Fantasy (Film Studies)

One of the most important tropes for the fantastic is the ghost, a quasi-universal figure that juxtaposes concepts of the real and the unreal, and a very important component of fantastic narrative. Chin Wan (陳雲) notes the way different attitudes towards ghosts in Sinophone culture were shaped by colonialism and public policy: “Influenced by the colonialism of Western culture, Mainland China banned folk customs during the period when modernization was promoted. Chiang Kai-shek’s Republican Party had the (short-lived) ‘New Life Movement,’ while Mao Zedong’s Communist Party of China had ‘Destroy the Four Olds’ and the Cultural Revolution. Only Hong Kong has undergone modernization for one hundred fifty years without doing away with folk customs”[中國大陸受西洋之文化殖民影響，推行現代化期間，都禁制民間風俗，國府之蔣介石有「新生活運動」（為時不長），中共之毛澤東有「破四舊」與文化大革命。唯獨香港現代化一百五十年，不損民間風俗].  Chin’s comments obliquely refer to anti-superstition campaigns that were central to cultural policy from the early modern to the revolutionary period. I return to these campaigns below . . .

This paper is a discussion of the fantastic genre in literature and film. I employ the term genre in this paper in two ways. First, I attempt to define the fantastic as a genre of writing through the emblematic form of the zhiguai. Second, I link this genre of writing to fantastic film, a category of genre film that has dominated the market in China recently. One of the earliest forms of fiction in Chinese literature, zhiguai were often contrasted to textually verifiable historic writing. First, I contrast discussions of zhiguai to modern conceptions of the fantastic and Enlightenment and revolutionary conceptions of narrative and history. The zhiguai share some features with fantastic storytelling in Europe, notably the Gothic tale that emerged in the late eighteenth century. Second, I draw links between state intervention in religion and superstition and the early modern classification of fantastic literature and film. State anti-superstition campaigns in the early twentieth century would frame fantastic films as superstitious (shenguai dianying). Third, I discuss how the fantastic has been framed in the contemporary China. The modern and contemporary fantastic in China is a combination of Chinese and Western categories of the real and the supernatural.

With dragons, dogs, wolves, ravens, and so many more, animal symbolism is endlessly significant in Game of Thrones. Discover their meanings in heraldry, in Celtic myth, and other clever correspondences. What do red, green, black, and grey symbolize, in heraldry and fiction? Why does Daenerys wear so much blue? What about golden roses? As George R.R. Martin’s characters chomp on bloody beef, blood oranges, red wine, beets, and pomegranates, they foreshadow the inevitable bloodbaths. Thus the intricately crafted world of books and show has endless depth, revealed in this spoiler-free talk for fans of every flavor. (This is a free powerpoint of a presentation I've done--this is also a book, written by me, with this title).

This collection was inspired by the observation that film remakes offer us the opportunity to revisit important issues, stories, themes, and topics in a manner that is especially relevant and meaningful to contemporary audiences. Like mythic stories that are told again and again in differing ways, film remakes present us with updated perspectives on timeless ideas. While some remakes succeed and other fail aesthetically, they always say something about the culture in which-and for which-they are produced. Contributors explore the ways in which the fears of death, loss of self, and bodily violence have been expressed and then reinterpreted in such films and remakes as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Night of the Living Dead, and Dawn of the Dead. Films such as Rollerball, The Ring, The Grudge, The Great Yokai Wars, and Insomnia are discussed as well because of their ability to give voice to collective anxieties concerning cultural change, nihilism, and globalization. While opening on...

Le roi Arthur : un mythe contemporain
(cinéma, séries télévisées, bandes dessinées)
UE libre pour le Bureau des enseignements transversaux de l’université Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle


Descriptif :
Cinéma, séries télévisées, univers ludiques, romans, bandes dessinées, le Moyen Âge rêvé semble aujourd’hui être présent sur de vastes portions des horizons culturels, sociaux et politiques. Ce phénomène, appelé médiévalisme, que l’on retrouve aussi bien dans la littérature généralistes, l’architecture, que dans la fantasy (Le Seigneur des Anneaux, Game of Thrones), ou la science-fiction (Star Wars, Star Trek) a aussi une histoire. Il touche d’abord l’Occident à partir de la fin du XVIIIe siècle pour se répandre, deux cents ans plus tard, sur l’ensemble du globe. La mythologie arthurienne, qui, au Moyen âge, était confinée à une petite élite dans les frontières de l’Europe occidentale, suscite ainsi aujourd’hui une adhésion massive et des versions réactualisées en Amérique et au Japon. Un tel phénomène n’a rien d’anodin et mérite que l’on s’y attarde.

This paper identifies the “virtual worlds” paradigm in psychoanalytic approaches to video games. Sometimes counterproductive to game interpretation, this paradigm views all games as an escape into separate and substitutive virtual reality. I argue that the virtual worlds framework only applies to some video games, and rarely encapsulates most games’ address to the player. I propose an alternative approach based in separation-individuation and attachment theory, pointing to how a wide variety of games provide players with “secure base” experiences as a form of affect regulation and metacognition. Introducing three broad categories of tether fantasies in video games—lifeline, home base, and perpetuum mobile—, I map out some of the generic terrain of commercial games from a secure base perspective, emphasizing the value of going and coming in the process of developing autonomy. I argue that the tether fantasy in video games not only illustrates the integration of attachment and separation-individuation schools of thought, but also offers a compelling reason to reconsider the analytical meaning of video game play. The paper’s analysis of Minecraft as a home base tether game also explores the question of how games can themselves serve as an anchor for ventures into more complicated social worlds at times of transition like nest-leaving, or for times of stress in adult life.

Classical sociologists like Max Weber pointed out the relationship between processes of modernization and cultural discontents. In this chapter it is argued that such discontents where at the heart of the critique of the romantic counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s on “the system” – a cultural critique that has been appropriated over the last decades by the commercial culture industry and is nowadays informing many of its media products. This study addresses two popular genres – ‘fantasy’ and ‘conspiracy culture’ – as articulated in various novels, movies and computer games and analyses the exact ways in which they express and address cultural discontents in contemporary culture.

Dragons have always been present in the imaginary of mankind, since ancient myths about the creation of the world. The figure of the dragon is rooted in every culture, be it the evil serpent symbol of the devil typical of Western, Christian culture, or the benevolent creature that is bringer of rain in the Eastern tradition. Perhaps because of their importance in all the cultures of the world, dragons have also played a consequential role in fantasy literature, and indeed since J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937), this creature has been a recurrent character in many works of the genre.
In this dissertation, the role of the dragon will be analyzed, especially in postwar fantasy fiction. More specifically, it will be shown how this mythical creature passed from being considered no more than a beast to be slain to a real icon of this literary genre. If in the ancient Western narratives, indeed, the dragon was regarded as a representation of chaos to be annihilated by a god or hero in order to restore a social balance previously subverted (Lionarons 1998), nowadays it is not necessarily seen as an enemy, but also as an advisor, an ally or even an inseparable companion for the main character of a novel.
We will focus mainly on some literary works that can serve as examples of such a transition, but we shall start by briefly analyzing the literary dragons in Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs, for they contributed enormously in shaping Tolkien’s Smaug: a dragon that, in turn, would have a great influence on all subsequent fantasies. Then we shall examine the role of dragons in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea sequence (1968-2001), noting how in her later novels they become protectors of order and no more agents of chaos. We will continue by examining the bond between dragons and their riders in Anne McCaffrey’s The Dragonriders of Pern series (1967-2012), the dragons depicted in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series (1983-2015) – seen as imaginary beasts that can acquire shape and substance only if we truly believe in them – and finally their role in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (1996 ff.).
During our survey, we will compare the role of dragons to that of other fantasy creatures who underwent a similar evolution in the same period, such as the werewolf and the vampire, and we shall notice how all these literary monsters are nothing but different projections of our selves (Du Coudray 2006, Browning and Picart 2009). In conclusion, we shall see how in contemporary fantasy dragons can play at least five different roles: ‘the evil enemy to be slain or subjugated’; ‘the wise warden of order’; ‘the shapeshifter’; ‘the inseparable ally and life-long friend’; and finally ‘the wild but tameable beast’.
We shall focus mainly on literary works, but we will also make some references to other media, such as the main representations of dragon in cinema and role-playing games (RPGs).

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies have enshrined Tolkien’s work in a format that for future generations may likely become their first, if not the sole exposure to Tolkien’s world. This essay examines the three The Hobbit films, arguing that Jackson’s adaptation jettisons the criteria of truth-of-correspondence and truth-of-coherence in favor of spectacle, thereby inevitably transforming how Tolkien’s novel will be (mis)remembered and (re)interpreted. Jackson’s version is explored as a swerve informed by the director’s predilection for a blend of horror and the comico-nonsensical as well as by his fascination with computer game aesthetics. The bloated trilogy is discussed as a beautiful disaster with serious long-term consequences for Tolkien’s book and as a missed chance to reimagine The Hobbit as a global and multicultural story.

By considering the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a case study, I bring Tolkien’s explication of mythopoesis in “On Fairy Stories” to bear on the current popularity of superhero films to argue that such works qualify as cinematic examples of Tolkienesque fantasy tales. After summarizing Tolkien’s criteria for the genre in Nietzschean aesthetic terms, I both demonstrate how the builders of the MCU have crafted a sub-created fictional world and defend the existence of fairy stories in visual media from Tolkien’s own criticism of such a possibility.

This essay examines two films that have been compared only superficially, Jim Henson's /Labyrinth/ and Guillermo del Toro's /El laberinto del fauno/ (/Pan's Labyrinth/), as key examples of recent works of fantasy that have treated seriously the notorious charge of "escapism." Both films first dramatize how fantastic narrative can pose a potential danger in its inherent disengagement from reality, yet each works out a defense of fantasy on film and in print that parallels certain trends in the wider critical conversation about the value of "escape literature." Labyrinth presents a modest argument in favor of moderation and against mass-market commoditization, while del Toro offers a more ambitious complication or at least de-Christianization of Tolkien's touchstone defense of "fairy-stories."

The mind of Neil Gaiman works in mysterious ways, specifically when we consider how space is employed in his works. The seamless juxtaposition of real and imaginary places that tend to overlap, create various spaces that are not simply settings where events unfold, but are almost lifelike characters in their own right that directly affect the actions of the characters as well as the production of the narrative.

Notes:
(1)The title should read "Inverted Spaces: Rising from London Below and the Dark Lands in Neverwhere and MirrorMask"
(2) Typo on pg. 142, actual line should read: "Whether creator or destroyer, it is Helena in both aspects that manipulates the topography."
(3) The very last sentence of the article "This particular quote appears verbatim twice in Neil Gaiman's bibliography ...." was intended as an endnote, The proper ending is "...where the characters are left with the potential to thrive."

It is the intent of this session to shed the spotlight on examples of Nordic-inspired medievalisms and to bring them into ongoing conversations and debates about the reception of the medieval in the post-medieval world. We are especially interested in the reach of Marvel’s versions beyond the United States and how other approaches to the material engage with, react to, or ignore Marvel’s work. In addition, we hope to include coverage of texts from non-Western media (like anime and manga) that have embraced the traditions of the Norse gods in innovative ways.

Interested individuals should submit, no later than 15 September 2018, (1) paper proposal or abstract of approximately 500 words, (2) a 250 to 500-word academic biographical narrative, and (3) a completed Participant Information Form (accessible at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to the organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com using “More than Marvel” as their subject heading.

In planning your proposal, please be aware of the policies of the Congress (available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies).

In this disconcerting and multifaceted film, A Monster Calls, the director J. A. Bayona explores the monster as a means to understand suppressed socio-cultural issues; the title itself echoes a return of the repressed. Bayona effectively carries on the work of Patrick Ness, showing how the monster works as an allegory to discuss the psychological process of repression. The film draws on metaphorical devices from Gothic fiction and monster theory to portray an unsettling narrative involving a child’s preoccupation with mortality. Bayona’s treatment of social issues in A Monster Calls transcends visual gratification, becoming instead a platform that facilitates the discussion of darker themes and repressed cultural anxieties. What is most captivating about this film is how it contradicts the traditional observation of the Gothic villain, examining the monster as a projection of our inhibited subconscious.

Las aventuras de esta nueva Sabrina resultan mucho más profundas, vitales, complejas y filosóficas que la edulcorada 'sitcom' de los 90. El feminismo y la reivindicación del legado de las brujas, las parteras o las curanderas está transversalmente presente en toda la serie.

The article presents The Witcher, the first Polish entertainment supersystem with regards to interaction of feature structures in literature, film and computer games. The author goes through subsequent stages of creating the supersystem beginning with the initial story by A. Sapkowski The Witcher, through the novel saga, unsuccessful cinema and TV series adaptations, up to the world success of Polish computer games. Observing the convergence, i.e. shifting between different media, of the story about the title character - consecutive to the supersystem - allows the detailed analysis of the changes taking place in various narrations about the common hero, depending on the features characteristic of the particular medium (literature, film, computer game) and the position in the super system. Narratological qualities of the convergence in the entertainment
supersystem were defined in reference to the concept of M. Kinder (supersystem), H. Jenkins (convergence culture) and E. Morin (entertainment industry).

George RR Martin’s bestselling novel series A Song of Ice and Fire revived the
interest in the fantasy genre after J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In 2011,
American channel HBO adapted it as a television series entitled Game of Thrones.
This blockbuster show amasses a global audience and is critically acclaimed for its
verisimilitude in representation and gritty realism. The series can be considered as a
modern high fantasy for its alternative world construction and integration of various
motifs of high fantasy. The series draws heavily from Medieval European history
and the pseudo-medieval setting offers a non-fictionality to the series. Unlike other
popular happy ending fantasy narratives, Game of Thrones provides a dystopian and
cynical portrayal of the world we live in. The possibility of one fantasy narrative
being deemed as more realistic and non-fictional requires further thought. The
research attempts to establish the series as a Modern Realistic Fantasy by paying
attention to realism and the six basic motifs of Modern Fantasy. The theoretical
foundation for the research is laid by Modern Fantasy Theory by Linda Lee Madsen
and Jacobs and Tunnels, Representation theory by Stuart Hall and Daniel Chandler,
and Andre Bazin’s Realist Film Theory.

Este texto aborda o filme de “fantasia sombria”, Malévola, a partir da perspectiva que tem sido referida nos discursos acadêmicos como “criminologias críticas”. Inicialmente são enfatizados diversos aspectos do filme com o fim de proceder uma análise histórica das mudanças havidas nos contos de fadas, conciliando-os com elementos políticos, econômicos e sociais que podem ser pensados a partir deste enredo. Tais elementos caracterizam uma criminologia crítica que enfatiza as desigualdades de poder e de recursos, mas também aquela que estuda os processos de definição e seu alcance simbólico, conformando de alguma forma a ordem social mas também suas mudanças. Trazemos também a discussão para o universo da crítica feminista aos sistemas de controle, aportando no debate atual sobre a cultura do estupro, e ao final discutimos a adequação da abordagem de empoderamento feminino por meio do recurso da maldade e do castigo.

This article analyses the dark fantasy film Maleficent from the perspective usually mentioned in the academic discourses as 'critical criminologies". Initially we approach many aspects of the film for a historical analysis of the changes noticed in the fairy tales, conciliating it with political, economic and social elements to consider altogether in the script. These elements characterize a critical criminology that emphasizes the inequalities of power and resources, but also those that focus on the definition's processes and its symbolic meanings, conforming the social order and its changes. We also bring the debate to the universe of the feminist critic to the control systems, particularly the debate upon the rape culture and, finally, we discuss the approach concerning female empowerment through the resource of badness and punishment.

The success of a contemporary fantasy production such as Game of Thrones (2011–) is heavily dependent upon the use of visual effects to bring its amazing world to the screen. This chapter will attempt to interrogate such creations in order to establish a conceptual rapport between the fantasy genre and the psychoanalytic theory of fantasy. The most compelling account of psychoanalytic fantasy and film comes from Todd McGowan (The Real Gaze, 2007), who offers a four-fold typology of cinema: fantasy, desire, integration and intersection, and it is to this third category that I will attend. However, where McGowan finds a dishonest experience in a cinema of “integration” that conflates fantasy with desire, and where he also passes over the fantasy genre without much consideration, I will, instead, examine the role of computer-generated imagery in the creation of contemporary fantasy film and television as a properly Lacanian “fantasmatic supplement” (the necessary presence of fantasy in our relation to the world) at the formal level. I will suggest that it is, crucially, through the combination of live action with visual effects that a series such as Game of Thrones presents us, as spectators, with an aesthetic experience closely approximating psychoanalytic reality (i.e. how psychoanalysis theorises everyday experience). By paying close attention to “making of” featurettes I will suggest that they offer a particularly Lacanian perspective: laying bare the processes behind the creation of sequences such as The Battle for The Wall in Game of Thrones in order to demonstrate the ways in which the realms of desire (limitation, incompleteness; live action) and of fantasy (plenitude, wholeness; VFX) work together in order to constitute the world. In sum, this chapter will offer a reappraisal of the current neo-Lacanian approach to film theory in order to claim, ultimately, that there is more reality in fantasy than in other, so-called, “realist” modes of film and television.

In the writing of fantasy and science fiction there are different types of story worlds that can be created. A writer needs to understand the type of story world they are using or they have created and write a story that is coherent within that
world. Audience and readers have got used to a range of narrative and story world conventions, so there are ‘rules’ and established forms. New forms develop and this means that story conventions change, but a writer needs to be clear what the rules are for the world they have created for their specific story because the reader/viewer needs to be clear what is credible and what is not. This is a guide for the writer.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction: ‘A Pirate's Life For Me’‘No, Mate. I'm Free Forever. Free to Sail the Seas Beyond the Edges of the Map…’: Queering the Fantasy Blockbuster‘Guidelines, rather than Actual Rules’: Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Heterosexual Matrix‘The Captain does seem to be Acting a bit Strange … er’: Queering Stardom and PerformanceConclusion: ‘We shall have a Magnificent Garden Party and You're not Invited’?ReferencesIntroduction: ‘A Pirate's Life For Me’‘No, Mate. I'm Free Forever. Free to Sail the Seas Beyond the Edges of the Map…’: Queering the Fantasy Blockbuster‘Guidelines, rather than Actual Rules’: Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Heterosexual Matrix‘The Captain does seem to be Acting a bit Strange … er’: Queering Stardom and PerformanceConclusion: ‘We shall have a Magnificent Garden Party and You're not Invited’?References

This article aims to analyse several ideas of the Middle Ages
that inspired HBO’s TV show Game of Thrones (HBO 2011-),
based on George R. R. Martin’s ongoing series of novels A Song
of Ice and Fire (1996-). The phenomenon will be read through
the concept of “medievalism”, i.e. «the representation, the reception
and the post-medieval use of the Middle Ages» (di Carpegna
Falconieri 2011). After a short introduction concerning the
Middle Ages and cinema, I will analyse the new way in which
Martin represents and perceives medieval times. This different
approach places in the medieval era the disillusionment and the
alleged absence of values typical of postmodern times, often
hidden behind the notion of historical “realism”. The result is a
rejection of the neo-medieval romantic idealization of the Middle
Ages that characterized most twentieth-century productions.

One to Rule Them All Transmedial World and the Witcher Universe

Summary: The article makes use of Lisbeth Klastrup and Susana Tosca’s  notion of transmedial world which has not been introduced to Polish humanities so far. The notion serves here to describe the characteristics of  the Witcher universe encompassing books, movies, TV series, video games trilogy, role-playing games and comics. The analysis of the Witcher’s world  is also the point of departure for a comparative study between the way the transmedial world is constructed and transmedial story as described in Henry Jenkins’s Convergence Culture. Additionally, it enables the author  to comment upon the narrative dynamics of fantasy worldbuilding which differs considerably from traditional mechanisms of representation.

A thesis submitted and examined as part of a PhD in Creative Writing at The University of Manchester

Metaphors of aliens, robots and other fantastical beings are often employed as shorthand for autistic difference. While such rhetoric can serve to dehumanise a disabled minority, the same otherworldly subjects have also provided meaningful spaces of cultural belonging, identity, and community for autistic fans. This thesis positions the fantastical screen as a space of cross-neurotype encounter where shared experiences of estrangements can be productively encountered and explored. It is led by the work of neuroqueer theorists Melanie Yergeau and Julia Miele Rodas, whose analyses of neurodivergent embodiment in social rhetoric and literary texts have enabled innovative discourses of a poetics of autism. Developing this work for the screen, I establish how cinematic and televisual techniques align with neuroqueer thinking, before delineating the ways in which this approach enables dynamic critical incursions on the understanding of autism and estrangement.

Moving to analysis, I follow autistic interest in Ridley Scott’s science fiction dystopia Blade Runner: The Final Cut, to reinterpret its postmodernist aesthetic as neuroqueer expression. The film’s cyborg characters are recast as neurodivergent individuals framed by an aesthetic attitude of empathetic attachment for atypical worldly resonance. In the TV sitcom Community, I locate a neuroqueer narrative agency in the trickster dynamic of its celebrated but under-theorised autistic hero, Abed Nadir. I analyse three episodes where Abed negotiates his neurodivergent expression via the invitation of fantastical energies, thereby positioning estrangement as a key methodology for embodying autistic difference. In conclusion, I offer the fantastic autistic and the fantastical screen as powerful allies in the articulation of neuroqueer divergence and the negotiation of cross-neurotype communication.

„Sie meinen, die griechischen Götter sind hier? Also hier … in Amerika?“ „Ja, natürlich. Sie bewegen sich mit
dem Herzen des Abendlandes.“ […] „Ein kollektives Bewusstsein, dessen Flamme nun schon seit Jahrtausenden
lodert. Die Götter gehören dazu.“ (Riordan, Rick: Percy Jackson. Diebe im Olymp, Carlsen 2006, S. 90f.)

Die überaus erfolgreiche „Percy Jackson“-Reihe, der „Jack Perdu“-Zweiteiler und die „Göttlich“-Trilogie sowie
der mit dem deutschen Jugendliteraturpreis ausgezeichnete Roman „Die Tribute von Panem. Tödliche Spiele“
sind herausragende Belege für die Dominanz der griechisch-römischen Mythologie in der gegenwärtigen
fantastischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Mit namhaften Titeln wie „Kampf der Titanen“, „Krieg der Götter“,
„Troja“ und „Hercules“ prägt dieser Trend auch die postmoderne fantastische Filmlandschaft.
Es ist daher lohnend, mit wissenschaftlicher Methodik die Fragestellung anzugehen, auf welche Weise so viele
zeitgenössische (Drehbuch-)Autoren Einzelelemente oder ganze Sagenzyklen aus der griechischen und
römischen Mythologie entlehnen. Wird damit eine kulturelle Identität für die abendländische Zivilisation
konstruiert oder wird das traditionelle Sagengut durch eklektische Abwandlungen sogar dekonstruiert? Zur
Beantwortung dieser Frage ist folgender Befund von Bedeutung: Die griechisch-römische Mythologie dient
vorwiegend in englisch- und deutschsprachigen Romanen einerseits als aitiologisch-kulturelle
Verankerungsmöglichkeit der westlichen Zivilisation in der antiken Hochkultur und andererseits werden viele
mythologische Einzelelemente und Motive so sinnentstellend weitertradiert, dass es für kundige Rezipienten
aufgrund von Verwirrungen unter Umständen von Nachteil sein kann, die antike Sagenwelt zu kennen. Denn
aufgrund von willkürlichen Vertauschungen bzgl. der Haupterzählstränge von Sagen kommt es zu
Abänderungen, die die Standardversionen des antiken Mythos in ihrem Kern zerstören.
In diesem Zusammenhang ist die Hypothese zu erweisen, dass die griechisch-römische Mythologie in der
postmodernen Fantasy und Fantastik als eklektisches Spiel mit identitätsstiftenden kulturellen Elementen und
Motiven dient. Im Sinne der Doppeltadressierung von Kinder- und Jugendliteratur wird das griechisch-römische
Kulturgut in den im Rahmen dieser Studie über 20 untersuchten Werken häufig als (interaktives) Glossar oder
als Kurzzusammenfassung aufbereitet, damit u.a. bei den Erwachsenen als Vermittler dieser Romane und Filme
der Eindruck geweckt wird, dass sie damit dem Nachwuchs ein kulturelles Bildungsgut näherbringen können.
Schließlich wird auch geprüft, ob es sinnvoll ist, „Percy Jackson“ als Klassenlektüre zu lesen oder ob andere
Werke der Mythopoesie zu diesem Zweck gewinnbringender sind.

The tendency to eschew a coherent narrative has been very common especially since the 1990s and a certain approach to narration has become observable within postmodern cinema: the viewer is denied access to the truth and realities concerning dramatic structure and characters, either during part of the narrative, or throughout the entire movie. For instance, Stuart Mitchell (1999) points out that in David Lynch's Lost Highway, as Lynch himself points out, the dream/dreaminess is neither a fantasy nor a delusion but something intrinsic to the character, thus what we watch is essentially the story of the main character and it is realistic according to his logic. Analysing the David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), this article will discuss how any attempt by the viewer to achieve the truth and to distinguish reality from fantasy may be fruitless and how the filmic or fictional reality may result undistinguishably from so-called material reality. I argue that the viewer moves and stumbles with the gaze of the camera which reveals that the reality is something constructed, and that the objective reality of an external gaze doesn't exist.

This research project aims at giving a postmodernist perspective of fantastic elements found in Harry Potter films series (2001- 2011) by applying the concept of ‘pastiche’ as well as Baudrillard’s ‘Simulacra’ and ‘hyperreal’. This project at first shows how films categorised under the umbrella term ‘fantasy’ tend to use recurrent fantastic elements to
be marketable. As the chapters unfold, light will be shed more particularly on the magical elements in these selected films and how through a postmodernist lens, the audience can interpret the narrative differently by depicting Harry as a deviant child. Furthermore, this
essay shows the different allegories found in the films by making the relationship between specific scenes and past characters or texts such as Hitler and classical text like The Pardoner’s Tale.

Guillermo del Toro’s reputation as one of the world’s most esteemed filmmakers builds on fairy tale and horror-inspired films featuring monsters, such as Hellboy (2004) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Not only is del Toro’s obsession with the fantasy genre often emphasized, it also incorporates the theme of embracing otherness, which is demonstrated through the allegory of monstrous entities in most of his works. As a Mexican director, del Toro strives to insert his status as “the other” in his movies. This article addresses Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water, through auteur theory with references to fantasy film principles. In a range of aspects, from visual style to its rooted themes, del Toro’s films make use of a distinctive set of features with dark green colour, special effects makeup, as well as the theme of resistance against oppression and marginalisation. Using The Shape of Water as a case study, the argument is that the film serves as a critique as well as a defiance against the widespread issues of rising bigoted slurs, immigration bans and racial resentment in the United States, which have occurred ever since the victory of President Donald Trump in early 2017. Indeed, del Toro’s triumphs at the 90th Academy Awards have solidified the importance of fantasy films as counter-narratives.

Lana and Lilly Wachowski have redefined the technically and topically possible while joyfully defying audience expectations. Visionary films like The Matrix trilogy and Cloud Atlas have made them the world's most influential transgender media producers, and their coming out retroactively put trans* aesthetics at the very center of popular American culture. Cáel M. Keegan views the Wachowskis films as an approach to trans* experience that maps a transgender journey and the promise we might learn "to sense beyond the limits of the given world." Keegan reveals how the filmmakers take up the relationship between identity and coding (be it computers or genes), inheritance and belonging, and how transgender becoming connects to a utopian vision of a post-racial order. Along the way, he theorizes a trans* aesthetic that explores the plasticity of cinema to create new social worlds, new temporalities, and new sensory inputs and outputs. Film comes to disrupt, rearrange, and evolve the cinematic exchange with the senses in the same manner that trans* disrupts, rearranges, and evolves discrete genders and sexes.

This essay examines the way we can consider and discuss music of the LOTR films agains specific themes found in J.R.R. Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories." In effect, I demonstrate how Howard Shore's music can both reinforce and problematize Hobbits and Elves when examined from Tolkien's notions of the Primary and Secondary Worlds, i.e. our world and the "subcreated" world of fantasy.

This article is more of a think-piece, and I consider it to be in a developmental state. So it's not polished. But I'm extremely curious to know if any music, fantasy, and Tolkien scholars find the parallels I draw convincing and/or interesting. I do hope to receive some feedback!

Many thanks.

The article "Silmarillion"—J. R. R. Tolkien’s Allotopia From Ardological Perspective aims at outlining the methodology for studying Tolkien’s world-building project without the need of acknowledging the text-centered reading paradigm. Having differentiated tolkienology, as text-focused, philological studies, from ardology, understood as world-building studies, Maj deconstructs the use of Tolkienian’s “subcreation” in literary theory as far too indebted in the metaphysics of presence to establish a neutral framework for studying the process of constructing a fictional reality. With the examples from "Silmarillion"—perhaps the best instance of modern mythography, in no way resembling the narrative arc of a prototypical fantasy novel—the author builds up on the notion of “allotopia” as the world independent insofar to create its own ontologies, topographies, languages, philosophy, history, literature, art, or even physical artifacts—without the need of anchoring the overall creation in a metaphysical paradigm. Correspondingly, the text offers an insight to a number of theories in postclassical narratology or postmodern philosophy that may help in understanding the scale of Tolkien’s solemn contribution to the art of fantastic world-building.

La presente tesis estudia las características de la obra de Tim Burton, considerado uno de los cineastas más originales y estimulantes del Hollywood actual. Se pone en relación su obra cinematográfica con su biografía, algo especialmente relevante en un artista que recurre tan menudo a su experiencia vital y a los elementos que conformaron su educación sentimental. Se examina su situación dentro del contexto de la industria hollywoodiense y se estudian las constantes estéticas y temáticas que conforman su poética visual.
Se aborda la problemática del género, la noción de fantástico y la tradición gótico-expresionista con el fin de comprender la obra de un autor que reinterpreta la tradición cultural desde la óptica de la postmodernidad. Se tratan los problemas y contradicciones que plantean tanto la concepción tradicional de los géneros fílmicos como la teoría del cine de autor. Se comprueba que no solamente resultan enfoques compatibles, sino que pueden además convertirse en planteamientos complementarios que contribuyen a la profundidad y riqueza del debate fílmico. Se habla sobre la particular reflexión genérica que realiza el cineasta en sus películas, conectándola con las características de la cultura postmoderna en la que se encuentra inmerso.
En el capítulo dedicado al fantástico se pone de manifiesto que se trata de un concepto que se resiste a cualquier intento de definición y categorización exacta. Dado además su amplio alcance, resulta más apropiado considerarlo, más que un género, un modo artístico del que emergen distintas formas relacionadas. Se contemplan las diversas teorías que existen sobre el fantástico, su potencial subversivo y sus implicaciones psicoanalíticas. Se pone un interés especial en sus temas y mitos, ya que todos ellos son evocados en las películas de Burton. El fantástico actual destaca precisamente por su referencialidad, por su reflexión metagenérica y asimilación del pasado.
También se contempla la obra del cineasta como continuadora de una tradición gótico-expresionista, un movimiento continuo cuyo espíritu, estética y posicionamiento vital se oponen a la actitud racionalista del clasicismo. Se realiza un recorrido por los elementos que conforman una tradición que Burton ha recogido principalmente a través de sus manifestaciones cinematográficas. Tim Burton es heredero y continuador de este espíritu romántico, de su atmósfera e iconografía características, de la estética de lo siniestro, de su macabro sentido del humor, de la denuncia de la hipocresía social y de la sociedad que niega la libertad y la identidad individuales, de su énfasis en la subjetividad, la intuición y lo irracional.
A continuación se trata el modo en que Tim Burton crea el espacio fantástico mediante una cuidadísima puesta en escena donde el diseño, la fotografía y la música compuesta por Danny Elfman se convierten en elementos fundamentales de la expresión dramática.
Finalmente se analizan en profundidad Eduardo Manostijeras y Pesadilla antes de Navidad, películas compendio que representan el conjunto de la poética visual del director.
Cierto sector de la crítica considera las películas de Burton como deslumbrantes pero huecos ejercicios de virtuosismo formal. Este trabajo trata de demostrar que, efectivamente, Burton posee un brillante talento visual, pero esto no significa que deje de lado consideraciones más amplias sobre la historia y el significado. La entidad y complejidad de los temas y personajes de sus películas evitan que se conviertan en meros ejercicios de estilo.

This doctoral thesis studies the characteristics of Tim Burton's cinema. It relates his work to his life, examines his situation into the contemporary Hollywood industry and considers the constant elements that form his visual poetic.
It studies the question and contradictions of film genres and the Theories of Authorship. It examines the characteristics of Postmodern culture and the particular intertextual practice in Burton's films.
It contemplates the fantastic phenomenon, that is best regarded as an artistic mode from which a number of related genres emerge.
It considers Tim Burton's cinema to be the heir of what is denominated the Gothic-expressionist Tradition, a movement whose spirit, aesthetics and vital position are in opposition to the rational attitude of Classicism.
It discusses the way Tim Burton creates the fantastic space through a careful stage design and the music composed by Danny Elfman.
The films Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas are analysed in depth in order to prove that Burton's emotive storylines, and the complexity and entity of his themes and characters, shift his films away from being mere exercises in style.

In this chapter I examine the nature of Daenerys’ appeal and see it as related to the emotion of pride. I look at her in George R.R. Martin’s book A Game of Thrones (1996) and in Season One of Game of Thrones and briefly cast a glance at later seasons. I examine her first as a fantasy hero playing with the rules of fantasy; second, as embodying the emotion of pride; and, third, as invested with magic. I draw on cognitive media theory  and postfeminism.
This is chapter 5 of Women of Ice and Fire: Gender, Game of Thrones and Multiple Media Engagements (NY: Bloomsbury, 7 april, 2016), eds. Rikke Schubart and Anne Gjelsvik

This special issue addresses the possible connections and mutual benefits of examining together two analytic concepts – memory and periphery. These concepts receive much attention in various scholarly discussions, yet they have done so rather independently from each other. The potential applications and utilities of combining memory and periphery and the epistemic insights they provide for various disciplins are presented in the different contributions to this issue.

Cette étude part de l'observation que les sociétés fictives de Game of Thrones, Wiedźmin (Sorceleur) et The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sont dans un grand état de désordre social, et propose d'étudier les différentes façons par lesquelles leurs habitants tentent de rétablir l'ordre dans la société et/ou d'améliorer certains aspects de la société.
Il s'agira notamment de questionner les représentations et directions politiques de la dark fantasy de ces dernières années, à travers trois de ses représentants les plus populaires - et ainsi de réfléchir aux influences que celle-ci peut exercer sur ses consommateurs, mais aussi et surtout quelles propositions elle nous fait en matière de changement social.