Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three, all of which are subgenres of speculative fiction.

In popular culture, the genre of fantasy is dominated by its medievalist form, especially since the worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings and related books by J. R. R. Tolkien. Fantasy has also included fairy tales, wizards, sorcerers, or witchcraft, (etc.), in events which avoid horror. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today.

Fantasy is a vibrant area of academic study in a number of disciplines (English, cultural studies, comparative literature, history, medieval studies). Work in this area ranges widely, from the structuralist theory of Tzvetan Todorov, which emphasizes the fantastic as a liminal space, to work on the connections (political, historical, literary) between medievalism and popular culture.

Noun

fantasy (plural fantasies)

1. That which comes from one's imagination
2. (literature) The literary genre generally dealing with themes of magic and fictive medieval technology.
3. (slang) The drug gamma-hydroxybutyric acid.

Related terms

• fantasize

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (which are subgenres of speculative fiction).

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• All fantasy should have a solid base in reality.
  • Sir Max Beerbohm, in Zuleika Dobson (1911)

• The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.
  • Lionel Trilling, in The Liberal Imagination (1950)

• It is easy to imagine fantasy as physical and myth as real. We do it almost every moment. We do this as we dream, as we think, and as we cope with the world about us. But these worlds of fantasy that we form into the solid things around us are the source of our discontent. They inspire our search to find ourselves.
  • Evan Harris Walker, in The Physics of Consciousness : The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life (2000)

• Fantasy literature, in its broadest defintion from "Cinderella" to "Beowulf" to Stephen Donaldson, is literature which makes deliberate use of something known to be impossible.
  • Tom Shippey, in "Introduction" to The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories (1994)

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