Fantastic in Literature. Fantastic in literature Why fiction is a separate genre of literature

Fantasy is one of the genres of literature, cinema and fine arts. It originates in the deep past. Even at the dawn of his appearance, man admitted the presence of mysterious and powerful forces in the world around him. The first fantasy is folklore, fairy tales, myths and legends. At the heart of this genre lies some incredible, supernatural assumption, an element of something unusual or impossible, a violation of the boundaries of reality familiar to man.

The beginning of the development of fantasy in cinema

From literature, the genre moved to cinema almost immediately after its inception. The first science fiction films appeared in France in the 19th century. In those years, the best director in this genre was Georges Méliès. His fantastic film A Journey to the Moon entered the golden fund of the world's masterpieces of cinema and became the first picture about space travel. At this time, fantasy is an opportunity to show on the screen the achievements of human progress: amazing mechanisms and machines, vehicles.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, science fiction films have been gaining more and more popularity, and audience interest in them has been growing.

Types of fantasy

In cinema, fantasy is a genre whose boundaries are difficult to define. Usually it is a mixture of different styles and forms of cinema. There is a division into types of science fiction, but it is largely conditional.

Science fiction is a story about incredible technical and other discoveries, travel through time, cross space, use to create artificial intelligence.

The film "Prometheus" is an interesting picture with a philosophical meaning about a person's search for an answer to the main question: who are we and where did we come from? As a result, scientists have received evidence that humanity was created by a highly developed humanoid race. A scientific expedition is sent to the edge of the solar system in search of its creators. Each team member has his own interest: someone wants to get an answer why humanity was created, someone is driven by curiosity, and some pursue selfish goals. But the creators are not at all what people imagined them to be.

space fantasy

This view is very closely intertwined with science fiction. A vivid example is the recently released and critically acclaimed film Interstellar about the possibility of traveling through black holes and the spatio-temporal paradoxes that arise from this. Like Prometheus, this picture is filled with deep philosophical meaning.

Fantasy is science fiction, which is closely related to mysticism and fairy tales. The most striking example of a fantasy film is Peter Jackson's famous epic saga "The Lord of the Rings". Of the most recent interesting works in this genre, the Hobbit trilogy and the latest work by Sergei Bodrov, The Seventh Son, can be noted.

Horror - oddly enough, this genre is also closely related to science fiction. A classic example is the Alien film series.

Fantasy: films that have become classics of cinema

In addition to the films already mentioned, there are still a large number of magnificent paintings included in the list of the best works in the science fiction genre:

• The space saga Star Wars.
• Terminator movie series.
• Fantasy cycle "Chronicles of Narnia".
• The Iron Man Trilogy.
• Series "Highlander".
• Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio.
• Fantastic comedy "Back to the Future".
• "Dune".
• The Matrix trilogy with Keanu Reeves.
• Post-apocalyptic painting "I am a legend."
• Fantastic comedy "Men in Black".
• "War of the Worlds" with Tom Cruise.
• Combat space science fiction Starship Troopers.
• The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis and Mila Jovovich.
• Series of films "Transformers".
• Spider-Man cycle.
• A series of films about Batman.

The development of the genre today

Modern science fiction - films and animated films - continues to be of interest to the viewer today.

For 2015 alone, several large-scale and spectacular science fiction films have been announced. Among the most anticipated films are the final film from the Hunger Games series, the second part of The Maze Runner, Star Wars Episode 7 - The Force Awakens, Terminator 5, Tomorrowland, the sequel to Divergent, the new a motion picture from the Avengers series and the long-awaited Jurassic World.

Conclusion

Fantasy is what gives a person the opportunity to dream. Here you can, as a superhero saving the world, admit the possibility of the existence of other worlds and fly into the depths of space. For this, viewers love science fiction films - dreams come true in them.

So many people like to read books or watch movies that are based on something fantastic, something that will never really happen. This genre is called fantasy. However, the question of what fantasy is can be answered in another way. Fantasy is just a fairy tale. And it really is. Why? Now find out.

What is fantasy in literature

It seems to us that fantasy stories and novels began to be written not so long ago. but in fact, people were fond of this genre even in those distant times, when they painted drawings on the rocks. Already by some of them today it can be determined that what is drawn there is something fantastic, which in reality simply cannot happen.

And then fantastic books began to write very, very many authors. What is "Gulliver's Adventure" by D. Swift or "Time Machine" by G. Wells worth. But at all times the attitude to science fiction has always been different. Today we read science fiction books about how the war between space worlds takes place, and after all, just a couple of centuries ago, the fairy tales of the Grim brothers were considered fiction.

Types of fantasy

• Futuristic fantasy. This genre includes all books and films that describe wars in outer space, aliens, incredible spaceships.
• Folklore fiction, sometimes also called fantasy, allows the introduction into the human world of some phenomena or creatures that never existed.
• Peace fiction. This kind of fantasy aims to create a non-existent world. Examples include the films "Avatar" or "Narnia".
• Mystical fantasy, which is called horror, allows the introduction of some incomprehensible and mystical phenomena.
• Phasmatasmagoric fiction is manifested by the fact that it simply does not have any logical basis or just an explanation.
• Science fiction cites in its works certain non-existent scientific achievements, such achievements that we can only dream of.

Now you know exactly what fantasy is, and you will never again confuse this attractive and very interesting genre with anything else.

Fantasy is one of the genres of modern literature that "grew" out of romanticism. Hoffmann, Swift and even Gogol are called the forerunners of this trend. We will talk about this amazing and magical kind of literature in this article. And also consider the most famous writers of the direction and their works.

Genre Definition

Fantasy is a term that is of ancient Greek origin and literally translates as "the art of imagining." In literature, it is customary to call it a direction based on a fantastic assumption in the description of the artistic world and heroes. This genre tells about universes and creatures that do not exist in reality. Often these images are borrowed from folklore and mythology.

Fantasy is not only a literary genre. This is a whole separate direction in art, the main difference of which is the unrealistic assumption underlying the plot. Usually, another world is depicted, which exists in a time other than ours, lives according to the laws of physics, different from those on earth.

Subspecies

Science fiction books on bookshelves today can confuse any reader with a variety of themes and plots. Therefore, they have long been divided into types. There are many classifications, but we will try to reflect the most complete here.

Books of this genre can be divided according to the features of the plot:

• Science fiction, we'll talk more about it below.
• Anti-utopian - this includes "451 degrees Fahrenheit" by R. Bradbury, "Corporation of Immortality" by R. Sheckley, "Doomed City" by the Strugatskys.
• Alternative: "The Transatlantic Tunnel" by G. Garrison, "May Darkness Fall Not" by L.S. de Campa, "Island of Crimea" by V. Aksenov.
• Fantasy is the most numerous subspecies. Writers working in the genre: J.R.R. Tolkin, A. Belyanin, A. Pekhov, O. Gromyko, R. Salvatore, etc.
• Thriller and horror: G. Lovecraft, S. King, E. Rice.
• Steampunk, steampunk and cyberpunk: "War of the Worlds" by G. Wells, "The Golden Compass" by F. Pullman, "Mockingbird" by A. Pekhov, "Steampunk" by P.D. Filippo.

Often there is a mixture of genres and new varieties of works appear. For example, love fantasy, detective, adventure, etc. Note that science fiction, as one of the most popular types of literature, continues to develop, more and more of its directions appear every year, and somehow it is almost impossible to systematize them.

Foreign fiction books

The most popular and well-known series of this subspecies of literature is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. The work was written in the middle of the last century, but is still in great demand among fans of the genre. The story tells of the Great War against evil, which lasted for centuries until the dark lord Sauron was defeated. Centuries of calm life have passed, and the world is again in danger. Save Middle-earth from a new war can only hobbit Frodo, who will have to destroy the Ring of Omnipotence.

Another excellent example of fantasy is J. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. To date, the cycle includes 5 parts, but is considered unfinished. The novels are set in the Seven Kingdoms, where a long summer gives way to a bitter winter. Several families are fighting for power in the state, trying to seize the throne. The series is far from the usual magical worlds, where good always triumphs over evil, and knights are noble and fair. Intrigue, betrayal and death reign here.

The Hunger Games series by S. Collins is also worthy of mention. These books, which quickly became bestsellers, are teen fiction. The plot tells about the struggle for freedom and the price that the heroes have to pay to get it.

Fiction is (in literature) a separate world that lives by its own laws. And it appeared not at the end of the 20th century, as many people think, but much earlier. Just in those years, such works were attributed to other genres. For example, these are the books of E. Hoffmann (“The Sandman”), Jules Verne (“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Around the Moon”, etc.), G. Wells, etc.

Russian writers

Many books have been written in recent years by Russian science fiction writers. Russian writers are slightly inferior to foreign colleagues. We list here the most famous of them:

• Sergey Lukyanenko. A very popular cycle is "Patrols". Now the world of this series is written not only by its creator, but also by many others. He is also the author of the following excellent books and cycles: "The Boy and the Darkness", "No Time for Dragons", "Working on Mistakes", "Deeptown", "Sky Seekers", etc.
• Brothers Strugatsky. They have novels of various kinds of fantasy: Ugly Swans, Monday Starts Saturday, Roadside Picnic, It's Hard to Be a God, etc.
• Alexey Pekhov, whose books are popular today not only at home, but also in Europe. We list the main cycles: "Chronicles of Siala", "Spark and Wind", "Kindret", "Guardian".
• Pavel Kornev: "Borderland", "All-good Electricity", "City of Autumn", "Shining".

Foreign writers

Famous science fiction writers abroad:

• Isaac Asimov is a famous American author who has written over 500 books.
• Ray Bradbury is a recognized classic not only of science fiction, but also of world literature.
• Stanislaw Lem is a very famous Polish writer in our country.
• Clifford Simak is considered the founder of American fiction.
• Robert Heinlein is an author of teen books.

What is Science Fiction?

Science fiction is a branch of fantasy literature that takes as its basis the rational assumption that extraordinary things happen due to the incredible development of technical and scientific thought. One of the most popular genres today. But it is often difficult to separate it from related ones, since authors can combine several directions.

Science fiction is (in literature) a great opportunity to imagine what would happen to our civilization if technological progress accelerated or science chose a different path of development. Usually in such works the generally accepted laws of nature and physics are not violated.

The first books of this genre began to appear as early as the 18th century, when the formation of modern science took place. But as an independent literary movement, science fiction stood out only in the 20th century. J. Verne is considered one of the first writers who worked in this genre.

Science Fiction: Books

We list the most famous works of this direction:

• "Master of Torture" (J. Wulf);
• "Rise from the Ashes" (F. H. Farmer);
• Ender's Game (O.S. Card);
• "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (D. Adams);
• "Dune" (F. Herbert);
• "Sirens of Titan" (K. Vonnegut).

Science fiction is quite diverse. The books presented here are only the most famous and popular examples of it. It is practically impossible to list all the writers of this type of literature, since several hundred of them have appeared over the past decades.

Fantasy is a kind of fiction in which the author's fiction from the depiction of strange, unusual, implausible phenomena extends to the creation of a special - fictional, unreal, "wonderful world". Fiction has its own fantastic type of figurativeness with its inherent high degree of convention, frank violation of real logical connections and patterns, natural proportions and forms of the depicted object.

Fantasy as a field of literary creativity

Fantasy as a special area of ​​literary creativity maximally accumulates the creative imagination of the artist, and at the same time the imagination of the reader; at the same time, this is not an arbitrary "realm of imagination": in a fantastic picture of the world, the reader guesses the transformed forms of real - social and spiritual - human existence. Fantastic imagery is inherent in such folklore and literary genres as a fairy tale, epic, allegory, legend, grotesque, utopia, satire. The artistic effect of a fantastic image is achieved through a sharp repulsion from empirical reality, therefore, at the heart of any fantastic work lies the opposition of the fantastic and the real. The poetics of the fantastic is connected with the doubling of the world: the artist either models his own incredible world that exists according to its own laws (in this case, the real “starting point” is hidden, remaining outside the text: “Gulliver’s Travels”, 1726, J. Swift, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man ”, 1877, F.M. Dostoevsky), or in parallel recreates two streams - real and supernatural, unreal being. In the fantastic literature of this series, mystical, irrational motives are strong, the carrier of fantasy here appears in the form of an otherworldly force interfering in the fate of the central character, influencing his behavior and the course of events of the entire work (works of medieval literature, Renaissance literature, romanticism).

With the destruction of mythological consciousness and the growing desire in the art of modern times to look for the driving forces of being in being itself, already in the literature of romanticism there is a need for fantastic, which in one way or another could be combined with a general setting for a natural depiction of characters and situations. The most stable methods of such motivated fiction are dreams, rumors, hallucinations, madness, plot mystery. A new type of veiled, implicit fantasy is being created, leaving the possibility of double interpretation, double motivation of fantastic incidents - empirically or psychologically plausible and inexplicably surreal ("Cosmorama", 1840, V.F. Odoevsky; "Shtoss", 1841, M.Yu. Lermontov ; "Sandman", 1817, E.T. A. Hoffmann). Such a conscious fluctuation of motivation often leads to the fact that the subject of the fantastic disappears ("The Queen of Spades", 1833, A.S. Pushkin; "The Nose", 1836, N.V. Gogol), and in many cases its irrationality is generally removed, finding prosaic explanation as the story progresses. The latter is characteristic of realistic literature, where fantasy narrows down to the development of individual motifs and episodes or performs the function of an emphatically conditional, naked device that does not pretend to create in the reader the illusion of trust in the special reality of fantastic fiction, without which fantasy in its purest form cannot exist.

Origins of fiction - in the myth-making folk-poetic consciousness, expressed in a fairy tale and a heroic epic. Fiction is essentially predetermined by the centuries-old activity of the collective imagination and is a continuation of this activity, using (and updating) constant mythical images, motifs, plots in combination with the vital material of history and modernity. Fiction evolves along with the development of literature, freely combining with various methods of depicting ideas, passions and events. It stands out as a special kind of artistic creativity as folklore forms move away from the practical tasks of mythological understanding of reality and ritual and magical influence on it. The primitive worldview, becoming historically untenable, is perceived as fantastic. A characteristic sign of the emergence of fantasy is the development of an aesthetics of the miraculous, which is not characteristic of primitive folklore. There is a stratification: the heroic fairy tale and the legends about the cultural hero are transformed into a heroic epic (folk allegory and generalization of history), in which the elements of the miraculous are auxiliary; the fabulously magical element is perceived as such and serves as a natural environment for a story about travels and adventures, taken out of the historical framework. Thus, Homer's Iliad is essentially a realistic description of an episode of the Trojan War (which does not interfere with the participation of celestial heroes in the action); Homer's "Odyssey" is primarily a fantastic story about all sorts of incredible adventures (not related to the epic plot) of one of the heroes of the same war. The plot, images and incidents of the Odyssey are the beginning of all literary European fiction. Approximately the same as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Irish heroic sagas and the Voyage of Bran, son of Febal (7th century) correlate. The prototype of many future fantastic journeys was the parody "True History" (2nd century) by Lucian, where the author, in order to enhance the comic effect, sought to pile up as much incredible and absurd as possible and enriched the flora and fauna of the "wonderful country" with many tenacious inventions. Thus, even in antiquity, the main directions of fantasy were outlined - fantastic wandering-adventures and fantastic search-pilgrimage (a characteristic plot is a descent into hell). Ovid in his Metamorphoses directed the original mythological plots of transformations (the transformation of people into animals, constellations, stones) into the mainstream of fantasy and laid the foundation for a fantastic-symbolic allegory - a genre more didactic than adventurous: "teaching in miracles." Fantastic transformations become a form of awareness of the vicissitudes and unreliability of human destiny in a world subject only to the arbitrariness of chance or a mysterious divine will. A rich collection of literary processed fairy tales is given by the tales of the Thousand and One Nights; the influence of their exotic imagery was reflected in European pre-romanticism and romanticism, Indian literature from Kalidasa to R. Tagore is saturated with fantastic images and echoes of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. A kind of literary remelting of folk tales, legends and beliefs are many works of Japanese (for example, the genre of “a story about the terrible and extraordinary” - “Konjakumonogatari”) and Chinese fiction (“Stories about miracles from the Liao cabinet” by Pu Songling, 1640-1715).

Fantastic fiction under the sign of "aesthetics of the miraculous" was the basis of the medieval knightly epic - from "Beowulf" (8th century) to "Perceval" (circa 1182) by Chretien de Troy and "The Death of Arthur" (1469) by T. Malory. The legend of the court of King Arthur, subsequently superimposed on the chronicle of the Crusades, colored by the imagination, became the frame for fantastic plots. Further transformation of these plots are monumentally fantastic, almost completely losing the historical epic basis of the Renaissance poems "Roland in Love" by Boiardo, "Furious Roland" (1516) by L. Ariosto, "Jerusalem Liberated" (1580) by T. Tasso, "The Fairy Queen" (1590 -96) E. Spencer. Together with numerous chivalric romances of the 14th-16th century, they constitute a special era in the development of fantasy. A milestone in the development of the fantastic allegory created by Ovid was the Romance of the Rose (13th century) by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The development of Fiction during the Renaissance is completed by "Don Quixote" (1605-15) by M. Cervantes - a parody of the fantasy of knightly adventures, and "Gargantua and Pantagruel" (1533-64) by F. Rabelais - a comic epic on a fantastic basis, both traditional and arbitrary rethought. In Rabelais we find (chapter "Theleme Abbey") one of the first examples of the fantastic development of the utopian genre.

To a lesser extent than ancient mythology and folklore, religious and mythological images of the Bible stimulated fantasy. The largest works of Christian fiction "Paradise Lost" (1667) and "Paradise Regained" (1671) by J. Milton are not based on canonical biblical texts, but on apocrypha. This, however, does not detract from the fact that the works of European fantasy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as a rule, have an ethical Christian coloring or represent a play of fantastic images and the spirit of Christian apocryphal demonology. Outside of fantasy are the lives of the saints, where miracles are fundamentally singled out as extraordinary, but real events. Nevertheless, the Christian-mythological consciousness contributes to the flourishing of a special genre - visions. Starting with the "Apocalypse" of John the Evangelist, "visions" or "revelations" become a full-fledged literary genre: different aspects of it are represented by "The Vision of Peter Plowman" (1362) by W. Langland and "The Divine Comedy" (1307-21) by Dante. (The poetics of religious "revelations defines W. Blake's visionary fiction: his grandiose "prophetic" images are the last pinnacle of the genre). By the end of the 17th century. Mannerism and Baroque, for which fantasy was a constant background, an additional artistic plane (at the same time, the perception of fantasy was aestheticized, the living feeling of the miraculous was lost, which was also characteristic of the fantastic literature of subsequent centuries), was replaced by classicism, which is inherently alien to fantasy: its appeal to myth is completely rationalistic . In the novels of the 17th and 18th centuries, the motifs and images of fantasy are casually used to complicate the intrigue. Fantastic search is interpreted as erotic adventures (“fairy tales”, for example, “Akazhu and Zirfila”, 1744, C. Duclos). Fiction, having no independent meaning, turns out to be an aid to a picaresque novel (“The Lame Demon”, 1707, A.R. Lesage; “The Devil in Love”, 1772, J. Kazot), a philosophical treatise (“Micromegas”, 1752, Voltaire). The reaction to the dominance of enlightenment rationalism was characteristic of the second half of the 18th century; the Englishman R. Hurd calls for a heartfelt study of Fiction ("Letters on Chivalry and Medieval Novels", 1762); in The Adventures of Count Ferdinand Fathom (1753); T. Smollett anticipates the beginning of the development of science fiction in the 1920s. gothic novel by H. Walpole, A. Radcliffe, M. Lewis. By supplying accessories for romantic plots, fantasy remains in a secondary role: with its help, the duality of images and events becomes the pictorial principle of pre-romanticism.

In modern times, the combination of fantasy with romanticism turned out to be especially fruitful. “Refuge in the realm of fantasy” (Yu.A. Kerner) was sought by all romantics: the “Ienes” fantasize, i.e. the aspiration of the imagination into the transcendent world of myths and legends, was put forward as a way of familiarizing with the highest insight, as a life program - relatively prosperous (due to romantic irony) by L. Tieck, pathetic and tragic by Novalis, whose "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" is an example of a renewed fantastic allegory, comprehended in the spirit of the search for an unattainable, incomprehensible ideal world. The Heidelberg romantics used Fantasy as a source of plots that give additional interest to earthly events (“Isabella of Egypt”, 1812, L.Arnima is a fantastic arrangement of a love episode from the life of Charles V). This approach to science fiction proved especially promising. In an effort to enrich its resources, the German romantics turned to its primary sources - they collected and processed fairy tales and legends (Peter Lebrecht's Folk Tales, 1797, edited by Tieck; Children's and Family Tales, 1812-14 and German Legends, 1816 -18 brothers J. and V. Grimm). This contributed to the formation of the literary fairy tale genre in all European literatures, which remains to this day the leading one in children's fiction. Its classic example of H.K. Andersen's fairy tale. Romantic fiction is synthesized by Hoffmann's work: here is a gothic novel ("Devil's Elixir", 1815-16), and a literary fairy tale ("Lord of the Fleas", 1822, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", 1816), and an enchanting phantasmagoria ("Princess Brambilla" , 1820), and a realistic story with fantastic background ("The Choice of the Bride", 1819, "Golden Pot", 1814). Faust (1808-31) by I. W. Goethe presents an attempt to heal the attraction to fantasy as to the “abyss of the otherworldly”: using the traditional fantastic motive of selling the soul to the devil, the poet discovers the futility of the wandering of the spirit in the realms of the fantastic and affirms the earthly as the final value. vital activity that transforms the world (i.e., the utopian ideal is excluded from the realm of fantasy and projected into the future).

In Russia, romantic fiction is represented in the works of V.A. Zhukovsky, V.F. Odoevsky, A. Pogorelsky, A.F. Veltman. A.S. Pushkin (“Ruslan and Lyudmila”, 1820, where the epic-fairy-tale flavor of fantasy is especially important) and N.V. Gogol turned to fantasy, whose fantastic images are organically merged into the folk-poetic ideal picture of Ukraine (“Terrible Revenge” , 1832; "Viy", 1835). His St. Petersburg fiction (The Nose, 1836; Portrait, Nevsky Prospekt, both 1835) is no longer associated with folklore and fairy tale motifs and is otherwise conditioned by the general picture of "escheated" reality, the condensed image of which, as it were, in itself generates fantastic images.

With the establishment of realism, fantasy again found itself on the periphery of literature, although it was often involved as a kind of narrative context, giving a symbolic character to real images (“Portrait of Dorian Gray, 1891, O. Wilde; “Shagreen Skin”, 1830-31 O. Balzac; works by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, S. Bronte, N. Hawthorne, Yu. A. Strindberg). The gothic tradition of fantasy is developed by E.A.Po, who depicts or implies the transcendent, otherworldly world as a realm of ghosts and nightmares that rule over the earthly destinies of people. However, he also anticipated (The History of Arthur Gordon Pym, 1838, The Thrown into the Maelstrom, 1841) the emergence of a new branch of Fantasy - scientific, which (starting with J. Verne and G. Wells) is fundamentally separated from the generally fantastic tradition; she draws a real, albeit fantastically transformed by science (for worse or for better), the world, a new view of the researcher. Interest in photography as such revived towards the end of the 19th century. neo-romantics (R.L. Stevenson), decadents (M. Schwob, F. Sologub), symbolists (M. Maeterlinck, A. Bely’s prose, A. A. Blok’s dramaturgy), expressionists (G. Meyrink), surrealists (G .Cossack, E. Kroyder). The development of children's literature gives rise to a new image of the fantasy world - the world of toys: L. Carroll, K. Collodi, A. Milne; in domestic literature - from A.N. Tolstoy ("Golden Key", 1936) N.N. Nosov, K.I. Chukovsky. An imaginary, partly fairy-tale world is created by A. Green.

In the second half of the 20th century the fantastic beginning is realized mainly in the field of science fiction, but sometimes it gives rise to qualitatively new artistic phenomena, for example, the trilogy of the Englishman J. R. Tolkien "The Lord of the Rings" (1954-55), written in line with epic fantasy (see), novels and dramas by the Japanese Abe Kobo, works by Spanish and Latin American writers (G. Garcia Marquez, J. Cortazar). Modernity is characterized by the above-mentioned contextual use of fantasy, when an outwardly realistic narrative has a symbolic and allegorical connotation and will give a more or less encrypted reference to a mythological plot (“Centaur”, 1963, J. Updike; “Ship of Fools”, 1962, K.A. Porter). The combination of various possibilities of fantasy is the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" (1929-40). The fantastical-allegorical genre is represented in Russian literature by the cycle of “natural-philosophical” poems by N.A. Schwartz. Fiction has become a traditional auxiliary means of Russian grotesque satire: from Saltykov-Shchedrin (“History of a City”, 1869-70) to V.V. Mayakovsky (“Bedbug”, 1929 and “Banya”, 1930).

The word fantasy comes from Greek phantastike, what does it mean in translation- the art of imagining.

How is science fiction different from other genres? After all, both in a detective story and in a love story, both the characters and the worlds are fictional.

The main role in the classification of genres is played by what is emphasized. For example, in a women's romance, romantic relationships play a key role, creating love experiences. In a detective story, there is mystery, curiosity and excitement created for the reader.

In science fiction, the main emphasis is on a fundamentally different reality, in many respects different from ours. Fiction and fantasy originate in folk tales and legends.

Fantasy as an independent genre was formed in the middle of the 19th century, when the works of Jules Verne appeared to the world.

All science fiction literature is conditionally divided into popular science fiction (SF) and fantasy. NF is what theoretically could actually be; fantasy is a fairy tale, something that definitely cannot be (at least not in our world).

fantasy world

If in science fiction the laws of nature work as they should, then in the world of fantasy, chemistry, physics and any other science do not matter. This world is ruled by magic and inhabited by supernatural beings.

Usually the main theme of fantasy is the struggle between Good and Evil. The plot is built on the archetypes of Journey, Rescue, Mystery or Confrontation.

In each country, fantasy is usually based on local folklore, but Western European folklore is still beyond competition.

Representatives of the fantasy world:

• elves
• witches and wizards
• ghosts
• werewolves
• vampires
• trolls
• gnomes
• orcs and goblins
• centaurs, minotaurs, etc.
• mermaids
• magical animals: dragons, unicorns, basilisks, griffins, etc.

Fantasy sub-genres:

• Heroic fantasy (the main character is fearless, ready for exploits and travel)
• Epic fantasy (mandatory condition - battles, conflicts and opposition of peoples)
• Historical fantasy (fictional history of a people or world + magic, etc.)
  Dark fantasy (Evil reigns, the atmosphere is gothic and gloomy)
• Modern fantasy (our days, the heroes are vampires, werewolves and other paranormal creatures)
• Children's fantasy (focused on children and teenagers)
• Fantasy detective (magic, conspiracies, crimes, sword duels, etc.)
• Love or erotic fantasy
• Humorous or sarcastic fantasy (may well make fun of all the clichés of the genre and pianos in the bushes)

fantasy world

In addition to artistic merit, a high-quality fantasy novel should be distinguished by a bright idea that causes surprise, admiration or fear, and which is easy for the reader to navigate.

What is an idea in fiction?

This is an unusual concept on which the plot of the work is built. The idea starts with the question “What if…?”

For example: the idea of ​​the book “Amphibian Man” by A. Belyaev began with the question: “What if a person can freely swim underwater without special devices?”

The idea for the Star Wars films began with the question, “What if there was a war in the galaxy before?”

The idea of ​​the book "The Master and Margarita" by M. Bulgakov began with the question: "What if the devil himself appears in Moscow?"

The fantasy world is an alternative reality with its own laws. Even if it is a fantasy where magic rules, there must be a clear structure and logic.

It is more difficult to write a reliable world than to create a reliable hero. It is necessary to think through to the details how this reality will work, how will it differ from others and how will it attract attention?

Write an extended encyclopedic summary following this outline.:

• Time and place of action
• Territory dimensions
• Territory divisions: planets, continents, countries, etc.
• Capital(s)
• State structure, political parties and unions, laws of society
• Domestic and foreign policy
• Economy, currency, terms of trade
• Information about the population: nationalities, languages, beliefs, races, etc.
• Laws of physics and nature
• Geography: relief, climate, minerals, coastline, soil, vegetation, wildlife, ecology
• Key events in history
• Crime level
• Transport
• Agriculture and industry
• Armed forces
• The medicine
• Social Security
• Parenting
• Education
• The science
• Means of communication
• Sources of knowledge: books, libraries, internet, media, etc.
• Arts: architecture, theatre, cinema, painting, music, etc.

Subgenres in science fiction:

• Hard science fiction (the plot revolves around a scientific discovery or technology)
• Light science fiction (the basis of the plot is the relationship of the characters or their adventures)
• Military SF (battles of the main race with aliens)
• Space Opera (the scene is space and distant planets, the plot is space adventures)
• Cyberpunk (describes the conflict between people and technology)
• Time travel
• Apocalypse
• Parallel worlds and universes
• Lost worlds and pioneers (discovery of new worlds)
• First contact (meeting of people with extraterrestrial civilizations)
• Utopia and dystopia (description of the world with ideal or totalitarian laws)
• Historical fiction (set in the past)
• Alternative history (what would happen if events unfolded from a different angle)
• Children's fiction (designed for children and teenagers)

How to avoid blunders and boredom in science fiction?

• Don't explain in detail how blasters, communications, etc. work unless it's directly related to the plot.
• Make sure that all areas of technology are developed at about the same level. If your ships fly at the speed of light, then the connection should be on the level.
• Aliens should be different from earthlings - facial expressions, slang, etc.
• Alien measures of weights, time and length must be different.
• Don't call ordinary things alien words.
• Every Evil must have a motive.
• If you're writing medieval fantasy, study this era carefully.
• Calculate the strength of heroes and animals - everyone needs sleep, rest and food.

Stamps in science fiction and fantasy:

• The hero does not remember his parents. It is then revealed that they were kings, presidents, or wizards. The hero is informed that he is the chosen one, spoken of in an ancient prophecy. And at the end it turns out that the Main Villain is the father of the main character.
• The hero woke up and realized that the exciting adventure was just a dream or a video game.
• No one can save the world from a terrible catastrophe, except for the main character.
• The hero goes into the past to fix the future, and in the end made everything even worse.
• Before the appearance of the hero, the inhabitants of planet X were complete ignoramuses. And then HE appears...
• The sole purpose of the aliens is to destroy the Earth. Just like that, without a motive.
• Aliens self-destruct from contact with terrestrial air, shampoo, etc.
• Computers or robots caught the virus and went berserk.
• The hero and heroine fight all the time. Then they save each other, and then love begins ...
• The hero finds himself in a strange world and discovers that this is our Earth - this is the future.
• The whole planet is inhabited by people of one nationality, there is one large city, one culture and religion.
• The villain subjugates the whole world, but at the same time kills his assistants right and left. Well, soon he will become the king of himself...
• The villain kills the hero's parents. He grows up - and his revenge is terrible.
• The hero single-handedly easily deals with a whole battalion of the enemy's armed forces.
• A magical artifact that will solve all problems.
• Evil broke free, covered the whole world with darkness and will soon come to us. What for?
• The villain unfairly offends his comrade-in-arms - and he goes over to the side of Good.
• The Hero's best friends are an elf and a dwarf.
• The place of the battle is labyrinths, cliffs, sheer cliffs, etc.
• Heroes hide in mines and sewers or in an abandoned subway and underground catacombs.
• The villain laughs ominously and wears a black cloak with a hood.
• The villain dreams of marrying a princess who hates him.
• The hero easily penetrates the enemy computer (headquarters, etc.) and finds out all the plans in advance.

How to choose a title for fantasy and science fiction?

• Take a well-known name and remake it by replacing one or two words.
• Add pathos and big words: Eternity, Infinity, Evil, Darkness.
• Try to use everyday symbols. There are not so many of them: Sword, Dragon, Blade, Old Tavern, Galaxy, Star, Lord, Master, Blood, Love, Castle, Guardians, Fighters.
• Beware of modest and boring names.
• Let the reader know that he is about to meet the Incredible. Use paradoxes.
• If there are not enough words, come up with new ones or use beautiful incomprehensible ones.
• It is not bad to name the book with any one, but a very clever word. It should not be related to the plot, it should not be mentioned either. For example: "Premorbid", "Absorbent", "Promiscuity", "Meteorism".
• Take the word "Chronicles" or "World" - and the first half of the title is ready.

You can also use combinations:

• accomplishment + something ("Conquest of the Mirus", "Overthrow of Lebon", "Retribution of the Dwarf")
• do + something ("Love the Vampire", "Kill the Symbosium", "Defeat Ramossura")
• someone + such and such (“Demons of the Underworld”, “Stones of the Red River”, “Elves of the Mountains of Eratus”)
• what + wow effect ("Destined to live", "Ripped by the Oath", "Insulted by the Undead")
• "who" ("Bogur the Sorcerer's Apprentice", "Rosemary the Elf Witch")
• sign + someone ("Under the flag of Rogus", "In the name of Ipalanthus")
• such + such (“Arpodig and the Minotaur”, “Libom and the Sword of Glory”)
• date + someone's ("Hour of Asgard", "Year of Raukus", "One Day of Bizim")
• a doer of something out there ("Edarmheish's Conqueror", "Sword Charmer", "Magi Conqueror")
• "someone's thing" ("Dark Master's Talisman", "Emory's Walk", "Nordarm Void")
• adjective + noun ("Crimson Gate", "Cursed Gift", "Solid Beam")
• noun + adjective ("Gift of Victory", "Sophisticated Road")