Gary Draper, Lecturer

“A truly good fantastic story will echo that which escapes explanation in life; it will prove, in fact, that life is fantastic.” --Alberto Manguel
“Fantasy Literature” is a notoriously elastic phrase: for some it means the sword-and-sorcery novels beloved of adolescent boys; for some it is literature for the nursery; and for others it is anything that departs from the most mundane kitchen-sink realism.

This course will examine some of the varieties of fantasy fiction, from its roots in myth and folktale to the 21st-century novel. Along the way we will consider some classics, as well as such related genres as horror and science fiction. With any luck we will discover that there’s more to fantasy literature than swords and dragons, and that at its best it can set both the mind and the heart racing at once.
1: Deep Roots: fantastic elements in myth & folktale The earliest forms of narrative in all cultures comfortably interweave the ordinary and the extraordinary. We’ll look at some of these stories both inside and outside the Western tradition.
2: In The Nursery: fantasy works written for children For most readers, the fantastic is part of the intellectual nourishment of their childhood, from Peter Pan and Alice to their contemporary heirs.
3: Heroes & Quests / Swords & Spells: classic fantasy Whether it’s the high fantasy of the Table Round or its modern counterpart in sword-and-sorcery, the questing hero is likely to be with us for a long time yet.
4: The Dark Side: ghost stories and other horrors Vampires, it seems, are all around us these days. What ever happened to zombies and werewolves and those eternal reflections of a troubled psyche, ghosts? And why do we love them so?
5: Future (Im)Perfect: varieties of science fiction Set a fantasy on another planet or in a distant (or near) future, and we call it by another name: but many of the stories from outer space have a lot in common with the tales of Middle Earth.
6: Fantasy in the mainstream We’ll take a look at some of the great writers who have stepped outside the confines of our quotidian world, and also consider fantasy books that become bestsellers. Imaginary Worlds: forms of fantasy from ancient myth to the modern novel.

SESSION 1:
Deep Roots: fantastic elements in myth & folktale Gilgamesh: A New English Version. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. Toronto: Free Press, 2004.
Genesis: A New Translation. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Translated by R. M. Liuzza. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2000
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation. Trans by Marie Boroff. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1967. Robert Bringhurst.
A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Myths & Their World. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1999.

Selected Other Works:
The Classic Fairy Tales. Edited by Iona & Peter Opie. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Fantastic Worlds: Myths, Tales, and Stories. Edited by Eric S. Rabkin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Folk & FairyTales. 3rd edition.Edited by Martin Hallett & Barbara Karasek. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2002. Homer. The Odyssey: A Verse Translation. Translated by A. C. Cook. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1980.
The Mabinogion. Translated by Gwyn Jones & Thomas Jones. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Thomas Malory. Works. Edited by Eugene Vinaver. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1954. Snorri Sturluson.
The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology. Translated by Jesse L. Byock. London: Penguin, 2006.
Tales from theThousand and One Nights Translated by N. Dawood. London: Penguin, 2004. Reference:
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Edited by John Clute and John Grant. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997