By this definition--a genre is a kind of story--science fiction and fantasy are not genres. You can tell any kind of story you like, because what makes it science fiction, or fantasy, is the setting.
I would disagree with this rather; setting may be important, but I don't think it's what makes a fantasy. For me it's that narrative movement through eucatastrophe into recognition and metamorphosis (or aware variations on this movement - the rejection of eucatastrophe, or metamorphosis, or reinterpretation or suchlike) that Clute and Grant discuss in the Encyclopedia, along with the question of mode (the fantasy/mimesis continuum etc) and the sharp awareness of being told, and told in relation to other stories, that make a text a fantasy (can't comment on SF; not my field). I also don't know another genre that uses structuring devices to encode stories and ethical theories the way fantasy does, but that's a project I have yet to fully explore.
Have you read Attebery on this topic, btw? The first chapter of Strategies of Fantasy is particularly good and says lots of useful stuff about the formula/mode/genre intersection...
Eeep. Sorry for academic 'splosion all over your journal. I just got support for the first stage of a postdoc fellowship application and it's got me all giddy and enthused about my lit scholarship again!
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2009-03-13 06:20 am (UTC)I would disagree with this rather; setting may be important, but I don't think it's what makes a fantasy. For me it's that narrative movement through eucatastrophe into recognition and metamorphosis (or aware variations on this movement - the rejection of eucatastrophe, or metamorphosis, or reinterpretation or suchlike) that Clute and Grant discuss in the Encyclopedia, along with the question of mode (the fantasy/mimesis continuum etc) and the sharp awareness of being told, and told in relation to other stories, that make a text a fantasy (can't comment on SF; not my field). I also don't know another genre that uses structuring devices to encode stories and ethical theories the way fantasy does, but that's a project I have yet to fully explore.
Have you read Attebery on this topic, btw? The first chapter of Strategies of Fantasy is particularly good and says lots of useful stuff about the formula/mode/genre intersection...
Eeep. Sorry for academic 'splosion all over your journal. I just got support for the first stage of a postdoc fellowship application and it's got me all giddy and enthused about my lit scholarship again!