Traditional historical writing focuses on the cause and effect of human action, assuming that it is the historian's responsibility to recount the ebbs and flows of human progress. In the process of laying hold of the past as a narrative of human action, historical writing has developed the tendency to marginalise nature and undermine its power to influence the historical narrative. My investigation explores the fantastic in historical fantasy as a means of resisting historical writing's anthropocentrism. Historical fantasy uses fantastical elements to create counterfactual and alternative historical realities that have the potential to resist and undermine history's anthropocentric norm. My thesis examines four contemporary young adult historical fantasy trilogies that reimagine key turning points in history such as industrialisation, the American frontier, European imperialism, and World War I. They share the theme of retrieving and subverting anthropocentric discourses in the history of human development and thereby creating space for nature's presence and agency. My study finds that the fantastic is an effective means of subverting historical writing's anthropocentrism. But it also uncovers ambiguities and contradictions in historical fantasy's ecological revisionism, pointing to the idea that despite the fantastic's capacity for subversion, historical representations of nature cannot be separated from considerations of human identity and survival.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Bibliography: leaves 72-73.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Drama)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2006. / This study aims to express the inherent connection between fantasy literature and the Christian church and how this connection can be employed in Christian church sermons. It is a utilitarian study, aimed to place the art of fantasy literature and the oral interpretation thereof in service of, in this case, the church. The twenty-first century church needs to find ways to minister effectively to the postmodern person. Fantasy literature can help fulfil some of these needs. Fantasy and Religion seems to have a natural connection. History shows that the earliest fantasies had religious, and specifically Christian, connotations. The inherent attributes of fantasy make it predisposed to spiritual meaning. The combination of these factors makes it a useful genre to help explain Biblical and Spiritual concepts. This dissertation aims to show how the two divergent ideas of faith and fantasy can be reconciled and how it is currently being done in churches in Gauteng. A multiple or collective case study design has been used with a purposive sampling method with a theoretical base. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with pastors and ministers from a variety of churches, to discover to what extent fantasy is currently being used in church sermons in Gauteng.

In hierdie mini-skripsie word daar na fantasieliteratuur in die multikulturele Afrikaans klaskamer gekyk. Die aard van fantasieliteratuur, naamlik die fabel, sprokie, volksverhaal, mite, legende en toekomsfiksie word omskryf. Die studie poog ook om die ooreenkomste wat bestaan tussen fantasieliteratuur in Engels, Afrikaans, Zoeloe en SeSotho uit te wys en om aan te dui wat die implikasie van hierdie ooreenkomste binne die multikulturele Afrikaanse klas is. SUMMARY This mini-thesis focuses on the study of Fantasy literature in the multicultural Afrikaans classroom. Different genres, ego fable , myth, folktale, fairytale, legend and science fiction will be looked at. The study will also try to look at the similarities present in the fantasy literature of English, Afrikaans, Zulu and seSotho and the implications thereof in the multicultural Afrikaans class. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Durban, 1999.

The original thesis contains the novel "Stranger, I" as an integral part of the thesis. However this novel has been omitted in this digital copy. / Thesis (MA (Hons))--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2006. / Bibliography: p. 93-97. / On divergence in fantasy -- Introduction -- Preliminary -- The thousand and one definitional nights -- Characteristic works: inclusions and exclusions -- Critical objections to fantasy -- Conclusion. / On Divergence in Fantasy explores the ways in which fantasy criticism continually redefines its boundaries, without arriving at agreement. The paper draws on Foucault to suggest that these disputes and dispersions are characteristic of the operation of fantasy critisim as a discursive formation. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 97 p

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 169-178.

Thesis (MA (English))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (MA (English))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concept of the city has evolved over time with generations of city dwellers. The rapid advance of technology has promoted globalisation, which has brought about increased familiarity with diverse cultures, but has also exposed issues of marginalisation among communities in cities. In order to approach a more comprehensive understanding of the complexity of the “open” postmodern view of the city it is essential to consider the relevant literature that grapples with issues of human identity and appropriation in the city. This dissertation examines narrative perspectives in the literary works of four postmodern writers: Jonathan Safran Foer, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, and Lauren Beukes. References to underlying philosophical viewpoints, various perceptions, both “real” and fictional, were incorporated in the discussion. Close attention is paid to the correlation between the novel and the city, and to what extent the city itself can be viewed as a narrative – since, within a postmodern approach, fictional narratives may form discourses that represent, and in a fashion constitute, the city, while subjects at the same time form themselves in terms of their environment. Fiction becomes an invaluable tool for exploring the cityscape and commenting on contemporary issues. In conclusion, the urbanised human subject may be said to play a vital role in establishing the concept of the city, both in “real” culture and in fictional narrative. The representation of the contemporary South African urban milieu in the discussed literature serves to confirm the relevance of local as well as global influences. To justify multiple perspectives on the city consequently means to grant each individual viewpoint validity. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die konsep van die stad het deur die jare ontwikkel saam met geslagte van stadsbewoners. Die vinnige vooruitgang van tegnologie het globalisasie bevorder, wat op sy beurt weer bewustheid van diverse kulture bevorder het, maar ook kwessies blootgelê het rondom marginalisasie in stadsgemeenskappe. Ten einde ‘n meer omvattende begrip van die kompleksiteit van die “oop” postmoderne perspektief op die stad daar te stel, is dit belangrik om te kyk na die relevante literatuur wat bemoeienis maak met kwessies van menslike identiteit en eienaarskap in die stad. Hierdie dissertasie het gekyk na vertellerperspektiewe in die literêre werke van vier postmoderne skrywers: Jonathan Safran Foer, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, en Lauren Beukes. Met verwysing na onderliggende filosofiese gesigspunte is verskeie persepsies, gegrond op die werklikheid sowel as fiktief, in die bespreking ingesluit. Daar is aandag gegee aan die verband tussen die roman en die stad, en in watter mate die stad self as ‘n teks beskou kan word, aangesien die teks volgens ‘n postmoderne aanslag die stad kan “representeer” en “laat ontstaan”, terwyl menslike subjekte hulself terselfdertyd vorm in terme van hul omgewing. Fiksie word dus ‘n waardevolle werktuig vir waarneming van en kommentaar lewer op komtemporêre sake. Ten slotte kan gesê word dat die verstedelikte menslike subjek ‘n belangrike rol speel in die bevestiging van die stad as konsep, beide in reële kultuur en in fiktiewe vertelling. Die verteenwoordiging van die kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse stedelike milieu in die bespreekte tekste bevestig die relevansie van lokale sowel as internasionale invloede. Om veelvuldige perspektiewe op die stad gelyk te beregtig beteken gevolglik dat elke individuele gesigspunt geldig is.

This study describes and analyses the treatment of male characters in the work of the East German author, Irmtraud Morgner. The main focus of the thesis is on Morgner's handling of masculinity in relation to her treatment of the fantastic. Given that the majority of scholarship on Morgner concentrates on feminist aspects of her work, the aim of this thesis is to redress this imbalance by concentrating on the importance to her fictional narratives of male figures. The ways in which Morgner portrays her male characters shed significant new light on the function of the fantastic in her work. A detailed analysis of her texts shows that Morgner excludes all but a few of her male characters from the fantastic. By investigating the reasons for this, the thesis seeks to contribute to a better understanding of Morgner's complex views on gender issues. The argument is advanced that Morgner's treatment of her male characters and their interaction, or lack of interaction with the fantastic, reveals a more nuanced disillusionment with society than emerges from examinations of her female characters alone. Such a reading therefore permits a deeper and more differentiated understanding of her work.

It seems unwise to compare Eileen Chang and Alice Munro, because at first glance the urban traits of Chang's Shanghai and Hong Kong romances are dissimilar to the rural idiosyncrasies of Munro's southwestern Ontario stories. However, both the female writers describe in their fiction the women characters' romantic fantasies and their interrelationships with reality. In Chang's Romances, in the westernized and commercialized cosmopolitan set, a new age is coming, and the traditional patriarchal familial and moral systems are disintegrating. The women try to escape from frustrating circumstances through the rescue of romantic love and marriage. In Munro's fiction, the women attempt to get ride of their banal small-town cultures in order to search for freedom of imagination and expression through the medium of art, although at ; the center of their quest for selfhood is always their love and hate relationship with men. The women are in the dilemma of "female financial reality" and romantic love; they express their desires and fears through immoral and abnormal love relationships and vicarious escapades in their imagination; their interpretation of life and love is in reference to art in general, but such interpretation is full of disguise. Only in their unbound daydreams and imagination can they express their desires freely. Alice Munro and Eileen Chang's fictional worlds bespeak a sense of femininity. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate