Fantastic (genre)
By medium: fantastic literature - fantastic film - fantastic art
On a general level, the concept of fantastic is ambiguous because it can mean greatness as well as a certain sensibility in the arts, where it is used to denote works which defy natural laws and traditional ideas of reality. In the visual arts it has been always important but it came especially to the fore in mannerism, Romanticism, Symbolism, Decadent movement and Surrealism. [Jun 2006]
Our ultimate aim is to reconcile the concepts of the uncanny, Das Unheimliche and the fantastic. The irony is of course that since some time, the word fantastique has been introduced in the English language. The benefit of the term fantastique is that it does not have the connotation of greatness which is linked with the word fantastic. Another irony is that the Germans have started using the term fantastik. In short, the fantastic as genre is the most complex area of research in genre theory, because of its universal presence and multi-language confusion. [Jun 2006]
A great deal of literature, from every part of the world and dating back to time immemorial, falls within the category of fantastic. Fairy tales like The Book of One Thousand and One Nights and epic literature like the Romance of the Holy Grail are within the scope of this genre. [Jun 2006]
Titles: Arabian Nights
Theory: Tzvetan Todorov
Related concepts: dream - fantasy - fantastique - grotesque - marvelous - supernatural - uncanny
Related genres: horror - pulp fiction - science-fiction
Contrast: realism - seriousness
Intro
Definition
Fantasy is a genre of art, literature, film, television, and music that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of either plot, theme, setting, or all three. The genre is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by overall look, feel, and theme of the individual work, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (collectively known as speculative fiction). In its broadest sense, fantasy covers works by many writers, artists, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends, to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today.
As with other forms of speculative fiction, actions and events in fantasy very often differ from those possible in consensus reality. In many cases, especially in older works of fantasy but in many modern works as well, this is explained by means of divine intervention, magic, or other supernatural forces. In other cases, most frequently in works of modern fantasy in the high fantasy subgenre, the story might take place in a fantasy world that is wholly different from our own, complete with distinct laws of nature that permit magic. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_%28word%29 [Jan 2006]
Chronological bibliography of the fantastic
- Das Unheimliche (1919) / The Uncanny - Sigmund Freud
- La carne, la morte, e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica (Italy, 1930) / Romantic Agony - Mario Praz
- Le moyen-age fantastique (Paris, 1955) Jurgis Baltrusaitis
- The Grotesque in Art and Literature (1957) - Wolfgang Kayser
- Arts fantastiques (Paris, 1960) - Claude Roy
- L’art et la littérature fantastiques (1960) - Louis Vax
- L'art fantastique (1961) - Marcel Brion
- Au coeur du fantastique (Paris, 1965) - Roger Caillois
- Dreamers of Decadence: Symbolist Painters of the 1890s (1969) - Philippe Jullian
- Introduction à la littérature fantastique (1970) / The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre - Tzvetan Todorov
- 200 Jahre Phantastische Malerei (Berlin, 1973) - Wieland Schmied
- The Occult in Art (1990) - Owen S. Rackleff
- Les peintres du fantastique (1996) - André Barret
See also: fantastic - fantastique
The Fantastic in art and literature
The Fantastic in Art and Literature
http://fantastic.library.cornell.edu/index.php
Hosted by the Cornell University Library, it compiles and indexes nearly three-hundred images on the theme of the fantastic in art and literature. --via http://www.spamula.net/blog/archives/000194.html [Jan 2005]
Codex Seraphinianus (1981) - Luigi Serafini
Codex Seraphinianus (1981) - Luigi Serafini
About thirteen and a half years ago I first learnt of the existence of a strange and remarkable book called the Codex Seraphinianus. I read about it in Douglas Hofstadter’s Metamagical Themas. --Stuart Heath via http://www.spamula.net/blog/archives/000164.html [Jan 2005]
Luigi Serafini was born in Rome in 1949. He starts in the 60's being a traveller and than he becomes an architect. Years later he works on the Codex Seraphinianus" (Franco Maria Ricci, Milano 1981), up to now at its sixth edition. He publishes "Pulcinellopedia (piccola)" (Longanesi, Milano 1983). Than he decides to dedicate his life to the industrial Design, he opens an Atelier of ceramic in Umbria between art and handcraft. He is " Visiting artist" in Alberta (Canada). He publishes stories for Bompiani and Archinto and many magazines. He collaborate with the last movie of Fellini, whose designs are the introducing base .For the theatre "La Scala" he realizes the scenes, lights and customs of a ballet, and for the television some jingles in graphic computer and scenography for talk-shows.He organizes personal exposition especially in Holland and he participates to collective expositions. At the moment he is painting with oils and writes on the " Passeggiate Romane" de "Il Messaggero" and he is interested in Gastronomy. He lives between Rome and Milan in an imaginary city where via Dei Condotti comes up in Piazza Cordusio. --http://www.futurarium.com/20022003/ls_e.htm [Jan 2005]
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