An anthology of essays on the nature of fantasy, focusing on the basic principles that distinguish fantasy from other literary types and making a strong argument for its place as a major approach to the understanding of the creative act in art and literature.

In the footsteps of Ingardeniana II, this volume marks the 20th anniver­ sary of Roman Ingarden's death, partly focusing upon his thought, partly bringing his aesthetics into the present-day framework of research. It might have appeared puzzling to the followers of our Analecta Husserliana why within the original horizon encircled by the research work of our International Society of Phenomenology and Literatur- whose research work is devised in a diametrically opposed direction to that of Roman Ingarden - there is steadfastly running through our discussions a line of Ingardenian reflection. The reason, as I have pointed out in the introduction to Ingardeniana II, expertly edited by Hans Rudnik, is clear: Ingarden's analysis of the intentional structures of works of art offers in its distinct and clear-cut forms an 'objective' correlate - as well as a point of reference - to the vast conundrum of issues concerning the creative endeavor of the writer, poet, artist in their struggle to endow life with its specifically human significance; a conundrum that in our research we are trying to disentangl- elucidating its mysterious ramifications, their sources and dynamic virtualities. As a matter of fact, Ingarden's thought, newly interpreted and originally expanded, occupies a legitimate place in the present collec­ tion. We find here, in the first place, an original expansion of Ingarden's aesthetic theory in the monograph of ladwiga Smith followed by the essays of Wadaw Osadnik, Yushiro Takei and Charles Rzepka.

Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant' examines Donaldson's first three novels in an attempt to define their place in the fantasy canon. The book begins with an extensive introduction to the fantasy genre in which W.A. Senior eloquently defends fantasy against charges of being mere escapism, or simply juvenile, and not warranting serious critical consideration.

During the age of Enlightenment music aestheticians first became actively interested in the relationship between music and numerous other branches of intellectual activity. By the late nineteenth century, however, there had been a proliferation of sophisticated musicological research techniques by positivists primarily preoccupied with scientific concepts of music as sound. Such an approach tended to detach music from its cultural and social environment. Throughout the twentieth century numerous theories on music aesthetics have returned to concepts of musical meaning and communication that were common practice during the Enlightenment. To avoid becoming defunct, music aesthetics has had to move in new directions to cope with the changing and diverse phenomena of musical experience in contemporary society. An aesthetic evaluation of popular music as an 'art' form undoubtedly demands the formulation of some aesthetic theory. -- from http://www.jstor.org (Feb. 3, 2014).

Fantasy is a creation of the Enlightenment, and the recognition that excitement and wonder can be found in imagining impossible things. From the ghost stories of the Gothic to the zombies and vampires of twenty-first-century popular literature, from Mrs Radcliffe to Ms Rowling, the fantastic has been popular with readers. Since Tolkien and his many imitators, however, it has become a major publishing phenomenon. In this volume, critics and authors of fantasy look at its history since the Enlightenment, introduce readers to some of the different codes for the reading and understanding of fantasy, and examine some of the many varieties and subgenres of fantasy; from magical realism at the more literary end of the genre, to paranormal romance at the more popular end. The book is edited by the same pair who produced The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (winner of a Hugo Award in 2005).

Once upon a time all literature was fantasy, set in a mythical past when magic existed, animals talked, and the gods took an active hand in earthly affairs. As the mythical past was displaced in Western estimation by the historical past and novelists became increasingly preoccupied with the present, fantasy was temporarily marginalized until the late 20th century, when it enjoyed a spectacular resurgence in every stratum of the literary marketplace. Stableford provides an invaluable guide to this sequence of events and to the current state of the field. The chronology tracks the evolution of fantasy from the origins of literature to the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulses creating and shaping fantasy literature, the problems of its definition and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes. The dictionary includes cross-referenced entries on more than 700 authors, ranging across the entire historical spectrum, while more than 200 other entries describe the fantasy subgenres, key images in fantasy literature, technical terms used in fantasy criticism, and the intimately convoluted relationship between literary fantasies, scholarly fantasies, and lifestyle fantasies. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography that ranges from general textbooks and specialized accounts of the history and scholarship of fantasy literature, through bibliographies and accounts of the fantasy literature of different nations, to individual author studies and useful websites.

First in-depth study of the use of landscape in fantasy literature

Malory's chivalric virtues are rejected in favour of White's own 20th-century values; the love affair of Lancelot and Guenever is interpreted in terms of modern psychology.

This book offers an original and interdisciplinary interpretation of the relation between aesthetics and modern liberal democracy, uniting the fields of art theory with the democratic political philosophy and modern liberal economic theory. The central argument of the books offers an explanation of the theoretical limitations of the contemporary discourse concerning “political art,” while at the same time illustrating historically how the European and American discourse of modern democracy and political economy developed an explicit stance against the conflation of art and politics. Exposing the unstated presuppositions about our modern liberal democracy, Craig Carson opens a new field of inquiry concerning the role of art, media, and televisual “theater” central to modern politics.

This collection of new essays applies a wide range of critical frameworks to the analysis of prolific fantasy author Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. Essays focus on topics such as Pratchett's treatment of noise and silence and their political implications; art as an anodyne for racial conflict; humor and cognitive debugging; visual semiotics; linguistic stylistics and readers' perspectives of word choice; and Derrida and the "monstrous Regiment of Women." The volume also includes an annotated bibliography of critical sources. The essays provide fresh perspectives on Pratchett's work, which has stealthily redefined both fantasy and humor for modern audiences.