Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Osnabrück, 1993.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

High Fantasy is extremely popular, with publication and sales of High Fantasy titles outnumbering Science Fiction for thirty years, yet Fantasy is less respected by reviewers of the Speculative Fiction genre. One reason for this is that High Fantasy often fails to adequately address culturally or politically significant issues. Respected Science Fiction writers, such as Octavia Butler, on the other hand, use the issues such as discrimination and persecution on the basis of race and gender. In my exegesis I explore the ways in which High Fantasy has explored the problems of discrimination and persecution. In my novel, The T'En Exiles, I create a world populated by differently abled races. The ' ordinary ' people resent and fear the gifted people, who are less numerous and marginalised. Among the gifted there are those who are aware of mystical powers and those who can manipulate them; because of this a strict hierarchy has evolved. There is also a divide between the genders because the power of the females is expressed differently to that of the males. In The T'En Exiles I use the device of cognitive estrangement, a technique common in both Fantasy and Science Fiction, to examine discrimination and persecution. In particular in terms of how it affects individuals. In the exegesis I examine the ways in which issues of discrimination and persecution are dealt with in contemporary High Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the ways in which a more comprehensive and sensitive treatment of these issues in High Fantasy can address some concerns about the marginalisation of the sub-genre.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2007. / Bibliography: p. 239-289.

This essay seeks to investigate identity formation and the role of the oriental other, the Calormene, in C.S. Lewis popular children’s books, The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as the threat levelled at Narnia and what it constitutes. The oriental other as a threatening corruption is a common image in European colonial discourse, therefore a brief summary on post-colonial theory and critique thereupon and a background on the occidental attitude towards the discursive Orient based mainly on Orientalism by Edward W. Said, as well as a short account of Emile Durkheims theory on social divisions of labour and identity formation in groups is provided in the first theoretical section, Images of the Other. In the second section the Narnian identity and what it is composed of is examined. Here I argue that the Narnian identity is connected to an ideal and primordial English identity. This is shown primarily through the linking of Narnian nature and food with the English countryside and its “plain food”. Consequently, food in the Narnian space possesses a great power. The food of the Other corrupts while the hearty Narnian or English food holds the power to redeem those corrupted. The third section is dedicated to the threat against Narnia. This is composed mainly of Calormenes and Witches, both of which are described to be ancient and whose evil, I argue, nonetheless is an eventual consequence of rational thinking and modernity. In the fourth section the Calormene, the Other in Narnia, is examined. The Calormene society is inextricably linked to slavery, which is portrayed as the utmost consequence of rationality, and characterized by its spiritual poverty. This section also discusses how the Narnian can be corrupted and turned “Other”.

À la suite des enquêtes menées par Annie Collovald et Erik Neveu dans Lire le noir, et par Christine Détrez et Olivier Vanhée dans Les mangados, sur les lectures de romans policiers pour l'une et de mangas pour l'autre, ce travail de thèse porte sur les lectures de littératures de l'imaginaire (catégorie éditoriale qui regroupe science-fiction, fantasy et une partie du fantastique). Après une étude de l'offre éditoriale française contemporaine, l'enquête de terrain, qui a été menée par entretiens auprès de lecteurs et lectrices âgés de 20 à 35 ans, a cherché à mettre en évidence leurs motivations, leurs appropriations de cette lecture et les réceptions qu'ils en font. Tout comme les mangas ou les romans policiers, la science-fiction, et plus généralement les littératures de l'imaginaire, constituent un genre dont la légitimité n'est pas acquise, souvent perçu comme une échappée hors du réel pour des amateurs parfois assimilés de façon péjorative à des exclus sociaux. Ces questions ont été abordées dans la recherche à travers différents angles d'approche : la réception des catégories éditoriales par les jeunes interrogé·e·s, les raisons de lire science-fiction et fantasy, les différents types de réceptions et appropriations du genre, les parcours de lecture en littératures de l'imaginaire, les pratiques culturelles et sociabilités qui prennent place autour de la lecture, le rapport des lecteurs et lectrices à la légitimité ambiguë du genre. / Following the research led by Annie Collovald and Erik Neveu on the reading of detective novels, and by Christine Détrez and Olivier Vanhée on the reading of mangas, this thesis studies the reading of the “littératures de l’imaginaire” (« imaginary / non realistic literature », or « speculative fiction »: a publishing category including science fiction, fantasy, and some fantastic stories). After a study of the currently available products on the French market, the field survey, which was conducted through interviews with readers aged 20 to 35, highlighted their reading motivations, appropriations, and receptions. Like mangas or detective novels, science fiction, and more broadly speculative fiction, form a literary genre whose legitimacy is not acquired. It is often perceived as an escape from the real for amateurs, and its fans are sometimes pejoratively assimilated to social outsiders. These questions were addressed in research through different prisms: the reception of publishing categories by the young adults who were interviewed, the reasons to read science fiction and fantasy, various types of receptions and appropriations of the genre, reading paths in speculative fiction, cultural and sociability practices that take place around reading, and the relationship of readers to the ambiguous legitimacy of the genre.

The increasing popularity of Nigerian video-film, defined as the ‘Nollywood phenomenon’ (Barrot 2008, Haynes 2010, Adesokan 2011), has attracted recent interdisciplinary academic attention, now known as ‘Nollywood Studies’. The aesthetics and ideological approach of Nollywood video-film are often differentiated from those of the long-established and illustrious African Cinema. Films of Africa are, however, generally characterised by seemingly unique forms of the fantastic – an uneasy theme in scholarship on Nollywood. Although Nollywood video-film is commended by some scholars, its representation of the supernatural and the fantastic is often perceived to be demeaning. Considering the complexity of fantastic themes in creative arts of Africa, this study contributes to this field of study by positioning Nollywood as an interventionist artistic practice that subverts the division between art and popular culture. Further, it considers how this positioning could shift our thinking about what constitutes art and creative practice in Africa. The distinctions between art and popular culture have been inherited from particularly Western disciplines. A critical analysis of the fantastic in Nollywood could expand interpretations of the broader uses of new media and appropriation and develop the discourse on contemporary creative practices of Africa and the parameters of the art history discipline. I interrogate the visual language of the video-film medium through a discussion of other forms of artistic media such as photography, video art, and performance art. The fantastic themes, such as ‘magic’, ‘fetishism’ and violence, conveyed through new media open up a field of questions regarding contemporary social-political dynamics. The cultural value of Nollywood video-film is often based on who makes it. As a proletarian product, Nollywood has been underestimated as a ‘low’ form of culture. Its use of appropriated material connotes the complex dialectics that formulate class difference. I consider how a positioning of video-film as a creative practice could be complicated by the fact that it also operates as a theocentric implement that is used by churches to evangelise. Moreover, I examine how ‘epic’ films construct idyllic notions of ‘ethnicity’ based on dialectics of rational/irrational or real/fantastic. Nollywood video-film also creates images of fantastic spaces. In this thesis, I address concepts of space in Nollywood from which fantastic desire is constructed.

Introduction. Stereotypical representations of libraries and librarians in popular culture and media have been a cause of concern for decades. Nevertheless, representations of fictional libraries and librarians in video games have so far been ignored by scholars. This thesis aims at an initial mapping of this uncharted territory.   Method. The two types of source material, fantasy video games and textual productions made by video gamers, were identified through online searches. Various forms of data, such as screenshots, videos and notes, were analysed through qualitative textual analysis. Theory. The thesis is grounded in a social constructionist approach, with central concepts such as representation, stereotype, genre, and thematic and ludic dimensions of video games, mainly derived from cultural studies, media studies and game studies.    Analysis. Textual analysis was carried out focusing on (1) the form and function of libraries; (2) the appearance, personality and actions of librarians and their relations to library users, and (3) the significance of genre. Several themes were identified, such as the library as a romantic meeting place and a source of information about the video game world. Conclusion. Representations are often influenced by genre. For example, libraries tend to be reduced to resource generators in strategy games. While librarians are portrayed with fantasy features such as tentacles and green skin, the female librarian stereotypes dominating the media landscape today, the ”old maid” and the ”sexy librarian”, are clearly present in video games. Male librarians are more varied however, and the often referred to feminine librarian is not prevalent. Video gamers reproduce stereotypical images of librarians as angry, shushing and – in the case of female librarians – sexually attractive. Paper type. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The primary purpose of this study is to address performance issues in the Polish Fantasy, Op. 19, by examining characteristics of Polish folk dances and how they are incorporated in this unique work by Paderewski. The study includes a comprehensive history of the fantasy in order to understand how Paderewski used various codified generic aspects of the solo piano fantasy, as well as those of the one-movement concerto introduced by nineteenth-century composers such as Weber and Liszt. Given that the Polish Fantasy, Op. 19, as well as most of Paderewski's compositions, have been performed more frequently in the last twenty years, an analysis of the combination of the three characteristic aspects of the Polish Fantasy, Op.19 - Polish folk music, the generic rhetoric of a fantasy and the one-movement concerto - would aid scholars and performers alike in better understanding the composition's engagement with various traditions and how best to make decisions about those traditions when approaching the work in a concert setting. Chapter 1 provides biographical and factographical information about Paderewski as a composer, pianist, and statesman. Chapter 2 examines characteristics of Polish folk music with regard to melody, rhythm and tempo. Musical examples of the Polish folk songs from the book Lud by Oskar Kolberg, and the characteristics of Mazur, Kujawiak, Oberek and the Krakowiak, all of which are used in the Polish Fantasy, are examined. Aforementioned examples are paralleled by those selected from Chopin's Mazurkas, as well as selected sections from Paderewski's Polish Fantasy, and other pieces by Paderewski containing Polish folk music elements. Chapter 3 is divided into two sections. The first, the history of fantasy, presents various stylistic and formal aspects of the fantasies of the eighteenth century and nineteenth centuries. The second section offers an analysis of the Polish Fantasy in light of this history, and considers how Paderewski combined fantasy elements used by composers of earlier times with his own compositional technique style. Chapter 4 discusses performance issues including pedaling, tempo rubato, and composer's own fingering. Chapter 5 provides a summary and conclusion of the study.

Information kring mobbing och utanförskap är viktig men kan ofta upplevas som torr och ointressant. Detta kandidatarbete utforskar fantasyillustrationer som ett sätt att hantera svårare ämnen genom berättande och underhållning. Jag har forskat kring berättande och fantasygenren som verktyg för att kunna diskutera svårare ämnen på ett mindre konfronterande och mer lättmottagligt sätt samt hur illustration kan användas som ett medium för att berätta. Detta har lett till min gestaltning, en fantasyberättelse om mobbning och utanförskap vid namn ”Himlen, Havet och Riddaren”. Jag har samarbetat med Lotusmodellen och deras Trygga Klassen arbete för att utveckla en berättelse och sedan genom en process av konceptarbete utvecklat karaktärer och en visuell värld av unga riddare på en ö i ett grönt hav. Jag har använt mig av storyboarding och ett flertal illustreringsbaserade berättarmetoder som färgmening och komposition för att skapa en berättelse som är tydlig trots att den saknar text eller berättare. Jag har testat och använt digitala illustrationsmetoder för att arbeta effektivt och hinna med ett stort arbete under kort tid. Resultatet är en video bestående av 36 illustrationer som tillsammans bildar en berättelse som visualiserar mobbing och utanförskap med ett positivt budskap och en stämning som förstärks med timing, ljudeffekter och musik. / Information about bullying and exclusion is important but can often be perceived as dry and uninteresting. This bachelor thesis explores fantasy illustrations as a way to deal with more difficult topics through storytelling and entertainment. I have researched storytelling and the fantasygenre as a tool for discussing more difficult topics in a less confrontational and more receptive way as well as how illustration can be used as a medium for storytelling. This has led to my design, a fantasy story about bullying and exclusion called “Himlen, Havet och Riddaren”. I have collaborated with Lotusmodellen and their Trygga Klassen work to develop a story and then through a process of concept art developed characters and a visual world of young knights on an island in a green sea. I have used storyboarding and a number of illustration-based storytelling methods such as colour meaning and composition to create a story that is clear even though it lacks text or narrator. I have tested and used digital illustration methods to work efficiently and get a great deal of work done in a short time. The result is a video consisting of 36 illustrations that together form a story that visualizes bullying and exclusion with a positive message and a mood that is enhanced with timing, sound effects and music.