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Analysis of the Elements of the Modern Fantasy Genre Ann Swinfen. In Defence of Fantasy: A Study of the Genre in English and American Literature since 1945: Routledge Library Editions: Modern Fiction. 254pp, hardback. ISBN: 978-0-367-33680-6. New York: Routledge, 2019.
This book considers either very or mildly popular fantasy fiction, including Narnia and Lord of the Rings. The opening chapter explains that the genre's popularity and its introduction recently into "English Literature Courses" are some of the reasons for its study. It further argues that too many of the past studies have been considering fantasy's "great" authors, as if they were fan-fictions honoring these makers. Instead, Ann Swinfen sets out to evaluate the structure of the fantasy genre in its varied types and how it differs from the "realist novel". Then, Swinfen discusses the relevant sub-genres and offers the perspectives on them from their creators (1-11). The chapters are logically divided by sub-genres or by elements groups of these novels have in common that can be critically evaluated for patterns between them. These include chapters on stories featuring beasts. Most of the chapters are about more abstract concepts such as symbolism, fantastical worlds, and idealism. Given the vast number of texts reviewed, a good portion of the book is summarizing the plots of these novels, or the references to individual quotes and details would be harder to connect. While I wish this study was a pure, detached structural analysis of the elements, Swinfen does often digress into the emotional impact of these stories and the emotional lives of the characters, such as when she writes about how "Stuart never comes to terms with his mouse body, but remains painfully divided between his physical limitations and his human mind and soul" (25). These types of abstractions cannot really be proven...