FICTION IN LITERATURE. Defining science fiction is a task that has generated an enormous amount of debate. The basis for no less controversy was the question of what science fiction consists of and how it is classified.
The question of isolating fantasy as an independent concept arose as a result of developments in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. literature firmly connected with scientific and technological progress. The plot basis of science fiction works was made up of scientific discoveries, inventions, technical foresights... Herbert Wells and Jules Verne became the recognized authorities of science fiction of those decades. Until the middle of the 20th century. science fiction stood somewhat apart from the rest of literature: it was too closely connected with science. This gave theorists of the literary process grounds to assert that fantasy is a completely special kind of literature, existing according to rules unique to it and setting itself special tasks.
Subsequently, this opinion was shaken. The statement of the famous American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury is typical: “Fiction is literature.” In other words, there are no significant partitions. In the second half of the 20th century. previous theories gradually retreated under the onslaught of changes taking place in science fiction. Firstly, the concept of “fantasy” began to include not only “science fiction” itself, i.e. works that basically go back to the examples of Juulverne and Wells production. Under the same roof were texts related to “horror” (horror literature), mysticism and fantasy (magical, magical fiction). Secondly, significant changes have also occurred in science fiction: the “new wave” of American science fiction writers and the “fourth wave” in the USSR (1950–1980s of the 20th century) led an active struggle for the destruction of the boundaries of the “ghetto” of science fiction, its merging with literature “mainstream”, the destruction of the unspoken taboos that dominated old-style classic science fiction. A number of trends in “non-fantastic” literature have in one way or another acquired a pro-fantasy sound and borrowed the ambience of science fiction. Romantic literature, literary fairy tale (E. Schwartz), phantasmagoria (A. Green), esoteric novel (P. Coelho, V. Pelevin), many texts lying in the tradition of postmodernism (for example, Mantissa Fowles), are recognized among science fiction writers as “theirs” or “almost theirs,” i.e. borderline, lying in a wide zone, which is covered by the spheres of influence of both “mainstream” literature and fantasy.
At the end of the 20th and the first years of the 21st centuries. The destruction of the concepts of “fantasy” and “science fiction”, which are familiar to fantastic literature, is growing. Many theories were created that in one way or another assigned strictly defined boundaries to these types of fiction. But for the general reader, everything was clear from the surroundings: fantasy is where witchcraft, swords and elves are; Science fiction is where robots, starships and blasters are. Gradually “science fantasy” appeared, i.e. “scientific fantasy” that perfectly combined witchcraft with starships, and swords with robots. A special type of fiction was born - “alternative history”, which was later supplemented by “cryptohistory”. In both cases, science fiction writers use both the usual ambience of science fiction and fantasy, and even combine them into an indissoluble whole. Directions have emerged in which belonging to science fiction or fantasy is not particularly important at all. In Anglo-American literature this is primarily cyberpunk, and in Russian literature it is turborealism and “sacred fantasy”.
As a result, a situation has arisen where the concepts of science fiction and fantasy, which previously firmly divided fantastic literature into two, have blurred to the limit.
Science fiction as a whole today represents a continent very variegatedly populated. Moreover, individual “nationalities” (trends) are closely related to their neighbors, and sometimes it is very difficult to understand where the borders of one of them end and the territory of a completely different one begins. Today's science fiction is like a melting pot in which everything is fused with everything and melted into everything. Inside this cauldron, any clear classification loses its meaning. The boundaries between mainstream literature and science fiction have almost disappeared, or at least there is no clarity here. A modern literary critic does not have clear, strictly defined criteria for separating the first from the second.
Rather, it is the publisher who sets the boundaries. The art of marketing requires appealing to the interests of established reader groups. Therefore, publishers and sellers create so-called “formats”, i.e. form the parameters within which specific works are accepted for publication. These “formats” dictate to science fiction writers, first of all, the setting of the work, in addition, plotting techniques and, from time to time, the thematic range. The concept of “non-format” is widespread. This is the name given to text that does not fit any established “format” in its parameters. The author of an “unformatted” work of fiction, as a rule, has difficulties with its publication.
Thus, in fiction, the critic and literary critic do not have a serious influence on the literary process; it is directed primarily by the publisher and bookseller. There is a huge, unevenly outlined “world of the fantastic”, and next to it there is a much narrower phenomenon – “format” fiction, fantasy in the strict sense of the word.
Is there at least a purely nominal theoretical difference between science fiction and non-fiction? Yes, and it applies equally to literature, cinema, painting, music, theater. In a laconic, encyclopedic form, it reads as follows: “Fiction (from the Greek phantastike - the art of imagining) is a form of displaying the world in which, on the basis of real ideas, a logically incompatible (“supernatural”, “wonderful”) picture of the Universe is created.
What does this mean? Science fiction is a method, not a genre or a direction in literature and art. This method in practice means the use of a special technique - a “fantastic assumption”. And the fantastic assumption is not difficult to explain. Every work of literature and art presupposes the creation by its creator of a “secondary world” built with the help of imagination. There are fictional characters acting in fictional circumstances. If the author-creator introduces elements of the unprecedented into his secondary world, i.e. the fact that, in the opinion of his contemporaries and fellow citizens, in principle could not exist in that time and in the place with which the secondary world of the work is connected, this means that we have before us a fantastic assumption. Sometimes the entire “secondary world” is completely real: for example, this is a provincial Soviet town from A. Mirer’s novel Home of the Wanderers or a provincial American town from the novel by K. Simak Everything is alive. Suddenly, inside this reality familiar to the reader, something unthinkable appears (aggressive aliens in the first case and intelligent plants in the second). But it could also be completely different: J. R. R. Tolkien created the world of Middle-earth with the power of his imagination, which never existed anywhere, but nevertheless became the 20th century for many people. more real than the reality around them. Both are fantastic assumptions.
The quantity of a work unprecedented in the secondary world does not matter. The very fact of its presence is important.
Let's say times have changed and a technical miracle has turned into something commonplace. For example, high-speed cars, wars with the massive use of aircraft or, say, powerful submarines were practically impossible in the times of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Now this won’t surprise anyone. But the works of a century ago, where all this is described, remain fantasy, because for those years they were so.
Opera Sadko- fantasy, because it uses the folklore motif of the underwater kingdom. But the ancient Russian work about Sadko itself was not fantasy, since the ideas of people who lived at the time when it arose allowed for the reality of the underwater kingdom. Movie Nibelungs– fantastic, because it has an invisibility cap and “living armor” that makes a person invulnerable. But the ancient German epic works about the Nibelungs do not belong to fantasy, since in the era of their appearance, magical objects could seem like something unusual, but still really existing.
If an author writes about the future, then his work always refers to fantasy, since any future is, by definition, an incredible thing, there is no exact knowledge about it. If he writes about the past and admits the existence of elves and trolls in time immemorial, then he enters the field of fantasy. Perhaps the people of the Middle Ages considered it possible that there were “little people” in the neighborhood, but modern world studies denies this. Theoretically, it cannot be ruled out that in the 22nd century, for example, elves will again turn out to be an element of the surrounding reality, and such a concept will become widespread. But even in this case, the work is 20th century. will remain fantasy, given the fact that it was born as fantasy.
Dmitry Volodikhin
Fantastic– comes from the Greek concept “phantastike” (the art of imagining).
In the modern understanding, fantasy can be defined as one of the types of literature that is capable of creating a magical, wonderful picture of the world, contrasting existing reality and concepts familiar to us all.
It is known that science fiction can be divided into different directions: fantasy and science fiction, hard science fiction, space fiction, combat and humorous, love and social, mysticism and horror.
Perhaps these genres, or subtypes of science fiction as they are also called, are by far the most famous in their circles.
Let's try to characterize each of them separately.
Science fiction (SF):
So, science fiction is a genre of literature and film that describes events that occur in the real world and differ from historical reality in any significant respect.
These differences can be technological, scientific, social, historical and any other, but not magical, otherwise the whole intent of the concept of “science fiction” is lost.
In other words, science fiction reflects the influence of scientific and technological progress on the everyday and familiar life of a person.
Among the popular plots of works of this genre are flights to uncharted planets, the invention of robots, the discovery of new forms of life, the invention of new weapons, etc.
The following works are popular among fans of this genre: “I, Robot” (Azeik Asimov), “Pandora’s Star” (Peter Hamilton), “Attempt to Escape” (Boris and Arkady Strugatsky), “Red Mars” (Kim Stanley Robinson) and many other wonderful books.
The film industry has also produced many films in the science fiction genre. Among the first foreign films, Georges Milies' film “A Trip to the Moon” was released.
It was made in 1902 and is truly considered the most popular film to be shown on the big screen.
You can also note other films in the science fiction genre: “District No. 9” (USA), “The Matrix” (USA), the legendary “Aliens” (USA). However, there are also films that have become classics of the genre, so to speak.
Among them: “Metropolis” (Fritz Lang, Germany), filmed in 1925, struck with its idea and representation of the future of humanity.
Another film masterpiece that has become a classic is “2001: A Space Odyssey” (Stanley Kubrick, USA), released in 1968.
This picture tells the story of extraterrestrial civilizations and is very much reminiscent of scientific material about aliens and their lives - for viewers back in 1968, this is truly something new, fantastic, something they have never seen or heard before. Of course, we can’t ignore Star Wars.
Episode 4: A New Hope" (George Lucas, USA), 1977.
Each of us has probably watched this film more than once. It is so captivating and attractive with its special effects, unusual costumes, luxurious scenery and heroes unknown to us.
Although, if we talk about the genre in which this film was shot, I would rather classify it as space fiction than science.
But, to justify the genre, we can say that probably not a single film is made in a certain genre in its pure form; there are always deviations.
Hard science fiction as a subgenre of SF
Science fiction has a so-called subgenre or subtype called “hard science fiction.”
Hard science fiction differs from traditional science fiction in that scientific facts and laws are not distorted during the narrative.
That is, we can say that the basis of this subgenre is a natural scientific knowledge base and the entire plot is described around a certain scientific idea, even a fantastic one.
The storyline in such works is always simple and logical, based on several scientific assumptions - a time machine, super-high-speed movement in space, extrasensory perception, etc.
Space fiction, another subgenre of SF
Space fiction is a subgenre of science fiction. Its distinctive feature is that the main plot takes place in outer space or on various planets in the Solar System or beyond.
Planetary romance, space opera, space odyssey.
Let's talk about each type in more detail.
A Space Odyssey:
So, A Space Odyssey is a storyline in which actions most often take place on space vessels (ships) and the heroes need to complete a global mission, the outcome of which determines the fate of a person.
Planetary Romance:
A planetary novel is much simpler in terms of the type of development of events and the complexity of the plot. Basically, all the action is limited to one specific planet, which is inhabited by exotic animals and people.
A lot of works in this type of genre are dedicated to the distant future in which people move between worlds on a spaceship and this is a normal phenomenon; some early works of space fiction describe simpler plots with less realistic methods of movement.
However, the goal and main theme of a planetary novel is the same for all works - the adventures of the heroes on a specific planet.
Space Opera:
Space opera is an equally interesting subtype of science fiction.
Its main idea is the maturation and growth of a conflict between heroes with the use of powerful high-tech weapons of the future to conquer the Galaxy or liberate the planet from space aliens, humanoids and other cosmic creatures.
The characters in this cosmic conflict are heroic. The main difference between space opera and science fiction is that there is an almost complete rejection of the scientific basis of the plot.
Among the works of space fiction that deserve attention are the following: “Paradise Lost”, “The Absolute Enemy” (Andrei Livadny), “The Steel Rat Saves the World” (Harry Harrison), “Star Kings”, “Return to the Stars” (Edmond Hamilton ), “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” (Douglas Adams) and other wonderful books.
And now let’s note several bright films in the “space science fiction” genre. Of course, we cannot ignore the well-known film “Armageddon” (Michael Bay, USA, 1998); “Avatar,” which blew up the whole world (James Cameron, USA, 2009), which is distinguished by unusual special effects, vivid images, and the rich and unusual nature of an unknown planet; “Starship Troopers” (Paul Verhoeven, USA, 1997), also a popular film in its time, although many film fans today are ready to watch this picture more than once; It’s impossible not to mention all the parts (episodes) of “Star Wars” by George Lucas; in my opinion, this masterpiece of science fiction will be popular and interesting to viewers at all times.
Fighting fiction:
Combat fantasy is a type (subgenre) of fiction that describes military actions taking place in the distant or not very distant future, and all actions take place using super-powerful robots and the latest weapons unknown to man today.
This genre is quite young; its origins can be dated back to the mid-20th century during the height of the Vietnam War.
Moreover, I note that combat science fiction became popular and the number of works and films increased, in direct proportion to the increase in conflicts in the world.
Among the popular authors representing this genre are: Joe Haldeman “Infinity War”; Harry Harrison "Steel Rat", "Bill - Hero of the Galaxy"; domestic authors Alexander Zorich “Tomorrow War”, Oleg Markelov “Adequacy”, Igor Pol “Guardian Angel 320” and other wonderful authors.
A lot of films have been shot in the genre of “combat science fiction”: “Frozen Soldiers” (Canada, 2014), “Edge of Tomorrow” (USA, 2014), Star Trek: Into Darkness (USA, 2013).
Humorous fiction:
Humorous fiction is a genre in which unusual and fantastic events are presented in a humorous form.
Humorous fiction has been known since antiquity and is developing in our time.
Among the representatives of humorous fiction in literature, the most striking are our beloved Strugatsky Brothers “Monday Begins on Saturday”, Kir Bulychev “Miracles in Guslyar”, as well as foreign authors of humorous fiction Prudchett Terry David John “I’ll Put on Midnight”, Bester Alfred “Will You Wait? ", Bisson Terry Ballantine "They are made of meat."
Romance fiction:
Romance fiction, romantic adventure works.
This type of fiction includes love stories with fictional characters, magical countries that do not exist, the presence in the description of wonderful amulets with unusual properties, and, of course, all these stories have a happy ending.
Of course, we cannot ignore films made in the genre. Here are a few of them: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (USA, 2008), “The Time Traveler’s Wife (USA, 2009), “Her” (USA, 2014).
Social fiction:
Social fiction is a type of science fiction literature where the main role is played by relationships between people in society.
The main emphasis is on creating fantastic motifs in order to show the development of social relations in unrealistic conditions.
The following works were written in this genre: The Strugatsky Brothers “The Doomed City”, “The Hour of the Bull” by I. Efremov, H. Wells “The Time Machine”, “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury.
Cinema also has films in the genre of social science fiction: “The Matrix” (USA, Australia, 1999), “Dark City” (USA, Australia, 1998), “Youth” (USA, 2014).
Fantasy:
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that describes a fictional world, most often the Middle Ages, and the storyline is built on the basis of myths and legends.
This genre is characterized by such heroes as gods, sorcerers, gnomes, trolls, ghosts and other creatures. Works in the Fantasy genre are very close to the ancient epic, in which heroes encounter magical creatures and supernatural events.
The fantasy genre is gaining momentum every year and has more fans.
Probably the whole secret is that our primitive world lacks some kind of fairy tale, magic, miracles.
The main representatives (authors) of this genre are Robert Jordan (fantasy book series “The Wheel of Time”, including 11 volumes), Ursula Le Guin (book series about Earthsea - “A Wizard of Earthsea”, “The Wheel of Atuan”, “On the Farthest Shore”, “Tuhanu” "), Margaret Weis (the series of works "DragonLance") and others.
Among the films shot in the “Fantasy” genre, there is quite enough to choose from and are suitable for even the most capricious film fan.
Among the foreign films I will note the following: “The Lord of the Rings”, “Harry Potter”, the all-time favorites “Highlander” and “Fantômas”, “Kill the Dragon” and many other wonderful films.
These films draw us in with magnificent graphics, acting, mysterious plots, and watching such films gives us emotions that you cannot get from watching films in other genres.
It is fantasy that adds additional colors to our lives and delights us again and again.
Mysticism and horror:
Mysticism and horror - this genre is probably one of the most popular and attractive for both the reader and the viewer.
It is able to give such unforgettable impressions, emotions and increase adrenaline like no other genre of fiction.
At one time, before films and books about traveling into the future became popular, horror was the most unusual and favorite genre among lovers and admirers of all things fantastic. And today interest in them has not disappeared.
Prominent representatives of the book industry in this genre are: the legendary and beloved Stephen King “The Green Mile”, “The Dead Zone”, Oscar Wilde “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, our domestic author M. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”.
There are a great many films in this genre, and it is quite difficult to choose the best and brightest of them.
I’ll list just a few: everyone’s favorite “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (USA, 1984), Friday the 13th (USA 1980-1982), “The Exorcist” 1,2,3 (USA), “Premonition” (USA, 2007 ), “Destination” -1,2,3 (USA, 2000-2006), “Psychic” (UK, 2011).
As you can see, science fiction is such a versatile genre that anyone can choose what suits them in spirit, by nature, and will give them the opportunity to plunge into the magical, unusual, terrible, tragic, high-tech world of the future and inexplicable for us - ordinary people.
Greek phantastike - the art of imagining) is a form of reflection of the world in which, based on real ideas, a logically incompatible picture of the Universe is created. Widespread in mythology, folklore, art, social utopia. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Science fiction is developing.
Great definition
Incomplete definition ↓
FANTASTIC
Greek phantastike - the art of imagining), a type of fiction where artistic fiction receives the greatest freedom: the boundaries of fiction extend from the depiction of strange, unusual, fictional phenomena to the creation of one’s own world with special patterns and possibilities. Fiction has a special type of imagery, which is characterized by a violation of real connections and proportions: for example, the severed nose of Major Kovalev in N.V. Gogol’s story “The Nose” itself moves around St. Petersburg, has a rank higher than its owner, and then miraculously finds itself back on its own place. At the same time, the fantastic picture of the world is not pure fiction: it transforms and raises to a symbolic level the events of real reality. Science fiction in a grotesque, exaggerated, transformed form reveals to the reader the problems of reality and reflects on their solution. Fantastic imagery is inherent in fairy tales, epics, allegories, legends, utopias, and satires. A special subtype of fantasy is science fiction, in which imagery is created by depicting fictitious or actual scientific and technological achievements of man. The artistic originality of fiction lies in the opposition of the fantastic and real worlds, therefore each work of fiction exists, as it were, on two planes: the world created by the author’s imagination is somehow correlated with reality. The real world is either taken outside the text (“Gulliver’s Travels” by J. Swift) or present in it (in “Faust” by J. V. Goethe, the events in which Faust and Mephistopheles participate are contrasted with the lives of the rest of the townspeople).
Initially, fantasy was associated with the embodiment of mythological images in literature: thus, ancient fantasy with the participation of gods seemed quite reliable to authors and readers (“Iliad”, “Odyssey” by Homer, “Works and Days” by Hesiod, plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Euripides and etc.). Examples of ancient fiction can be considered Homer's "Odyssey", which describes many amazing and fantastic adventures of Odysseus, and Ovid's "Metamorphoses" - the story of the transformation of living beings into trees, stones, people into animals, etc. In the works of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, this trend continued: in the knightly epic (from Beowulf, written in the 8th century, to the novels of Chrétien de Troyes in the 14th century) images of dragons and wizards, fairies, trolls, elves and other fantastic creatures appeared. A separate tradition in the Middle Ages was Christian fiction, which described miracles of saints, visions, etc. Christianity recognizes evidence of this kind as authentic, but this does not prevent them from remaining part of the fantastic literary tradition, since extraordinary phenomena are described that are not typical for the usual course of events. The richest fantasy is also represented in Eastern culture: tales of the Arabian Nights, Indian and Chinese literature. During the Renaissance, the fantasy of chivalric novels was parodied in “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by F. Rabelais and in “Don Quixote” by M. Cervantes: Rabelais presents a fantastic epic that rethinks the traditional cliches of fantasy, while Cervantes parodies the passion for fantasy, his hero sees fantastic creatures everywhere, which do not exist, falls into absurd situations because of this. Christian fiction in the Renaissance is expressed in the poems of J. Milton "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained".
The literature of the Enlightenment and classicism is alien to fantasy, and its images are used only to add an exotic flavor to the action. A new flowering of science fiction began in the 19th century, during the era of romanticism. Genres based entirely on fantasy emerge, such as the Gothic novel. The forms of fantasy in German romanticism are diverse; in particular, E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote fairy tales (“The Lord of the Fleas”, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”), Gothic novels (“The Devil’s Elixir”), enchanting phantasmagoria (“Princess Brambilla”), realistic stories with a fantastic background (“ The Golden Pot”, “The Bride’s Choice”), philosophical fairy tales-parables (“Little Tsakhes”, “The Sandman”). Fiction in the literature of realism is also common: “The Queen of Spades” by A. S. Pushkin, “Shtoss” by M. Yu. Lermontov, “Mirgorod” and “Petersburg stories” by N. V. Gogol, “The Dream of a Funny Man” by F. M. Dostoevsky etc. The problem arises of combining fantasy with the real world in the text; often the introduction of fantastic images requires motivation (Tatyana's dream in Eugene Onegin). However, the establishment of realism pushed fantasy to the periphery of literature. They turned to it to give a symbolic character to images (“The Portrait of Dorian Gray” by O. Wilde, “Shagreen Skin” by O. de Balzac). The Gothic tradition of fiction is developed by E. Poe, whose stories present unmotivated fantastic images and collisions. A synthesis of various types of fiction is presented by M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.”
Great definitionIncomplete definition ↓
Science fiction is one of the genres of modern literature that “grew” out of romanticism. The forerunners of this direction are called Hoffman, Swift and even Gogol. We will talk about this amazing and magical type of literature in this article. We will also consider the most famous writers of the movement and their works.
Definition of genre
Fantasy is a term that has ancient Greek origins and literally translates as “the art of imagining.” In literature, it is usually called a direction based on a fantastic assumption in the description of the artistic world and heroes. This genre tells about universes and creatures that do not exist in reality. Often these images are borrowed from folklore and mythology.
Science fiction is not only a literary genre. This is a whole separate movement in art, the main difference of which is the unrealistic assumption underlying the plot. Usually another world is depicted, which exists in a time other than ours, living according to the laws of physics different from those on earth.
Subspecies
Science fiction books on bookshelves today can confuse any reader with their variety of themes and plots. Therefore, they have long been divided into types. There are many classifications, but we will try to reflect the most complete one here.
Books of this genre can be divided according to plot features:
- Science fiction, we’ll talk about it in more detail below.
- Dystopian - this includes “Fahrenheit 451” by R. Bradbury, “Immortality Corporation” by R. Sheckley, “The Doomed City” by the Strugatskys.
- Alternative: “The Transatlantic Tunnel” by G. Garrison, “Let the Darkness Never Fall” by L.S. de Campa, “Island of Crimea” by V. Aksenov.
- Fantasy is the most numerous subspecies. Writers working in the genre: J.R.R. Tolkien, A. Belyanin, A. Pekhov, O. Gromyko, R. Salvatore, etc.
- Thriller and horror: H. Lovecraft, S. King, E. Rice.
- Steampunk, steampunk and cyberpunk: “War of the Worlds” by H. Wells, “The Golden Compass” by F. Pullman, “Mockingbird” by A. Pekhov, “Steampunk” by P.D. Filippo.
Genres often mix and new varieties of works appear. For example, love fantasy, detective, adventure, etc. Let us note that fantasy, as one of the most popular types of literature, continues to develop, more and more of its directions appear every year, and it is almost impossible to somehow systematize them.
Foreign books of the fantasy genre
The most popular and famous series of this subtype of literature is “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. The work was written in the middle of the last century, but is still in great demand among fans of the genre. The story tells of the Great War against Evil, which lasted for centuries until the dark lord Sauron was defeated. Centuries of quiet life have passed, and the world is again in danger. Only the hobbit Frodo, who must destroy the One Ring, can save Middle-earth from a new war.
Another excellent example of fantasy is “A Song of Ice and Fire” by J. Martin. To date, the cycle includes 5 parts, but is considered unfinished. The action of the novels takes place in the Seven Kingdoms, where long summers give way to equal winters. Several families are fighting for power in the state, trying to seize the throne. The series is far from the usual magical worlds, where good always defeats evil, and knights are noble and fair. Intrigue, betrayal and death reign here.
The Hunger Games series by S. Collins is also worthy of mention. These books, which quickly became bestsellers, are classified as teenage fiction. The plot tells about the struggle for freedom and the price that the heroes have to pay to get it.
Science fiction is (in literature) a separate world that lives by its own laws. And it appeared not at the end of the 20th century, as many people think, but much earlier. It’s just that in those years such works were classified as other genres. For example, these are books by E. Hoffman (“The Sandman”), Jules Verne (“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Around the Moon”, etc.), H. Wells, etc.
Russian writers
Domestic science fiction authors have also written many books in recent years. Russian writers are not much inferior to their foreign colleagues. We list here the most famous of them:
- Sergei Lukyanenko. A very popular cycle is “Watches”. Now not only its creator, but also many others are writing about this series around the world. He is also the author of the following wonderful books and series: “The Boy and the Darkness”, “No Time for Dragons”, “Working on Mistakes”, “Deeptown”, “Sky Seekers”, etc.
- The Strugatsky brothers. They have novels of various types of fiction: “Ugly Swans”, “Monday Begins on Saturday”, “Roadside Picnic”, “It’s Hard to Be a God”, etc.
- Alexey Pekhov, whose books are popular today not only in his homeland, but also in Europe. Let us list the main cycles: “Chronicles of Siala”, “Spark and Wind”, “Kindrat”, “Guardian”.
- Pavel Kornev: “Borderland”, “All-Good Electricity”, “Autumn City”, “Radiant”.
Foreign writers
Famous foreign science fiction writers:
- Isaac Asimov is a famous American author who has written more than 500 books.
- Ray Bradbury is a recognized classic not only of science fiction, but also of world literature.
- Stanislaw Lem is a very famous Polish writer in our country.
- Clifford Simak is considered the founder of American science fiction.
- Robert Heinlein is an author of books for teenagers.
What is science fiction?
Science fiction is a movement in fantasy literature that takes as its plot the rational assumption that unusual things happen due to the incredible development of technical and scientific thought. One of the most popular genres today. But it is often difficult to separate it from related ones, since authors can combine several directions.
Science fiction is (in literature) a great opportunity to imagine what would happen to our civilization if technological progress accelerated or science chose a different path of development. Typically, such works do not violate the generally accepted laws of nature and physics.
The first books of this genre began to appear in the 18th century, when the formation of modern science took place. But science fiction emerged as an independent literary movement only in the 20th century. J. Verne is considered one of the first writers to work in this genre.
Science fiction: books
Let us list the most famous works of this direction:
- “Master of Torture” (J. Wolfe);
- "Rise from the Dust" (F.H. Farmer);
- "Ender's Game" (O.S. Card);
- “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” (D. Adams);
- "Dune" (F. Herbert);
- “Sirens of Titan” (K. Vonnegut).
Science fiction is quite diverse. The books presented here are only the most famous and popular examples of it. It is almost impossible to list all the writers of this type of literature, since several hundred of them have appeared over the past decades.
This is fantastic a type of fiction in which the author's fiction extends from the depiction of strangely unusual, implausible phenomena to the creation of a special - fictional, unreal, “wonderful world”. Science fiction has its own fantastic type of imagery with its inherent high degree of conventionality, a frank violation of real logical connections and patterns, natural proportions and forms of the depicted object.
Fantasy as a field of literary creativity
Fantasy as a special area of literary creativity maximizes the artist’s creative imagination, and at the same time the reader’s imagination; at the same time, this is not an arbitrary “realm of imagination”: in a fantastic picture of the world, the reader guesses the transformed forms of real - social and spiritual - human existence. Fantastic imagery is inherent in such folklore and literary genres as fairy tale, epic, allegory, legend, grotesque, utopia, satire. The artistic effect of a fantastic image is achieved due to a sharp repulsion from empirical reality, therefore the basis of any fantastic work is the opposition of the fantastic - the real. The poetics of the fantastic is associated with the doubling of the world: the artist either models his own incredible world, existing according to its own laws (in this case, the real “reference point” is present hidden, remaining outside the text: “Gulliver’s Travels”, 1726, J. Swift, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” ", 1877, F.M. Dostoevsky), or in parallel recreates two streams - real and supernatural, unreal being. In the fantastic literature of this series, mystical, irrational motives are strong; the bearer of fantasy here acts as an otherworldly force, intervening in the fate of the central character, influencing his behavior and the course of events of the entire work (works of medieval literature, Renaissance literature, romanticism).
With the destruction of mythological consciousness and the growing desire in the art of the New Age to seek the driving forces of being in being itself, already in the literature of romanticism there appears a need for fantastic motivation, which in one way or another could be combined with a general attitude towards a natural depiction of characters and situations. The most consistent techniques of such motivated fiction are dreams, rumors, hallucinations, madness, and plot mystery. A new type of veiled, implicit fiction is being created, leaving the possibility of double interpretation, double motivation of fantastic incidents - empirically or psychologically plausible and inexplicably surreal (“Cosmorama”, 1840, V.F. Odoevsky; “Shtoss”, 1841, M.Yu. Lermontov ; “The Sandman”, 1817, E.T. Hoffman). Such conscious instability of motivation often leads to the fact that the subject of the fantastic disappears (“The Queen of Spades”, 1833, A.S. Pushkin; “The Nose”, 1836, N.V. Gogol), and in many cases its irrationality is completely removed, finding prose explanation as the story develops. The latter is characteristic of realistic literature, where fantasy is narrowed down to the development of individual motives and episodes or performs the function of an emphatically conventional, naked device that does not pretend to create in the reader the illusion of trust in the special reality of fantastic fiction, without which fantasy in its purest form cannot exist.
Origins of fiction - in the myth-making folk-poetic consciousness, expressed in fairy tales and heroic epics. Fantasy in its essence is predetermined by the centuries-old activity of the collective imagination and represents a continuation of this activity, using (and updating) constant mythical images, motifs, plots in combination with vital material from history and modernity. Science fiction evolves along with the development of literature, freely combining with various methods of depicting ideas, passions and events. It stands out as a special type of artistic creativity as folklore forms move away from the practical tasks of mythological comprehension of reality and ritual and magical influence on it. The primitive worldview, becoming historically untenable, is perceived as fantastic. A characteristic feature of the emergence of fantasy is the development of an aesthetics of the miraculous, which is not characteristic of primitive folklore. A stratification occurs: the heroic tale and tales about a cultural hero are transformed into a heroic epic (folk allegory and generalization of history), in which the elements of the miraculous are auxiliary; the fabulously magical element is recognized as such and serves as a natural environment for a story about travel and adventure, taken beyond the historical framework. Thus, Homer’s “Iliad” is essentially a realistic description of an episode of the Trojan War (which is not hampered by the participation of celestial heroes in the action); Homer’s “Odyssey” is, first of all, a fantastic story about all sorts of incredible adventures (not related to the epic plot) of one of the heroes of the same war. The plot, images and incidents of the Odyssey are the beginning of all literary European fiction. In approximately the same way as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Irish heroic sagas and the Voyage of Bran, son of Febalus (7th century) correlate. The prototype of many future fantastic travels was the parody “True History” (2nd century) by Lucian, where the author, to enhance the comic effect, sought to pile up as much incredible and absurd as possible and at the same time enriched the flora and fauna of the “wonderful country” with many tenacious inventions. Thus, even in antiquity, the main directions of fiction emerged: fantastic wanderings-adventures and a fantastic search-pilgrimage (a typical plot is a descent into hell). Ovid in “Metamorphoses” directed the original mythological plots of transformations (transformations of people into animals, constellations, stones) into the mainstream of fantasy and laid the foundation for a fantastic-symbolic allegory - a genre more didactic than adventure: “teaching in miracles.” Fantastic transformations become a form of awareness of the vicissitudes and unreliability of human fate in a world subject only to the arbitrariness of chance or the mysterious higher will. A rich body of literary-processed fairy-tale fiction is provided by the tales of the Arabian Nights; the influence of their exotic imagery was reflected in European pre-romanticism and romanticism; Indian literature from Kalidasa to R. Tagore is saturated with fantastic images and echoes of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. A unique literary fusion of folk tales, legends and beliefs is represented by many works of Japanese (for example, the genre of “story of the terrible and extraordinary” - “Konjakumonogatari”) and Chinese fiction (“Stories of Miracles from the Liao Cabinet” by Pu Songling, 1640-1715).
Fantastic fiction under the sign of the “aesthetics of the miraculous” was the basis of the medieval knightly epic - from “Beowulf” (8th century) to “Perceval” (about 1182) by Chrétien de Troyes and “Le Morte d’Arthur” (1469) by T. Malory. The fantastic plots were framed by the legend of the court of King Arthur, which was subsequently superimposed on the imaginative chronicle of the Crusades. Further transformation of these plots is demonstrated by the monumentally fantastic, almost completely lost historical epic basis, Renaissance poems “Roland in Love” by Boiardo, “Furious Roland” (1516) by L. Ariosto, “Jerusalem Liberated” (1580) by T. Tasso, “The Fairy Queen” (1590) -96) E. Spencer. Together with numerous chivalric romances of the 14th-16th centuries, they constitute a special era in the development of fantasy. A milestone in the development of the fantastic allegory created by Ovid was “The Romance of the Rose” (13th century) by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The development of Fantasy during the Renaissance is completed by “Don Quixote” (1605-15) by M. Cervantes - a parody of the fantasy of knightly adventures, and “Gargantua and Pantagruel” (1533-64) by F. Rabelais - a comic epic on a fantastic basis, both traditional and arbitrary rethought. In Rabelais we find (chapter “The Abbey of Thélem”) one of the first examples of the fantastic development of the utopian genre.
To a lesser extent than ancient mythology and folklore, the religious and mythological images of the Bible stimulated fantasy. The largest works of Christian fiction, “Paradise Lost” (1667) and “Paradise Regained” (1671) by J. Milton, are based not on canonical biblical texts, but on apocrypha. This, however, does not detract from the fact that works of European fantasy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as a rule, have an ethical Christian overtones or represent a play of fantastic images and the spirit of Christian apocryphal demonology. Outside of fantasy are the lives of saints, where miracles are fundamentally highlighted as extraordinary, but real incidents. Nevertheless, Christian-mythological consciousness contributes to the flourishing of a special genre - visions. Starting with the “Apocalypse” of John the Evangelist, “visions” or “revelation” become a full-fledged literary genre: various aspects of it are represented by “The Vision of Peter the Plowman” (1362) by W. Langland and “The Divine Comedy” (1307-21) by Dante. (The poetics of religious “revelations” defines W. Blake’s visionary fiction: his grandiose “prophetic” images are the last peak of the genre). By the end of the 17th century. Mannerism and Baroque, for which fantasy was a constant background, an additional artistic plane (at the same time, there was an aestheticization of the perception of fantasy, a loss of a living sense of the miraculous, characteristic of the fantastic literature of subsequent centuries), was replaced by classicism, which is inherently alien to fantasy: its appeal to myth is completely rationalistic . In novels of the 17th and 18th centuries, motifs and images of fantasy are casually used to complicate the intrigue. The fantastic quest is interpreted as erotic adventures (“fairy tales”, for example “Akazhu and Zirfila”, 1744, C. Duclos). Fantasy, not having independent meaning, turns out to be a support for the picaresque novel (“The Lame Demon”, 1707, A.R. Lesage; “The Devil in Love”, 1772, J. Cazot), a philosophical treatise (“Micromegas”, 1752, Voltaire). The reaction to the dominance of Enlightenment rationalism is characteristic of the second half of the 18th century; the Englishman R. Hurd calls for a heartfelt study of Fantasy (“Letters on Chivalry and Medieval Romances”, 1762); in The Adventures of Count Ferdinand Fathom (1753); T. Smollett anticipates the beginning of the development of science fiction in the 1920s. Gothic novel by H. Walpole, A. Radcliffe, M. Lewis. By supplying accessories to romantic plots, fantasy remains in an auxiliary role: with its help, the duality of images and events becomes the pictorial principle of pre-romanticism.
In modern times, the combination of fantasy and romanticism turned out to be especially fruitful. “Refuge in the kingdom of fantasy” (Yu.A. Kerner) was sought by all romantics: among the “Jenians” fantasy, i.e. the aspiration of the imagination into the transcendental world of myths and legends was put forward as a way of becoming familiar with higher insight, as a life program - relatively prosperous (due to romantic irony) in L. Tieck, pathetic and tragic in Novalis, whose “Heinrich von Ofterdingen” is an example of an updated fantastic an allegory, interpreted in the spirit of the search for an unattainable, incomprehensible ideal world. The Heidelberg romantics used Fantasy as a source of plots that gave additional interest to earthly events (“Isabella of Egypt”, 1812, L. Arnima is a fantastic arrangement of a love episode from the life of Charles V). This approach to fiction has proven particularly promising. In an effort to enrich its resources, German romantics turned to its primary sources - they collected and processed fairy tales and legends (“Folk Tales of Peter Lebrecht”, 1797, adapted by Tieck; “Children’s and Family Tales”, 1812-14 and “German Legends”, 1816 -18 brothers J. and V. Grimm). This contributed to the establishment of the literary fairy tale genre in all European literatures, which remains the leading one in children's fiction to this day. Its classic example is the fairy tale of H. C. Andersen. Romantic fiction is synthesized by Hoffmann's work: here is a Gothic novel (The Devil's Elixir, 1815-16), a literary fairy tale (The Lord of the Fleas, 1822, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, 1816), and an enchanting phantasmagoria (Princess Brambilla) , 1820), and a realistic story with a fantastic background (“The Bride’s Choice,” 1819, “The Golden Pot, 1814”). An attempt to improve the attraction to fantasy as the “abyss of the otherworldly” is represented by “Faust” (1808-31) by I. V. Goethe: using the traditional fantastic motive of selling the soul to the devil, the poet reveals the futility of the spirit’s wanderings in the realms of the fantastic and affirms earthly value as the final value life activity that transforms the world (i.e. the utopian ideal is excluded from the realm of fantasy and projected into the future).
In Russia, romantic fiction is represented in the works of V.A. Zhukovsky, V.F. Odoevsky, A. Pogorelsky, A.F. Veltman. A.S. Pushkin (“Ruslan and Lyudmila”, 1820, where the epic-fairy-tale flavor of fantasy is especially important) and N.V. Gogol turned to fantasy, whose fantastic images are organically fused into the folk-poetic ideal picture of Ukraine (“Terrible Revenge” , 1832; “Viy”, 1835). His St. Petersburg fiction (“The Nose”, 1836; “Portrait”, “Nevsky Prospekt”, both 1835) is no longer associated with folklore and fairy-tale motifs and is otherwise determined by the general picture of “escheated” reality, the condensed image of which, as it were, in itself gives rise to fantastic images.
With the establishment of realism, fiction again found itself on the periphery of literature, although it was often involved as a kind of narrative context, giving a symbolic character to real images (“Portrait of Dorian Gray, 1891, O. Wilde; “Shagreen Skin,” 1830-31 by O. Balzac; works by M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrin, S. Bronte, N. Hawthorne, Yu. A. Strindberg). The Gothic tradition of fiction is developed by E.A. Poe, who depicts or implies a transcendental, otherworldly world as a kingdom of ghosts and nightmares that dominate the earthly destinies of people. However, he also anticipated (“The History of Arthur Gordon Pym”, 1838, “Descent into the Maelstrom”, 1841) the emergence of a new branch of Science Fiction - scientific, which (starting with J. Verne and H. Wells) is fundamentally isolated from the general fantastic tradition; she paints a real, albeit fantastically transformed by science (for better or worse), world that opens up anew to the researcher’s gaze. Interest in f. as such was revived towards the end of the 19th century. among neo-romantics (R.L. Stevenson), decadents (M. Schwob, F. Sologub), symbolists (M. Maeterlinck, prose of A. Bely, dramaturgy of A. A. Blok), expressionists (G. Meyrink), surrealists (G .Kazak, E.Kroyder). The development of children's literature gives rise to a new image of the fantasy world - the toy world: in L. Carroll, C. Collodi, A. Milne; in domestic literature - by A.N. Tolstoy (“The Golden Key”, 1936), N.N. Nosov, K.I. Chukovsky. An imaginary, partly fairy-tale world is created by A. Green.
In the second half of the 20th century. The fantastic principle is realized mainly in the field of science fiction, but sometimes it gives rise to qualitatively new artistic phenomena, for example, the trilogy of the Englishman J.R. Tolkien “The Lord of the Rings” (1954-55), written in line with epic fantasy (see), novels and dramas of the Japanese Abe Kobo, works of Spanish and Latin American writers (G. Garcia Marquez, J. Cortazar). Modernity is characterized by the above-mentioned contextual use of fantasy, when an outwardly realistic narrative has a symbolic and allegorical connotation and will give a more or less encrypted reference to a mythological plot (“Centaur”, 1963, J. Updike; “Ship of Fools”, 1962, K.A. Porter). A combination of various possibilities of fiction is the novel by M.A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita” (1929-40). The fantastic-allegorical genre is represented in Russian literature by the cycle of “natural-philosophical” poems by N.A. Zabolotsky (“The Triumph of Agriculture”, 1929-30), folk-fairy-tale fiction by the works of P.P. Bazhov, literary fairy-tale fiction by the plays of E.L. Schwartz. Fantasy has become a traditional auxiliary means of Russian grotesque satire: from Saltykov-Shchedrin (“The History of a City,” 1869-70) to V.V. Mayakovsky (“The Bedbug,” 1929 and “Bathhouse,” 1930).
The word fantasy comes from Greek phantastike, what does it mean in translation- the art of imagination.
