The fantastic in literature

Summary: "What exactly is the fantastic? In the twentieth-century world, our notions of what is impossible are assaulted every day. To define the nature of fantasy and the fantastic, Eric S. Rabkin considers its role in fairy tales, science fiction, detective stories, and religious allegory, as well as in traditional literature.The examples he studies range from Grimm's fairy tales to Agatha Christie, from Childhood's End to the novels of Henry James, from Voltaire to Robbe-Grillet to A Canticle for Leiboivitz. By analyzing different works of literature, the author shows that the fantastic depends on a reversal of the ground rules of a narrative world. This reversal signals most commonly a psychological escape, often from boredom, to an unknown world secretly yearned for, whose order, although reversed, bears a precise relation to reality.Originally published in 1976"--publisher's website.

Record details

ISBN: 1400870798
ISBN: 9781400870790
Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 pages) : illustrations.
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Publisher: Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1976.
Copyright: ©1976

Content descriptions

General Note:	Includes index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Bibliographic Note -- I. The Fantastic and Fantasy -- II. The Fantastic and Escape -- III. The Fantastic and Perspective -- IV. The Fantastic and Genre Criticism -- V. The Fantastic and Literary History -- VI. The Scope of the Fantastic -- Index
Restrictions on Access Note:	NLC staff and students only.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.