Fantasy
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Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or magical elements, often including completely imaginary realms and creatures.[1][2]
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, which later became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century onward, it has expanded into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, manga, animation, and video games.
The expression fantastic literature is often used for this genre by Anglophone literary critics.[3][4][5][6] An archaic spelling for the term is phantasy.[7]
Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by an absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these can occur in fantasy. In popular culture, the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that reflect the actual Earth, but with some sense of otherness.[8]
- ^ "Fantasy". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
- ^ "Definition of FANTASY". www.merriam-webster.com. 3 September 2024. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
- ^ Rabkin, Eric (1975). The Fantastic in Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Jackson, Rosemary (1981). Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London: Methuen.
- ^ Armitt, Lucy (1996). Theorising the Fantastic. London: Arnold.
- ^ Sandner, David (2004). Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Westport: CT: Praeger.
- ^ "fantasy". Encyclopedia Britannica. 28 November 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
- ^ Saricks, Joyce G. (2001). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction. American Library Association. pp. 36–60. ISBN 0-8389-0803-9. OCLC 46769544.