Observations on the evolution of Fantasy, as a literary genre. Origins
The realm of fairy tales is broad, deep, and filled with many outstanding things: there are animals and birds of all kinds, countless stars and endless seas ; Beauty that enchants and omnipresent danger, joy and sorrow sharp as swords. A man may, perhaps, be considered lucky to have you wandered, but its own richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveler who wishes to report them. And while he is there, it is dangerous to ask too many questions, because the gates would close suddenly, and lost the keys.
(by On Fairy-Stories, JRR Tolkien)
Groped to find a precise moment in human history to the birth place of the imagination, is an impossible task, at least for the moment. In some ways, then, that man invented stories to explain incomprehensible phenomena then from a scientific point of view, can be considered a first embryo of what will then be the epic-religious myths, fairy tales, and, coming to this day, stories Fantasy. If the mythology of the Mediterranean civilizations has been the basis for the development of the literary genre of fantasy, legends of the Vikings and Celts, have undoubtedly had the greatest influence on the stories that belong to this genre.
The Nordic mythology comes to us primarily due to an Icelandic writer of 1200, Snorri Sturluson, Edda who gathered the legends and myths that were the basis of Viking culture, translating from the Norse (ancient Germanic language). Like most mythologies, that mainly concerns the Edda gods, heroes and the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Although the fantasy is a value belonging to humanity since the dawn of time, the Fantasy is a relatively new literary genre, born in the late nineteenth century within the British culture. It is a kind of narration in between the epic and the fantastic, whose main elements are myth and fairy tale. Unlike the fantastic narrative, which uses real-world scenarios contaminating them with supernatural events, the Fantasy describes imaginary worlds, completely detached from our own. Scholars accepted as the date of commencement of the modern Fantasy 1895, when William Morris published the novel The Wood Beyond the World (The wood beyond the world).
In Italy, the fantasy novel is identified with some of his lines, more precisely with those set in imaginary worlds (High Fantasy) different from ours, characterized by the use of magic (Sword and sorcery), usually inhabited by epic heroes (Heroic Fantasy).
The first sub-genre known as sword and sorcery (sword and sorcery), comes from adventure novels such as those Salgari and Verne, taking its connotation Fantasy, transposition magazines Pulp Magazine, published in the U.S. until the late fifty. A key feature of the works of this genre, was the constant presence of male heroes, muscular and brave, that save women in danger, after dealing with supernatural events and powerful magic.
The other strand, the Heroic Fantasy (Heroic Fantasy), begins with the literature of William Morris, leader of the neo-Gothic. The ladies of fantasy
spicchino Although in many fantasy authors of the male sex, there are also many women who have helped to raise the level and the reputation of this kind of literature.
The Californian Marion Zimmer Bradley, is part of a select group of authors, who in the fifties, they have developed in the fantasy genre, its own unique style, which is characterized by a refined psychological insight, managing to further enhance the feminine figure in works of this kind. The
Bradley, have made a change of direction in the special sub-genre of sword and sorcery, managing to integrate the roles of men and women. The affirmation of man as a hero who had the Herculean task of saving the world, often in the Fantasy was at the expense of equality of roles and skills possessed by women. Too often, the authors focused their attention on man, relegating women to the role of damsel in distress, excluding, in the final adventures of the male protagonists. Marion Zimmer Bradley, emphasized the need to equate the two different identities (masculine and feminine), not only from the psychological point of view, but most importantly, the skills possessed. The heroism, in fact, is not only a male prerogative, given the strength of the muscles, but also a different attitude towards risk. As a result the woman, living situations of extreme difficulty, may highlight their value does not come by the exhibition of physical force, but by the individual's ability to react to adversity.
[...] The girls Ones of these stories, however, do not expect a hero who rescued her from the fate that awaits them. Each of these girls Ones that I have decided to introduce to deal with it differently and each one is a hero in their own right. I think that's the value of heroic narrative, namely that it forces us to confront what is heroic in ourselves and face our nightmares and the image that we built ourselves. I do not think this requirement is limited to men only or women only. Stories that deal only with affairs of men are stories in the middle, as are those who speak only of women's affairs: they are both only half of the human truth. In each of us is the male and female, and I think both men and women can read these stories and find both good and evil that is in each one of us. The value has no race or color or sex. The fact that I chose stories about women in particular is a matter of personal preference, not an injury. The fact that he chose stories about both men and women, and is also written by men and women, I hope, a sign of the times and a prospect for the future of heroic narrative.
(Taken by the anthology, edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley, fantastic tales of sword and sorcery, which publishes the North.)
Good and evil, "said Bradley, not only of humans or only to women, are part of humanity, without distinction sex. We are part of a whole where there is no room for differences or inequality of the parties, man and woman can co-exist in fantasy literature, as in real life, without any prevarication.
Marion Zimmer Bradley, leader of the Heroic Fantasy recognized, has written a number of successes, but has established itself in Italy with The Mists of Avalon and the torch.
Katharine Kerr is also American, San Francisco, which is one of most U.S. cities towards Europe. The choice to live in this place, is in line with fervent interest that Kerr has always shown for the European culture, especially in religion and culture the Celts. Thorough and meticulous study of the Druid religion of Celtic mythology and has inspired the author to work in his novels a scrupulous historical reconstruction, mixing wonderful invention, combining with harmony of purpose, imagination to the study of characters and their feelings.
The figure of the druid (the priestly caste of the Celts), has always been very difficult to view because of its remarkable fluidity, embodies the mediation between the common people (the people) and the divine sphere. The druid was in fact poet and oracle, magician and weaver of spells. Among the scholars of the Druid religion, there were, in this regard, several disputes arising from the impossibility to define, precisely, this figure in the Celtic culture. Imprecision, inter alia, made from divergent sources, which forces him to join testimonies of Roman origin - from Caesar Strabo - with other related to the world of Ireland, the Druid of this enigmatic, Kerr has been shown to be well aware, delineating his characters in a timely manner Devery cycle, which begins with the blade of the Druids. Innovation that Kerr has made in the Fantasy, it is the spouse of a fantastic story with the newspaper history and religion of the Celtic world.
In light of these brief remarks, I can safely say that Katharine Kerr, is an author has not only a narrative talent of rare cultural solidity, but also of great sensitivity, which gives his work an unmistakable pathos of women, elevating the characters and giving his readers pages full of true feelings and touching.
After a brief discussion on these two contemporary writers, which I preferred to many others for my personal taste, I just want to add that the Fantasy as a literary genre, not only aims to entertain, in fact, even the most fanciful inventions focus around the key themes of our existence.
Marion Zimmer Bradley - equating women to men - and Katharine Kerr - mixing history and European culture and fantastic invention - have made a deep welding, between the world of fantasy and real social problems of our era.
Chiara Palermo Taormina
January 20, 2011
