Wow! eBook
Rhetorics of Fantasy
Author(s): Farah Mendlesohn (Author)
- Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
- Publication Date: 30 April 2008
- Language: English
- Print length: 336 pages
- ISBN-10: 0819568686
- ISBN-13: 9780819568687
Book Description
Examining fantasy literature
Transcending arguments over the definition of fantasy literature, Rhetorics of Fantasy introduces a provocative new system of classification for the genre. Utilizing nearly two hundred examples of modern fantasy, author Farah Mendlesohn uses this system to explore how fiction writers construct their fantastic worlds. Mendlesohn posits four categories of fantasy–portal-quest, immersive, intrusion, and liminal–that arise out of the relationship of the protagonist to the fantasy world. Using these sets, Mendlesohn argues that the author’s stylistic decisions are then shaped by the inescapably political demands of the category in which they choose to write. Each chapter covers at least twenty books in detail, ranging from nineteenth-century fantasy and horror to extensive coverage of some of the best books in the contemporary field. Offering a wide-ranging discussion and penetrating comparative analysis, Rhetorics of Fantasy will excite fans and provide a wealth of material for scholarly and classroom discussion.
Includes discussion of works by over 100 authors, including Lloyd Alexander, Peter Beagle, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Crowley, Stephen R. Donaldson, Stephen King, C. S. Lewis, Gregory Maguire, Robin McKinley, China Miéville, Suniti Namjoshi, Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling, Sheri S. Tepper, J. R. R. Tolkien, Tad Williams
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Mendlesohn goes well beyond a survey to offer new and often surprising readings of works both familiar and obscure. A fine critical work that offers fresh insights on almost every page.”–Brian Attebery, editor, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
“Mendlesohn goes well beyond a survey to offer new and often surprising readings of works both familiar and obscure. A fine critical work that offers fresh insights on almost every page.”–Brian Attebery, editor, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
“A useful and deliberately flexible taxonomy, and an intense engagement with the arms race of rhetoric between makers and users of fantasy. For authors and readers as well as academics and commentators.”–M. John Harrison, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
