Genre and stylistic features of fantasy works and the terminological history of the genre’s formation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58423/2786-6726/2026-2-28-44Keywords:
fantasy literature, mythopoetics, genre paradigm, secondary world, secondary belief, heroic fantasy, escapism, postmodernismAbstract
The article provides a comprehensive philological analysis of the genre and stylistic features of fantasy and traces the terminological history of its formation as an independent genre within literary discourse. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to overcome terminological ambiguity and the simplified reception of the fantasy paradigm, which has long been perceived primarily through the lens of entertainment literature. The study examines the genesis of the genre, from R. E. Howard’s Conan cycle to J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic narrative The Lord of the Rings, which laid the foundation for the modern literature of wonder.
Particular attention is devoted to the hermeneutic reinterpretation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s theoretical legacy. The author argues that the fundamental functions of fantasy – enchantment, secondary belief, and recovery – possess not only aesthetic but also profound ontological significance. The concept of recovery is clarified as a mechanism for restoring the integrity of the human personality and overcoming the destructive influence of technogenic civilization. Within the context of the genre’s evolution, the study explores the worldview differentiation between heroic and comic fantasy, demonstrating that the heroic mode tends toward philosophical tragedy and ethical choice at the brink of existence, whereas comic fantasy, shaped by postmodern play, gravitates toward the deconstruction of the mythological substrate.
The article substantiates the role of the mythological substrate and archetypal models (following V. Propp and C. Vogler) in the construction of the artistic world. It demonstrates that the chronotope of the road and the quest function as an initiatory principle enabling both the hero and the recipient to attain personal identity. The study concludes that fantasy should be understood not as a form of negative escapism, but as a productive mode of mythopoetic comprehension of reality, which facilitates a return to a life-affirming worldview through immersion in the secondary world. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the clarification of the terminological apparatus and in the analysis of the transformation of fantasy’s genre features within the Slavic literary space under the influence of postmodernism.
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