study argues this moment as the creation of episodic memory. This is one value of fantasy literature; the memory of experiencing worlds not limited by empirical perception. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (D.L.S.)--Columbia University, 1983. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 282-289).

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Provence, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 596-617) and indexes.

Thesis (D.L.S.)--Columbia University, 1983. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 282-289).

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Perpignan, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 347-371) and index.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-05-20Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:56:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 caparica_vhc_me_arafcl.pdf: 396475 bytes, checksum: 51620fe39d7800fc9e661022cfd7f0d8 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho se propõe inicialmente a investigar as características literárias que definem a ficção de Fantasia e os livros de Role Playing Games, para em seguida demonstrar o processo dialógico existente entre tais categorias discursivas. Para tanto, serão examinados livros da série de Role Playing Games nacionais intitulada “Tormenta”, uma das peças mais exemplares na produção brasileira do gênero, bem como o romance de Fantasia “O Inimigo do Mundo”, de Leonel Caldela, que representa a primeira incursão da literatura de Fantasia nacional pelos universos temáticos dos Role Playing Games. Pretende-se, com isso, demonstrar que mais do que se apropriar de temas e figuras da Fantasia, os Role Playing Games estabelecem com ela uma relação de troca e reciclagem, observação esta que será apoiada pelas teorias de Mikhail Bakhtin e seus principais comentadores brasileiros / This work proposes initially to investigate the main literary features that define Fantasy literature and Role Playing Game books, in order to subsequently demonstrate the dialogic process involving them both. In order to better illustrate this relations, this work will focus on the series of brazilian Role Playing Game books named “Tormenta”, one of the most exemplar works on national genre production, as well as the Fantasy novel “O Inimigo do Mundo”, by Leonel Caldela, that represents the first attempt of incursion in the fields of RPG-based fiction by our literature. The intention is to demonstrate that, more than simply appropriating itself from literature’s themes and figures, Role Playing Game books establish with them a complete relationship of Exchange and recycling, and this observations will here be understood under the lights of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories, as well as his main Brazilian researchers’

Orientador: María Dolores Aybar Ramírez / Banca: Karin Volobuef / Banca: Maira Angélica Pandolfi / Resumo: O presente trabalho apresenta uma reflexão acerca da configuração das personagens fantásticas femininas nas três seguintes obras: "Ojos Verdes" (1861), de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer; "Mi vida con la ola" (1949-50), de Octavio Paz e "Historia del lagarto que tenía la costumbre de cenar a sus mujeres" (1993), de Eduardo Galeano. Tendo em vista a perspectiva dos estudos mitocríticos que contemplam o aspecto ancestral do feminino maléfico, observa-se o modo como se produzem as manifestações da mulher fatal, vinculada ao feminino terrível e às águas nas literaturas de diferentes épocas. Analisa-se, assim, a representação simbólica que denominamos mulher-sereia, imagem que, repleta da carga mítica, se apresenta nos três contos construindo a figura arquetípica de mulher sedutora e atraente, mas causadora de danos, perigosa e por vezes, fatal. Atenta-se, ainda, para a questão do gênero literário nos referidos contos, analisando sua construção através da personagem feminina, enquanto representação do fenômeno insólito que aparece nas narrativas / Abstract: This work presents a reflection about the configuration of fantastic female characters in the following three works: "Ojos Verdes" (1981), by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, "Mi vida con la ola" (1949-50), by Octavio Paz and "Historia del lagarto que tenía la costumbre de cenar a sus mujeres" (1993), by Eduardo Galeano. In view of the mythcritical studies prospect that comtemplates the malefic female ancestral aspect, observe the way that they produce the manifestations of the femme fatale, linked to the terrible female and to the waters in different times. Thus analized a symbolic representation that we call mermaid-woman, a image that, full of mythical load, presents in these three tales on contours of the archetypal figure of seductive and attractive woman, but damage causer, dangerous and sometimes, deadly. Also, attentive to the literary genre issue in these tales analyzing its construction through the female character, as an unusual phenomenon representation in the narratives / Mestre

No description available.

Fantasy literature is often dismissed as inferior work, whose primary purpose is to provide an escapist text for its readers. The purpose of this project is twofold: to show that fantasy actively engages social issues and to investigate how this engagement occurs, using the texts of young adult fantasy writer Tamora Pierce. Pierces works demonstrate how conventions of fantasy can be used and broken in order to create new perspectives on modern concerns. My study begins with an examination of fantasy literature and research, with emphases on J. R. R. Tolkien and Tzvetan Todrov. From there, I move on to discuss at length the three social issues most prevalent in Pierces work: environmentalism, feminism, and didacticism. In terms of environmentalism, animals are elevated above modern status, alien species create analogies to human affairs, and magic becomes a metaphor for responsible management and understanding of natural forces. Pierces treatment of feminism, through the portrayals of young female protagonists, has been challenged by critics for perpetuating the male-dominated system. However, a detailed study demonstrates a variety of different reactions and approaches to feminism that cannot be dismissed so easily. Both the environmentalism and the feminism in these novels suggest a desire on Pierces part to impart a didactic message to her young adult audience. While this message may not always be one that Pierce appears to intend, her nuanced approach to the often oversimplified fantasy binary of good and evil creates a worldview more compatible to that of her readers. Through Pierce and her work, fantasy is more than just escape- it fosters revitalization and reconsideration of the modern world.

Fantasy literature is often dismissed as inferior work, whose primary purpose is to provide an escapist text for its readers. The purpose of this project is twofold: to show that fantasy actively engages social issues and to investigate how this engagement occurs, using the texts of young adult fantasy writer Tamora Pierce. Pierces works demonstrate how conventions of fantasy can be used and broken in order to create new perspectives on modern concerns. My study begins with an examination of fantasy literature and research, with emphases on J. R. R. Tolkien and Tzvetan Todrov. From there, I move on to discuss at length the three social issues most prevalent in Pierces work: environmentalism, feminism, and didacticism. In terms of environmentalism, animals are elevated above modern status, alien species create analogies to human affairs, and magic becomes a metaphor for responsible management and understanding of natural forces. Pierces treatment of feminism, through the portrayals of young female protagonists, has been challenged by critics for perpetuating the male-dominated system. However, a detailed study demonstrates a variety of different reactions and approaches to feminism that cannot be dismissed so easily. Both the environmentalism and the feminism in these novels suggest a desire on Pierces part to impart a didactic message to her young adult audience. While this message may not always be one that Pierce appears to intend, her nuanced approach to the often oversimplified fantasy binary of good and evil creates a worldview more compatible to that of her readers. Through Pierce and her work, fantasy is more than just escape- it fosters revitalization and reconsideration of the modern world.