ABSTRACT
Thanks to the Greek philosophers, Christianity, and the Enlightenment, we have no vocabulary for analyzing literary departures from reality. Myth, fable, fancy, fantasy, image, symbol, and metaphor – all the inherited terms – have specialized and sometimes negative connotations when applied to serious literature. Having acknowledged the existence of the problem, I have tried to start solving it, first with the inclusive, non-generic definition and then with a survey of the roles played by fantastic elements in each of three kinds of literature – traditional, realistic, and modern. Part II sketched the four significant, conscious responses to reality which are logically possible within an artistic framework: illusion, vision, revision, and disillusion. We have seen what both mimesis and fantasy, especially the latter, have contributed to these responses to reality. Part III is more narrowly concerned with fantasy and its functions – with the relationship between literary fantasy and the author who produces it; and with the human needs of the audience which it fulfills. Chapter seven will deal with the effects that literary form have on fantasy and those that fantasy has on form; these clarify some of the reasons that would motivate authors to use fantasy.
