1) How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn?
2) How does Attebery (1980) define Fantasy? Find at least five definitions?
3) In what ways does Tax (2002) suggest Earthsea may still be relevant today?
4) What are some archetypes that often recur in fantasy fiction? Give examples from Earthsea and other fantasy works you might know.
5) In what way is The Wizard of Earthsea a ‘coming of age’ novel? Does it escape from the ‘boy’s own adventure’ story? How are Ged’s adventures different from Tintin’s?
Hi team
ReplyDeleteI've decided to answer question 2 - How does Attebery (1980) define Fantasy? Find at least five definitions?
Attebery, in his extract from “The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature” (1980) admits that fantasy is not an easy genre to describe, and unless we decide what the defining features of fantasy works are, the list of what books classify as Fantasy would be gigantic.
He looks at several defining features of different types of fantasy detailed by other writers, the first of which is from WR Irwin, who believes the primary feature of fantasy is “an overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility”- meaning that a fantasy text generally presents unrealistic, fantastic characters in an unlikely world, yet makes every effort to make them seem relatively mundane in their own setting.
Attebery also explores the idea of the subgroups of fantasy which not only contradict our own notions of realism, but also break the accepted model within the texts themselves. According to Attebery, Eric Rankin classes texts like this, such as Alice in Wonderland as a subgroup of Fantasy - Nonsensical, or Absurdity. Rankin also suggests that this subgenre is the “true fantasy” as it is such a violation of real life – and even – the life within the story itself.
Another subgenre of fantasy defined by Attebery is the Folktale, or Märchen. This was one of the earliest forms of folklore to be studied, after they were collected and compiled by the Grimm Brothers. Attebery defines these as being of peasant origin, usually told for entertainment, usually with democratic and disruptive themes, featuring all sorts of characters from witches and wizards, to soldiers and princesses. They were originally used as an outlet for protesting social injustices, or simply for entertainment, giving poor men hopes and wishes for the future. This subgenre of fantasy only really appealed to the peasant community – as ‘respectable’ people believed that true stories and historical tellings were more valuable than folktales, which they classed as ‘lies’.
Similarly, Attebery defines the European Legend as different from a Märchen story. While they are generally set in a local setting, usually they were set in the past, utilising a true historical figure as a protagonist. He describes that the storyline of these types of fantasy stories is often fragmented, rather than a fully developed narrative. Details of their exploits are embellished and become unrealistic, and change through generations of different story tellers as they add their own flair.
The main point that Attebery defines Fantasy as, is that they are self-consistent within their world. While an author could not mess with our own natural laws, he can always invent his own world, which has its own different set of laws to our own.
Source:
Attebery, B. (1980). Locating fantasy. In The Fantasy Tradition in American
Literature: From Irving to Le Guinn (pp.2-9). Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1980.
Let me know what you think!
Hi Annabel,
DeleteExcellent post, well explained and you have a good understanding of Attebery's definitions.
Be careful for your references. You have not cited Attebery throughout your answer, despite referring to his work. Just remember that anytime you refer to another authors work you need to place the reference within the body of the text as well. Otherwise this is extremely well done.
great work. but you have not used examples from Earthsea. Answers are always an opportunity to show your knowledge of the primary text. This is what i like to see most.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteUrsula Le Guinn’s “The Wizard of Earthsea” would be placed under the fantasy umbrella, especially in regards to WR Irwin’s statement of fantasy portraying “an overt violation of that is generally accepted as possibility” (Attebery, 1980), as the world of Earthsea, and the whole storyline is definitely implausible in our current society. The story tells of Ged, born on the small island of Gont, where he is taken under the wing of the village witch. The fact that magic, although relatively rare, has a part in most, if not all villages within the Earthsea world shows us that this novel is set somewhere which is entirely impossible by our standards.
DeleteThe Earthsea also is self-consistent within it’s own world – a crucial defining point of the fantasy genre according to Atterby (1980). Through the entire story of Earthsea, the storyline is unapologetically frank in it’s delivery. While sci-fi books my try and pose scientific reasoning to make something plausible, Earthsea, along with other novels in the fantasy genre, are written from the perspective that everything put forward does not require an explanation to the reader, as it wouldn’t require an explanation to a character within that world. We never receive an explanation of why young magicians attend the school of Roke, or a background of the different branches of magic they can specialise in – whether it be as a Weather-Worker on ships or serving a village or living in a castle working for the wealthy residents, these things are simply stated plainly as if the world of Earthsea was a perfectly plausible place.
Le Guinn, U. (1993; 1968). The Earthsea Quartet. London: Penguin.
1) How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Ursula K. Le Guin, the worlds and stories of science fiction does not exist however, the idea behind it is that these worlds may exist in the future. In contrast, the worlds of fantasy could not exist and won’t come true. To appreciate fantasy stories, readers need to discard the implausible parts of the story and let their imagination take over (White, 2016).
2) How does Attebery (1980) define Fantasy? Find at least five definitions?
Attebery (1980) describes fantasy as “any narrative which includes as a significant part of its make-up some violation on what the author clearly believes to be natural law” (p. 3). This means that fantasies have reader’s perspective of the world, life and matter defied and things such as large beasts such as dragons, magical items or peculiar and unlikely events in our world can exist and does not question their possibilities.
Attebery (1980) states how Eric Rabkin’s Alice in Wonderland stories are classed as absurdity fantasies and says Rabkin defines Alice in Wonderland to be true fantasy. This story involves the story’s world being contradicted on itself instead of the reader’s own perception of the world. Folktale, also known as fairy tales, wonder tales or Marchen is one of the oldest genres of fantasy and were told as entertainment by peasants. These kind of stories were popularised by the Grimm Brothers and often included magic and the supernatural. The characteristics of Marchen stories is similar to epics and myths and has one of the strongest representations of what fantasy is such as initiating wonder and making the impossible seem real. Better stories can make us think and question morality. The Wizard of Earthsea written by Ursula K. Le Guin story strongly represents this. It includes all the typical fiction characteristics such as character lives we are interested in, suspense and bringing out human characteristics such as fear but also able to make us curious about the world, the magic and the beings and grasps our minds intellectually and morally. European Legend is a form of Marchen, however it is told as fact, based off an historical figure set in real places and the story is not fully developed. When compared to Marchen, the characters are faced with real challenges and danger. Whatever they do has a consequence whereas in folklore and fairy tale, the protagonist cannot do anything wrong (Attebery, 1980).
References
Attebery, B. (1980). Locating fantasy. In The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guinn (pp.2-9). Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1980.
White, J. (2016). Talking on the water: conversations about nature and creativity. Trinity University Press.
The story, the history, or the facts that happen in science fiction story was not real but more adaptation from reality world. Science fiction was something that from people imaginations and the most important factor was story it speak for itself. Le Guinn describe that fiction was something that didn’t happen or exist, but realistic fiction pretends that it was happen. Many fiction used fictional character play a main role in real places and real people in history. It’s create the fact that these character might happened in real places during that time period. For example, a dragon which are fictional flying over Skytower a place where it actually existed.
ReplyDelete1) How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Le Guinn, the central difference between the science fiction genre and fantasy genre, is that while science fiction is set in the future, and described as the present or the past, based upon predicted ideas, the fantasy genre encourages the use of imagination, in creating an image of a universe that does not exist, and will never be able to do so.
From my understanding of the article, Le Guinn’s central, underlying message is formed around the idea of ‘plausibility,’ in that science fiction, is in some way a part of real life, as it is a “branch of realism.” There is the possibility that any of the elements of the science fiction genre, including things such as characters, environments, or even events, can occur in the possible future. She argues that science fiction attracts more readers, as it focuses on real life elements, and creates a link between people’s understanding that science fiction in some parts is connected to mythology. Furthermore, the science fiction genre, contains elements of realism, and is often based on real life events, and plays with people’s fears, by demonstrating possible consequences of our current actions, in the future setting.
The fantasy genre on the other hand, is purely based on imagination, due to its setting, characters, and elements, such as witches, dragons, goblins magic, thus consequently, there is no possibility of it ever being real. She states, “there is no agreement to pretend the its story happened, might have happened, or might ever happen. Its invention is radical.” Key word radical! The fantasy genre, thus enables the audience to escape from reality, and let our imagination wonder wherever it may.
Thus, to summarise, her point is that science fiction can be real, whereas fantasy cannot.
The fantasy genre is clearly establish in The Wizard of Earthsea. With the introduction of Ged’s aunt being the village witch, and training him to do magic, which he then uses to save the village from the Kargish invaders. The fantasy genre is further exemplified when Ged attends the schools for wizards on Roke Island. From his time in the wizard school, I was able to notify a lot of similarities within the story to the Harry Potter series. Like Harry, Ged befriends another student named Vetch, starts a rivalry with Jasper, and gets a wild pet, i.e. and otak, as his companion. Years later, Ged kills 5 dragons. All of these are elements of the fantasy genre, as witches, wizards, witch craft, dragons and Otaks don’t exist, and will never do so.
Reference:
Ursula K. Le Guin (2005). Plausibility Revisited : Wha Hoppen and What Didn't. Retrieved August 24, 2017, from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html