Earth Sea- Define fantasy Tharina

How has fantasy as a genre been defined?  Find at least five formative definitions in Attebery (1980).

“WHAT IS FANTASY? Is it a genre, a structure, a state of mind, a technique? How can the word be precisely and usefully defined without falling into the vague, the arbitrary, or the ponderous?” (Attebery, 1980, p. 1)

How do you even start to define a genre where so many factors and aspects needs to be taken into consideration and is all subjective to the perspective of the reader? 

Definition 1:

Mr Atterbery employs the help of a Mr Irwin who says that fantasy is “an overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility. Whatever the material, extravagant or seemingly commonplace, a narrative is a fantasy if it presents the persuasive establishments and development of an impossibility, an arbitrary construct of the mind with all under the control of logic and rhetoric”. (p.9) Translation: a narrative, no matter how ‘real’ or ridiculous it tries to be, if it is grounded in what is impossible for the mind to understand yet we are able to buy into the story itself i.e. knowing full well that on an intellectual level it is not plausible but still able to give over to the narrative… THAT is what fantasy is. “Any narrative which includes as a significant part of its make-up some violation of what the author clearly believes to be natural law” (Attebery, 1980, p. 1) For instance in Earth Sea a violation of the natural laws would be the ‘mist/cloud’ that  Sparrowhawk conjures up to lead the army towards the cliff.

Definition 2:

“Fantasy invoked wonder by making the impossible seem familiar and the familiar seem new and strange” (Attebery, 1980, p. 2) For instance in Earth Sea as Ged and Ogion trek through the forest Ogion makes it rain on Ged and only Ged. The forest is a familiar thing to many people and so is rain. However having it isolated to such an extent makes it a fantastical happening. 

Definition 3:

"As to engaging attention, fantasy does so in many of the ways any fiction does: by generating suspense, by presenting characters whose fates we are interested in, by appealing to our sense, by calling forth human longings and fears.. In addition, take advantage of our curiosity" (Attebery, 1980, p. 4) I find this an interesting section to use as a definition for a genre to fickle and subjective. Why do we engage with some texts and not others? Why do we feel a 'connection' with one character over another? Could it be the projection of our own feelings and state of mind onto the characters' lives and situations? Would our feelings towards these characters change when the situations in our own lives change? Would we, instead, sympathize with the villain and begrudge the Hero his/her victory?

 Definition 4:

Atterbery cites C.S Lewis who says that fantasy “utilizes unconvincing characters and unlikely events, but it makes every effort to place them in a mundane, non-fantastic world” (Attebery 1980, p.3) I suppose that would realte back to the previous point about needing/ wanting to relate to the character on a human level. It's easier to identify with something you are familiar with. At the end of the day even characters which are non-human e.g. centaurs and such, are described through human emotions or descriptions; things that we can connect some kind of understanding to.

Definition 5:

Finally, Tzvetan Todorov classes fantasy “under the heading ‘the fantastic’ only ‘that hesitation experienced by a person who knows only the laws of nature, confronting an apparently supernatural event” (Attebery, 1980 Meaning? Well to me he is saying that people who are logical in their way of thinking may struggle to comprehend the need for such a genre in the first place. Most likely they'll look for some kind of logical or plausible explanation why some people can move objects with their minds or how the power of a person is translated through a stick which then holds magic and power beyond anything we could ever appreciate as humans, but still dare to imagine and ask the 'what if!" questions about. 

I don't think that any of these definitions can ever contain what the genre of fantasy is. I don't believe that you can contain a person's imagination into a definitive sentence and expect it to work within a logical formula. It goes against everything that fantasy stands for; To imagine the unimaginable and to accept the wonders of a world we will never be privy to. 

               Attebery, B. (1980). The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press


Le Guinn, U. (1993; 1968). A Wizard of Earthsea. In The Earthsea Quartet (pp.13-167). London: Penguin.