Phantastik in Literatur und Kunst

by Christian W. Thomsen (Editor), Jens Malte Fischer (Editor)

German

563 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Kai Weber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sophisticated fantasy literature and art is not so much different from sophisticated literature and art. Actually, after reading this 500+ page collection of literary criticism on the topic I still don't see what is so genuinely "phantastic" about fantasy literature. The inclusion of fantasy pulp fiction, or even a complete focus on that, may on the one hand be more boring (after all the pleasure one gets from reading Borges, Kafka or Poe is certainly much higher than from reading the Dark Elf Saga), but on the other hand more insightful. The inclusion of other arts (visual, film, architecture, music) also doesn't help to pin down what this "phantastic / fantasy" in the arts actually means. This is book is neither interesting for a fan (be it of sophisticated literature or pulp fiction) nor for a scholar.