The Canons of Fantasy
Lands of High Adventure

The canon of modern fantasy is in flux: this Element examines key questions raised by the fantasy canon.

Patrick Moran (Author)

9781108708678, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 December 2019

75 pages
17.1 x 12.2 x 0.5 cm, 0.2 kg

'Moran's book, for all its brevity, is a strong one. It joins Williamson's Evolution of Modern Fantasy and James Gifford's A Modernist Fantasy: Modernism, Anarchism, and the Radical Fantastic (ELS Edition, 2018) as one of the three most intelligent historical surveys of the fantasy field.' Mark Scroggins, Fafnir - Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research

Despite publishing endeavours such as the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series in the 1970s and Fantasy Masterworks in the early 2000s, the canon of modern fantasy is still very much in flux. This Element examines four key questions raised by the prospect of a fantasy canon: the way in which canon and genre influence each other; the overwhelming presence of Tolkien in any discussion of the classics of fantasy; the multi-media and transmedia nature of the field; and the push for a more inclusive and diverse canon.

1. The lay of the land
2. The Tolkien landmark
3. Crossing boundaries
4. Alternative cartographies.

Subject Areas: Publishing industry & book trade [KNTP], Fantasy [FM], Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary theory [DSA]