Description
An exciting and accessible study of the genre of fantasy. One of the dominant modes of storytelling in the twenty-first century, fantasy can mirror contemporary experiences and convey our anxieties and longings better than any representation of the merely real. It is the lie that speaks truth. This book addresses two central questions about fantastic storytelling: first, how can it be meaningful if it doesn't claim to represent things as they are, and second, what kind of change can it make in the world? How can a form of storytelling that alters physical laws and denies facts about the past be at the same time a source of insight into human nature and the workings of the world? What kind of social, political, cultural, intellectual work does fantasy perform in the world--the world of the reader, that is, not that of the characters? Focusing on various aspects of fantastic world-building and story creation in classic and contemporary fantasy, from the use of symbolic structures to the way new stories incorporate bits of significance from earlier texts, this book shows how fantasy allows writers such as Michael Cunningham, Hans Christian Anderson, Helene Wecker, C. S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson, George MacDonald, Aliette deBodard, and Patricia Wrightson to test new modes of understanding and interaction and thus to rethink political institutions, social practices, and models of reality.
About the Author
Scholar and editor Brian Attebery has won multiple awards for his work on fantasy and science fiction, mostly recently the World Fantasy Award for his longtime editorship of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. In 2019 he was the Leverhulme Visiting Professor in fantasy at the University of Glasgow. One of his projects there was helping to launch a scholarly series from Bloombury Academic, Perspectives on Fantasy, which he edits along with Dimitra Fimi and Matthew Sanger. He is the author of Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth and Decoding Gender in Science Fiction, among other books, and co-editor with Ursula K. Le Guin and Karen Joy Fowler of the Norton Book of Science Fiction. As editor of Le Guin's work for the Library of America he is currently working on a volume of her short fiction.
Reviews
Readable and authoritative, rich in example without losing us in abstract theory... For many-academics and general readers alike-the value of this volume will be in the way it places the fantasy we have grown up with in the context of a range of other voices. * Andy Sawyer, Strange Horizons *
[Fantasy] proceeds from the deep, sincere, unselfconscious heart of fandom. It follows the zigzagging logic of love... can I recommend this book? The answer is yes. * Sandra Newman, Times Literary Supplement *
Attebery writes personably and with grace... Fantasy: How it Works is the beginning of lots of good discussions. * Gary K. Wolfe , Locus *
Internationally, fans, students, established and new, and academics will all find a great deal of accessibly written and thoroughly researched, useful, entertaining work in this lovely book. * Gina Wisker, Dissections *
a short and friendly book that eschews jargon and is very firmly based on Attebery's phenomenonally wide reading within the genre... If you haven't read much fantasy fiction, this book is a wonderful introduction. If you have, you will still come away with a to-read list as long as your arm, a new appreciation of the novels you love, and plenty of food for thought. * Helen Parry, Shiny New Books *
[a] lively and informative tour of a wonderful genre. * George Kelley *
Fantasy literature is often defined as "literature of the impossible" and dismissed as escapism and sometimes even as irrelevant. In this brief but powerful book, Attebery (Idaho State Univ.) argues against these views. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. * Choice *
The great strength of Fantasy: How It Works lies in the way it draws on and showcases a lifetime of careful reading of and thinking about the fantastic, marking another invaluable addition to fantasy studies... There is no book quite like it, and it is best approached as just what Attebery intended, a conversation starter about how fantasy means and what it does, the important work it performs in the world. * Timothy S. Miller, Los Angeles Review of Books *
Awards
Winner of Winner, 2023 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies.
Book Information
ISBN 9780192856234
Author Brian Attebery
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 224mm * 145mm * 19mm
About the Author
Scholar and editor Brian Attebery has won multiple awards for his work on fantasy and science fiction, mostly recently the World Fantasy Award for his longtime editorship of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. In 2019 he was the Leverhulme Visiting Professor in fantasy at the University of Glasgow. One of his projects there was helping to launch a scholarly series from Bloombury Academic, Perspectives on Fantasy, which he edits along with Dimitra Fimi and Matthew Sanger. He is the author of Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth and Decoding Gender in Science Fiction, among other books, and co-editor with Ursula K. Le Guin and Karen Joy Fowler of the Norton Book of Science Fiction. As editor of Le Guin's work for the Library of America he is currently working on a volume of her short fiction.
Reviews
Readable and authoritative, rich in example without losing us in abstract theory... For many-academics and general readers alike-the value of this volume will be in the way it places the fantasy we have grown up with in the context of a range of other voices. * Andy Sawyer, Strange Horizons *
[Fantasy] proceeds from the deep, sincere, unselfconscious heart of fandom. It follows the zigzagging logic of love... can I recommend this book? The answer is yes. * Sandra Newman, Times Literary Supplement *
Attebery writes personably and with grace... Fantasy: How it Works is the beginning of lots of good discussions. * Gary K. Wolfe , Locus *
Internationally, fans, students, established and new, and academics will all find a great deal of accessibly written and thoroughly researched, useful, entertaining work in this lovely book. * Gina Wisker, Dissections *
a short and friendly book that eschews jargon and is very firmly based on Attebery's phenomenonally wide reading within the genre... If you haven't read much fantasy fiction, this book is a wonderful introduction. If you have, you will still come away with a to-read list as long as your arm, a new appreciation of the novels you love, and plenty of food for thought. * Helen Parry, Shiny New Books *
[a] lively and informative tour of a wonderful genre. * George Kelley *
Fantasy literature is often defined as "literature of the impossible" and dismissed as escapism and sometimes even as irrelevant. In this brief but powerful book, Attebery (Idaho State Univ.) argues against these views. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. * Choice *
The great strength of Fantasy: How It Works lies in the way it draws on and showcases a lifetime of careful reading of and thinking about the fantastic, marking another invaluable addition to fantasy studies... There is no book quite like it, and it is best approached as just what Attebery intended, a conversation starter about how fantasy means and what it does, the important work it performs in the world. * Timothy S. Miller, Los Angeles Review of Books *
Awards
Winner of Winner, 2023 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies.
Book Information
ISBN 9780192856234
Author Brian Attebery
Format Hardback
Page Count 208
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 224mm * 145mm * 19mm
