William Shakespeare, in his comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, takes the idea of pristine, pure, and rebellious romance and turns it on its head. Shakespeare uses irony to characterize impulsive love not as a blessing, but as an irrational, destructive force that leads us away from a valuable, constructive life. Irony serves as Shakespeare’s weapon of choice in dismantling our idea of love as strong and noble. Irony in itself, however, is so nuanced and complex that it requires further explanation. Richard M. Eastman provides that explanation in his book Style, which illuminates the basic structure and function of irony and other stylistic elements found in literary works.
Dan Simmons Song of Kali heavily relies on the interrelationship between the “I” and the “not- I” in order to broaden the readers journey into the fantastic world they have created. Literary works such as Song of Kali that utilize these ideas of the self and the otherness call upon the traditional and seemingly logical base of the Western culture and society in order keep themselves grounded in “the self.” Through these literary techniques Simmons novel seeks to question the authenticity of what we call modernity as well as the inexplicable and untouchable worlds of the taboo and magical. These realms are called into questions in order to understand how they relate to the loss or finding of the “I” and the “not- I.” Through the exploration of these ideas and themes, it is evident that the relationship between the “self” and the otherness is essential in providing fantasy literature with thei... ... middle of paper ... ...ion to a horror story, it does present questions about the “self” and the “other” as perceived by Luczak. The relationship between the “I” and “not-I” is one of the many defining factors of great fantasy works. This interplay and interrelationship between the “self” and the otherness must be considered as the symbiotic and necessary themes within fantasy literature.
Realist characters are brutally honest, able to deal with and address difficult situations, and deal with their problems in a realistic fashion. In contrast with Romanticism, Realism provided readers with a fresh breath of air with “a certain degree of “truth telling” or sober factuality” (Maier). A guide booklet created by The French Realist School concluded that realistic writing should be clear of “idealization, poetic language, and exaggeration,” with some kind of struggle of the main character present in the plot (Maier). Many time periods have set the bar high for today’s authors, such as the revolutionary time in Europe when Realism was brought into play. More specifically, the creation of Realism has inspired authors and artists alike to create a sense of honesty and reality within their works of fiction.
Which brings me to my next point. Have Fairy Tales been bastardised too much? If we consider the fact, that many of the stories have been heavily edited, do we lose the original moral messages? Or is the original moral message still inside the story if you look? It raises an interesting point, that racism and sexism is still freely available to be seen in the Grimm’s Brothers work if you actively look for it.
As the modern canadian fantasy writer once said, “Fantasy has the capacity to be as important and as thought-provoking as any other form of literature we have.” Tolkien’s work provides readers with challenging and time honoured themes such as: use your unique positive traits for the greater good of the group, power should never be abused and it is important to find your true self in life. One of the most evident messages projected to the reader is to use your positive traits for the greater good of the group. The species of Goblins, Wargs, Elves, Dwarves and Trolls are comprised of fundamental physical, psychological and moral differences as well as similarities. For example, all Goblins are morally evil, and all Elves are morally virtuous. This distinction is manifested with the respected race’s harmony with nature.
An example of this is the characterization of Victorianism as a reaction to Romanticism, Houghton demonstrates this as an oversimplification as he notes Romanticism's continuing, yet often subtle and paradoxical, influence over the Victorian age. While Houghton relies on the literature of the age as a means to illustrate the various characteristics of the "Victorian mind," he does not limit his analysis to what is most obviously conveyed by the writers of the time. Houghton examines the dogmatic framework behind the ideals presented by Victorian writers, as such dogmatism is often seen as one of the defining characteristics of the age. A profound difference between the Victorians and the Romantics, for instance, seems to be expressed when he writes: Paralleling his thought in other areas, Ruskin revived the tradition of absolute "rules" which the Romantics had challenged; and though he rightly took issue with those who thought there were no standards in art, what he meant by standards was "laws of tru... ... middle of paper ... ... atheism and refinement of scientific thought. He indicates that dogmatic doctrine to the Victorians "was not only natural (given the climate of opinion) - it was attractive.
Alexandra Soludanova The Novel Essay 1 31 March, 2014 Explore the significance of beauty in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde's creativity is very versatile, it covers a lot of philosophical and aesthetic and moral problems. In this novel, most fully embodied the aesthetic ideal Wilde creativity and creative personality, contrasting inner world heartless, harsh reality, the proclamation of pleasure. The author made the theme of the relationship of aesthetic problems with ethical norms of society the main problem of the novel. In this book the Wilde's fiction and reality is very peculiar intertwined with fantasy.
Ambiguities of Counter-Hegemonic Monologism in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing In his book Ideologies of Epic, Colin Graham looks at the recognisable tendency of Victorian epic poetry to establish or attempt to establish a monologic discourse in relation to the concept of nation, national literature and empire. Epic as genre and the concept of nation, “ . . . desiring to be ‘centripetal’, turning in upon themselves, denying the existence of the ‘other’” (Graham,1), is a phenomenon relevant to monologic discourse as it may be perceived not only in national epic but also in the novel and it’s concomitant ideologies.
However, this is an over-simplification of the case - these elements came to be regarded as essential. With folklore being considered an integral part of the genre, Borges could no longer be considered a magic realist (instead he could only be considered as part of fantastic literature - although he is now regarded as an essential if early cog in postmodernism's wheel). Perhaps the novel most commonly described as magic realist is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Yet, if one takes the definition as being strictly one which must include folklore, this novel too is shifted into the realms of fantastic literature. Instead, a critic adhering to the term in this way would say that a Garcia Marquez novel such as Chronicle of a Death Foretold, or Love in the Time of Cholera, is a magic realist novel.
The important words here are "purely literary". The novel cannot be studied in isolation, but must be seen against the broader backdrop of Tolkien's literary philosophy and the entire mythic tradition. For the writing of The Hobbit both influenced and was influenced by the profound intellectual change its author was undergoing, namely t... ... middle of paper ... ...teaching its author the immense possibilities of fantasy. It itself does not exhaust these possibilities, but merely begins to explore them. It starts unambitiously, but in drawing from the rich store of world folklore and the author's imagination, soon develops into a myth that, like all good fantasy, speaks as clearly to the mythopoetic imagination today as it did in Tolkien's time.