Talk:History of fantasy

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I think we've done a pretty good job so far of including "Eastern" fantasy fiction, particularly on the subgenre page, but this history page seems to be overwhelmingly Western. The influence of Eastern fairytales and fables on the fantasy genre has been immense, not only through the avenues of Japanese monster-movies, anime, manga, and videogame RPGs, but also through pen & paper RPGs, a general Western awareness of Eastern culture in the past few decades, and most importantly, the impact that Eastern fairytales, fables, and culture has had on contemporary fantasy fiction in the East.

We might also want to make some attempt to expand beyond Eurasian culture as a whole, though I'm not sure how significant the contributions of other cultures have really been (so far). After all, we don't want to include things that aren't very significant just for multiculturalism's sake, but it's something I think we should really look into, no matter what we end up deciding. --Corvun 23:26, August 14, 2005 (UTC)

The chapter on Modern fantasy has been bugged, most of it is missing.

- - Prof. Dr. Aleksandar B. Nedelkovic, Beograd, Serbia

The manga etc is much too modern to have any influence on the formation of the fantasy genre, and this is the topic of the article in question. The fantasy, in the sense of supernatural happening which were not explicitly believed, is evident in all literary traditions. The fantasy genre as such, on the other hand, is a modern creation of Western civilisation, and any history of modern fantasy genre must necessarily concentrate on those literary traditions which influenced it.

Eg influence of the Arabian Night Tales on western fantasy is undoubtable. Such authors as Dunsany are unimaginable without them.

Baduin 16:14, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

No, this article is not about the "formation of the fantasy genre" -- it's about the history of fantasy. Goldfritha 00:37, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Do people have some problems with chronology? Gothic novel (XVIII century) is always pushed after Morris (end of XIX century) Baduin 17:54, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I broke off the "differences" section because it was not suitable for the lede -- the article being about the history and not the differences. Goldfritha 15:16, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] order

The order of this article is not very useful. The Arabic section is talking about the decline romances before the section that tells what they are. The Western section deals with the matter chronologically, but the added sections go after it regionally. It does not seem appropriate for an article on history. Goldfritha 00:16, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

While we're at it, does the "east/west" split add anything? Goldfritha 17:18, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Out it goes, then. I am reordering chronologically, according to the first works cited in each section. (And, of course, changing the title "Primordial fantasy") Goldfritha 22:36, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite

This page does not discuss the history of fantasy. At best, it discusses what The Encyclopedia of Fantasy terms "taproot texts", sources for the genre, but it does so with no eye to the actual degree of influence that the works have had. Goldfritha 01:15, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

In fact, the fantasy article contains nearly as much, if not more, than this one about the actual history of fantasy. The actual history is being swamped by an endless list of every mythology that's been written down. I may split off to an article about taproot texts. Goldfritha 00:26, 23 March 2007 (UTC)