Table of Contents:
  • Foreword
  • Introduction : Literature of impossibility
  • What is fantasy?
  • 1. Understanding the fantasy genre
  • Fantasy's roots : ballads, folktales, and legends / Brian Attebery ; Fantasy literature both reflects and denies reality / Jules Zanger ; Building blocks of fantasy / Susan Dexter ; Re-evaluating some definitions of fantasy / Edmund Little ; Fantasy books for adolescents inspire and empower / Tamora Pierce ; Fantasy allows children to question the status quo / Jeanne Murray Walker
  • 2. Exploring themes and conventions
  • Integral sense of wonder / William Senior ; Symbolism and allegory / Ann Swinfen ; Quest / John H. Timmerman ; Comic fantasy / C.N. Manlove ; Characterizations in Tolkien's Lord of the rings / Dwayne Thorpe ; Robert Jordan and the longing for a premodern past / Edward Rothstein
  • 3. State of the genre today
  • Women are changing the face of fantasy / Charlotte Spivack ; Publishing fantasy literature / David G. Hartwell ; Fantasy and censorship / Michael O. Tunnel.