How does Atterbery (1980) define Fantasy? Find at least five definitions.
Attebery looks
at others definitions of fantasy but ultimately sums it up as
“The single condition, that a story treat an impossibility
as if it were true” (Attebery, 1980)
Other definitions:
W.R. Irwin “an
overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility... Whatever the
material, extravagant or seemingly commonplace, a narrative is a fantasy if it
presents the persuasive establishment and development of an impossibility, an
arbitrary construct of the mind with all under the control of logic and
rhetoric”. (Irwin as cited by Attebery, 1980)
J. R. R. Tolkien
“founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it
appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact but not a slavery to it”.
(Tolkien as cited by Attebery, 1980)
Any narrative
which includes as a significant part of its make-up some violation of what the
author clearly believes to be natural law. (Attebery, 1980)
Tzvetan Todorov “The
fantastic... That hesitation experienced by a person who knows the laws of
nature, confronting an apparently supernatural event” (Todorov as cited by Attebery,
1980)
References
Attebery, B.
(1980). The Fantasy of Tradition in
American Literature: From Irving to Le Guin. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Good Alex, shows a clear understanding of the secondary text. Would you add anything of your own to these definition? For example, do all fantasies involve a quest?
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