What Is Fantasy? Part 1

The Challenge:

When I taught children’s and young adult literature classes, I always started the class by defining each discipline.

Teaching children’s literature is the more challenging class because children’s literature encompasses preschool through middle school books—infants to 13 years—while YA literature covers 12 to 20 years. The challenge is to give students an overview and understanding of all the literature for those ages. It’s not a task for the faint-hearted.

Defining fantasy literature can also be challenging for a number of reasons:

1.  Any genre is a construct and way of categorizing literature. Often stories don’t always fit neatly into a category, which is why there are so many sub-genres of fantasy. Who can keep up with them? Not me.
2. Fantasy literature goes back to the beginning of storytelling. That’s a lot of literature.
3. Dictionary definitions can be vague and general: “Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic or other supernatural phenomena.” Or “Fantasy fiction is a genre of writing in which the plot could not happen in real life. . . . Often the plot involves magic or witchcraft.” “A genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure, esp. in a setting other than the real world.” You might already be thinking of exceptions.
4. Some important writers stir the definition pot, making a clear definition difficult. For example, Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” If you’ve read his Foundation Books, you’ve experienced his claim in a science fiction story. To add to the mix, Larry Niven said, “Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology.” If you like fantasy, you can immediately think of a fantasy book to illustrate Niven’s claim.

Yes, things are fuzzy, but in the long run, using genres to put literature into categories is helpful both for readers and writers.

My Definition: A Complilation

If I had my way, I would define fantasy as those stories that imagine realms of the impossible and the improbable.

You can see the problem, right?

Fantasy, science fiction, horror and all their sub-genres would fall under one umbrella term: fantasy. Speculative fiction is an umbrella term also used to encompass all the genres that speculate and explore the imagination, but when I use speculative fiction many people stare blankly into space.

Okay, I’m done playing out my fantasy. I admit the way I want to define fantasy isn’t practical.

Getting but back to defining fantasy . . .

My Definition:

Fantasy literature creates stories and worlds that do not exist and/or could not exist in our world. Thus the setting even when similar to our world does not exist outside of the story’s imagined world. Stories are often concerned with good versus evil, but contemporary fantasy often embraces the grays of the good versus evil dichotomy. Remarkable or unusual objects can be part of a story: the ring in Lord of the Rings or the compass in The Golden Compass.

Most fantasy stories include one or more of these aspects:

•  magic, witchcraft, magic systems, special powers;
• imagined creatures and/or animals, talking animals;
• other worlds or realities—we are no longer in Kansas;
• an adventure and/or a quest.

You might think that some science fiction has some of these aspects, and you’re right. In imaginative literature, genres overlap, but remember science fiction speculates about technology and where that technology will take us in the future. Although some science fiction is clearly impossible, some has predicted the future.

Fantasy isn’t possible. If you start seeing dragons, or your cat starts talking and predicting the weather or you hear voices in your mind, it’s likely you’ll be taken away—that’s fantasy. I’d love to wake up one morning and find that dragons are real, but it’s not going to happen.

There Is Reality In Fantasy

I know saying that there is a reality in fantasy sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not. Just as in any literature, truths can be found in the theme, the characters, and the meaning of a story; the same can be said for fantasy.

Fantasy stories are jam-packed with reality and truth. Good fantasy stories are about people, humanity, life, and what it means to be human.

It’s easy to see that Macbeth is the story of how a good man becomes an evil monster. The Lord of the Rings is a story about four ordinary men (Hobbits) finding the courage to do extraordinary things. In real life, ordinary people face difficult situations. Even when they are terrified, they can have to courage to face their fears. 

We’ll get back to this idea in other posts.

Andy Fairhurst

I love Andy’s art, especially his dragons. Visit his site and check out his artwork.

You Might Also Like These Posts

Fantasy: A Brief History (What is Fantasy? Part 2)
Traditional Fantasy (What is Fantasy Part 3)
The Hero’s Journey (What is Fantasy Part 4)

The Usual Reminders:

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