Fantasy and Mimesis : Responses to Reality in Western Literature.
Since Plato and Aristotle's declaration of the essence of literature as imitation, western narrative has been traditionally discussed in mimetic terms. Marginalized fantasy- the deliberate from reality - has become the hidden face of fiction, identified by most critics as a minor genre. First p...
Saved in:
| Online Access: |
Full Text (via Taylor & Francis) |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxon :
Routledge,
2014.
|
| Series: | Routledge revivals.
|
| Subjects: |
Table of Contents:
- Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Original Title Page; Original Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; Acknowledgments; Preface; Part I: Literature and the representation of reality: a new approach to fantasy and mimesis; Introduction; 1 Critical approaches to fantasy; The disenfranchisement of fantasy; Exclusive definitions; Inclusive definition; Assumptions about literature; 2 Historical perspectives on fantasy and realism; Traditional society and traditional literatures; Skepticism and the growth of realism; The limits of realism; Beyond the void.
- Part II: Responses to reality: how is fantasy used?Introduction; 3 Literature of illusion: invitations to escape reality; The pastoral: retreat from society; Adventure: refuge in daydreams; Indulgence in the amusing and the farcical; Puzzlement and pleasing jeopardy: the reader at a stimulating disadvantage; The pleasures of literary escape; 4 Literature of vision: introducing new realities; The creation of augmented worlds; The creation of new worlds by subtraction and erasure; Contrastive interpretations of reality; 5 Literature of revision: programs for improving reality; Moral didacticism.
- Cosmological didacticism6 Literature of disillusion: making reality unknowable; The limits of individual perspective; The inadequacies of communication; Our limitations as human animals; Skewed worlds; Literature of unresolved contradictions; Part III: The functions of fantasy: why use fantasy?; Introduction; 7 Fantasy as a function of form; Fantasy, modes, and genres; Fantasy and the parts of narrative; Fantasy in lyric, drama, and beyond; Degree of dislocation and techniques for introducing it; 8 The problem of meaning and the power of fantasy; Man as teleological animal.
- Latent fantasy contentPatent fantastic images; Synergistic interaction between images; Meaning in mythological images; Literature as a meaning-giving experience; Notes; Index.