Product Description

Using a broad definition of fantasy to include myth, folklore, legend and fairy tale, this survey will entice as well as inform any student interested in the mysterious or magical. Favourite authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Morris and Robert E. Howard are examined closely.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98641 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Using a broad definition of fantasy to include myth, folklore, legend and fairy tale, this survey will entice as well as inform any student interested in the mysterious or magical. Favourite authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Morris and Robert E. Howard are examined closely.

From the Back Cover
Using a broad definition of fantasy to include myth, folklore, legend and fairy tale, Mathews shows how fantasy uses the elements of enchantment and the supernatural to explode everyday reality and create profound insights into essential human realities. Fantasy gives us an appreciation of the genres roots in antiquity and an understanding of its history. The reader becomes a witness to how it later evolved into a reaction and counterpoint to the tradition realistic rational fiction in western literature. Further, we see how fantasy is related to but distinct from such genres as gothic horror and science fiction.
While giving the reader a solid sense of the genres characteristics and history, Mathews also looks at particular exemplary works like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle in detail. This text will be of inestimable value to anyone seeking to apprehend the nature and almost unlimited creative possibilities of a genre with a deep history and a long future. A chronology of significant events, works and figures from the genre's history, notes and references and an extensive bibliographic essay with recommended reading round out the volume.

About the Author
Richard Mathews is a poet and professor of English at the University of Tampa. Widely published, he is the author of Aldiss Unbound, The Clockwork Universe of Anthony Burgess, Worlds Beyond the World, Lightening from a Clear Sky and Subtropical Speculations.