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LITR 4370
TRAGEDY Model Assignments Midterm2 Samples 2017 (midterm2 assignment) Model Answers to Part 1. Genre Definition 2. |
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Part 1.
Continue genre
definition and example(s) from Midterm1 .(Index) . .
Clark
Omo
31
April 2017
Fantasy Measured
As
the course website itself states, there are no “pure genres.” The term genre,
therefore, is merely a classification term that helps to link several works that
correlate along of the lines of possessing similar attributes and
characteristics that least place them under the shade of the ‘genre umbrella’.
Such is the case with Fantasy. As explored in my previous installment into this
assignment, Fantasy as a genre contains many attributes that link all the works
that fall underneath its shade into a single genre with many branches. However,
with the complexity that comes with trying to define the Fantasy Genre, there
are several aspects that it contains within its respective identity as genre
that define it as a distinct and unique form of literary art. These conventions
can be measured and quantified, but like all other genres, they can be reshaped,
adapted, extended, and altogether broken. Fantasy is an immense and immensely
flexible genre that places an extremely high emphasis on the creativity and
implicated absurdity of its many contributors. But, with this being said, the
Fantasy genre still has many traits and characteristics that can be tied down
and defined, perhaps most effectively by measuring it by the distinct genre
classifications of Subject, Form, and Narrative.
Fantasy is a complicated genre to define in regards to more concrete forms of
Subject classification, exemplified with terms such as “Tear-jerker” or
“Political Thriller”. Bluntly speaking, Fantasy can incorporate and encompass
these Subject types and many, many more. One can have a political thriller in
Fantasy found in the subgenre of Court Intrigue Fantasy, the best (and most
popular) example of this subgenre being A
Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Fantasy can be wedded to Science
Fiction as well, resulting in the Science Fantasy Genre, which includes the
world of Warhammer 40k and its novels, and perhaps even the entire
Star Wars franchise. Westerns can
even find a place in this genre, such as in the Weird West subgenre, exemplified
The Six Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher or
even the tales of Jonah Hex published by DC Comics. Romance can be found in
Fantasy too with the Romantic Fantasy Genre, an example of such being Kristin
Cashore’s Graceling (“Romantic
Fantasy”, n.pg.) As can be clearly seen, Fantasy contains an incredible amount
of flexibility when it comes to what Subject the genre can contain. Its range
extends all over the genre map, and can easily blend form with form and layer
genre upon genre. There is no sure
way to define the Fantasy Genre by either age-group or just general type. This
simply proves that the Fantasy Genre is perhaps the greatest realm for an author
to unleash his or her creative potential. Its audience, therefore, can vary
widely in regards to taste and preference, yet these tastes are all guided by
the single thread of those who crave the fantastic and speculative.
But
Fantasy itself has proven not to be purely speculative; in fact, in many ways it
is just the opposite. Constructing imaginary worlds to tackle real-life issues
is a literary convention that has its roots reaching back to the days of the
Renaissance. For example, there is Dante’s
Divine Comedy (interestingly the term
“High Fantasy”, a subgenre of Fantasy itself, could be derived from Dante’s
Paradiso: “At this point power failed
high fantasy” [XXXIII.142]). In the
Comedy, Dante constructed his own versions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven to
tackle real world issues such as corruption of the Church and the Renaissance’s
imitation of the Classics. Much in the same way Tolkien created Middle-earth to
tackle ideas of time, perception, culture, and the evils of power. Martin has
done the same thing; in his world of Westeros, there is class separation,
political strife, and corrupt clergy. Though most Fantasy works are bound
together by their inclusion of the fantastic whether it be magic, medieval
settings, mythical religions, and unbelievable cultures and creatures, there is
a deeper, more substantial underlying subject; the examination of current-day
issues through fantastic means. Rather than present Medieval Europe itself,
George R.R. Martin chose the worlds of Westeros and Essos. Rather than choose a
modern example to present the issues of power, Tolkien chose the One Ring. And
so many Fantasy authors have chosen these methods in which to write fantasy.
Though Fantasy does bear an appearance to trying to break the walls of reality
and ‘escape’, the genre is very much rooted in the issues of its time and the
world around them. After all, even the Victorian Poet Lord Tennyson chose to
reimagine King Arthur to fit the Victorian Era, as did T.H. White to represent
his times. Fantasy uses the magic, myth, and magnificence of its many worlds to
tell its tales, and these tales are the well worth reading just for these
reasons.
The
realm of Subject also refers to the audience, or intended audience, that the
genre usually finds its ways to. For Fantasy, this is an especially elusive
aspect with which to nail down the genre. The first and foremost reason for this
is that in the beginning, a few of Fantasy’s major works were not intended for
adults (as many of them are now), but for children. The most well-known examples
of this are the well-beloved Chronicles
of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s
The Hobbit, both of which were first
classified as children’s stories. But, seventeen years later, Tolkien himself
produced the seminal The Lord of the
Rings, which earned him the title “The Father of Modern Fantasy”.
The Lord of the Rings possesses the
potential to be enjoyed by all ages (as for myself, I read it when I was 15 or
so), but younger children would be hard-pressed to engage with the complexity
that The Lord of the Rings contains.
C.S. Lewis did not stay in this shadow either, for later he produced
The Space Trilogy, his own adult
centered works. And perhaps another major example of the adult centered works of
Fantasy is The Worm Ouroboros by E.R.
Eddison (a colleague of Tolkien’s) which goes so far to even have its prose
written in a Shakespearean form (“The Worm Ouroboros”, n.pg.). Therefore in,
regards to age range, and therefore understandability, Fantasy can vary greatly.
It can be a complex epic filled with themes such as the lust for power, the
destructive force of time, or the love of friendship such as
The Lord of the Rings, or it can be
about a hobbit who lives in his hole and decides, one day, to go on an
adventure, such as in The Hobbit.
And
the genre continues its stubborn resilience to being narrowed down in the
Narrative category. Fantasy can take on a variety of Narratives, once again
proving its extensive flexibility. The Tragedy narrative is rife throughout
Fantasy, perhaps exemplifying itself the most in the popular
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R.
Martin. As Marcotte puts it Martin is “playing with a format that isn’t so
revolutionary at all: They’re reviving and updating the classical tragedy as a
narrative form.” (n.pg.). Martin’s works make good work of the classical tropes
associated with the Tragedy narrative, such as the “tragic flaw”. As our website
defines this trope, the ‘tragic flaw’. Such is true with Eddard Stark. As Sean
Bean, the actor who portrayed Stark in the television adaption of
Game of Thrones, said “he
is too loyal, really, he is too honest, too honorable and it's a shame” (Warner,
n.pg.). Eddard meets an unfair demise in the book due to his sense of honor and
responsibility, much in the same way Prince Hamlet of Denmark cannot rid his
mind of the possibility that his father was murdered rather than leave things as
they are. Tragedy aside, Fantasy also contains elements of Comedy. As mentioned
on the website, Comedy does make’s use of “low comedy”, which often includes a
character that occupies a low rung on the social ladder. Such is the case of
Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo is a hobbit, a race of creatures in the world of
Middle-Earth that manages to steer clear of all important events in the history
of the world. And yet Gandalf chooses him to rob the dragon Smaug and assist the
like of Thorin Oakenshield in taking back the treasure. And all the time Bilbo
embarks on this journey, he cannot help but wish he was back in his hobbit hole.
Romance also makes its way into the Fantasy Genre, exemplified by the constant
looking-back tendencies associated with the long-gone days of knights, dragons,
and castles. Fantasy obsesses over the Romantic days of Golden Ages (see Lord
Dunsany’s Don Rodriguez, as an
example) and the times of magnificent but long-dead kings. The Elves and the Men
of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings
are larger than life, and seek final release with their transcendent goal of
crossing the Sea into the Undying Lands. Fantasy proves itself capable of
incorporating many Narrative forms, once again speaking to its immense creative
potential.
However, the only realm where it might conform to a rigid set of criteria would
be the area of Form. Most, if not all, works in the Fantasy Genre adhere to the
Form category of Fiction or Novel, which consists of the Narrator + Dialogue
construction. As Plato put it in his The
Republic: “[A story] may be either
simple narration, or imitation, or a union of the two."
Such is true in the case of Fantasy. All Fantasy novels are written strictly
with a narrator. However the degree to which this narrator has power over the
story, varies greatly. In some cases, the narrator may be a character such as in
the standard First Person mode of voice, and this can be found in Glen Cook’s
The Black Company series. In other
cases, the narrator may in, some ways be a character himself, often inserting
himself into the story to make glib comments, such as in Lord Dunsany’s
Don Rodriguez. But in all cases (as
far as I have seen), all Fantasy works possess a wide range of characters that
span from race to race, often engaging in critical conversations that at times
decide the course of the story, and therefore the fate of the world. The chapter
“Many Meetings” in The Fellowship of the
Ring is a good example, for in this chapter a council is held by many
powerful characters, such as many elf-lords who have seen evil come and go, an
heir to a powerful Kingdom of Man, and Gandalf, to decide the course of action
for the protagonists to take, and thus the fate of the world. I have found very
little exceptions when it comes to the use of this style in Fantasy, which
simply proves that for all its limitless possibilities when it comes to
storytelling, there is still a formula to Fantasy writing.
Fantasy, despite its refusal to stay weighed down by measurable limits of genre
definition, still displays some defining characteristics. Its Audience can range
across the board in regards to age and Subject. Its Narrative can take on a
variety of forms, including Romantic, Tragedy, and even contains some Comedic
elements. The only area in which Fantasy can be reasonably quantified is the
Form category, in which it meets all the requirements of Narrator + Dialogue, of
which there exist very few exceptions. Fantasy in and of itself is a remarkable
genre, for rarely does it adhere to a single formula or structure.
Paradoxically, this lack of definable structure is exactly what gives the
Fantasy Genre a structure, for without its abundance of creative flexibility and
penchant for the unimaginable, Fantasy would not possess the unique flavor that
it does.
Works
Cited
Alighieri, Dante. “The Divine Comedy: Paradise.”
The Portable Dante, translated and
edited by Mark Musa. Penguin Books.
“Beyond the Movie: The Lord of the
Rings-Return of the King.” National
Geographic.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/language.html.
Marcotte, Amanda. “Don’t Be So Shocked by the Deaths on Game of Thrones:
The Show Is a Classical Tragedy.”
browbeat: Slate’s Culture Blog. 9 June 2015.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/06/09/game_of_thrones_is_a_classical_tragedy_don_t_be_so_shocked_my_the_deaths.html.
Martinez, Michael. “How Long Did It Take J.R.R. Tolkien to Write The Lord of The
Rings?” Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien
Blog. 16 Sept. 2011.
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2011/09/16/how-long-did-it-take-j-r-r-tolkien-to-write-the-lord-of-the-rings/.
Warner, Kara. “'Game
Of Thrones': Ned's Sense Of Duty Is His Tragic Flaw, Says Sean Bean.”
MTV News. 4 May 2011.
http://www.mtv.com/news/2438995/game-of-thrones-sean-bean-ned-stark/.
“The
Worm Ouroboros.” Isegoria. 8 Feb.
2012.
http://www.isegoria.net/2012/02/the-worm-ouroboros/.
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