The literature consists of, more or less, made up stories that are trying to mirror something realistic. The French Feenmärchen was the precursor of today’s fairy tale. But, the Märchen was equaled with the Volksmärchen, even though there are several differences made between those in literature studies. There are even more subcategories when it comes to Märchen, part of that are the Kunst- und Wirklichkeitsmärchen. The major differences between these subcategories are basically only how they were told.
Although these different authors write totally different and separate styles, you look deeper into each story and you find similarities within their work. The definition of Gothic literature is: the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents. Edgar Allan Poe 's literature has the tendency to come off as violent, cruel, supernatural type of background with the setting in a gloomy and isolated place which tends to catch the audience 's attention and ends up doing the job of entertaining the reader. Anton Chekhov an author of Russian Literature, portrays more of a calm and serene vibe. In Russian literature, it usually displays a variety of life lessons and human experiences that the common reader might be able to relate to.
Amaryll Chanady in her book ‘Magical Realism and Fantastic’ characterizes magical realism with two conflicting ideas, one based on an enlightened view of reality and the other one based on the acceptance of celestial as a part of this real world. Thereby, magical realism in literature defends the concurrence of real and fantastic. The narrator accepts realistic conventions, also introduces things which are not seen as real into the text. These elements are woven together in a magical realist text seamlessly. Thus the text does not only belong to the realm of fantasy but also empirical reality.
In the words of Wendy B. Faris, a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Texas, magical realism is described to be used in conjunction with “a preponderance of realistic event, character, and description that conform to the conventions of literary realism.” Novels that incorporate magical realism differ from those that fall under the genre of fantasy as it is set in a normal world with realistic descriptions of humans and society. Another characteristic of magical realism being used in novels is that it often involves two conflicting perspectives, one based on an alleged rational view of reality, and the other based on the acceptance of supernatural as the norm. More often than not, the narrator’s tone towards these supernatural elements indicates that they are normal. The seamless fusion of real and fantastic is possible because the presence of supernatural is integrated with the perceptions of characters in the novel. As Angel Flores, a 20th century Puerto Rican writer, puts it, magical realism transforms “the common and the everyday into the awesome and the unreal”.
(Klinger 6) It is hard to distinguish between fantasy and related genres such as science fiction. (Timmerman 2) Then what kind of unique features does fantasy have that allows it to be identified as fantasy? According to Timmerman, six traits must be present to some degree to be able to be identified as fantasy literature. Which is the use of a traditional story, presenting characters and heroism, an introduction to another world, the usage of the supernatural, a struggle between good and evil, and evidence of a quest. (Timmerman 4) The structure of a fantasy novel is created by the combination of the six traits of fantasy literature.
However, the combination of the supernatural and the dullness of normality can also be found in contemporary Japanese fiction such Norwegian Wood. Ida Mayer states that a careful literary analysis of authors like Murakami’s works, “particularly in relation to the narrative voice and a metaphorical interpretation of physical space, reveals an approach to the magical realism genre that centres on themes of isolation and dreaming” (Mayer, 2011, p.2). Mayer then argues that the main characters of Murakami and Yoshimoto’s novels are “poignantly isolated characters”, and as result the authors uses supernatural plot implementation to address these issues (Mayer, 2011, p.2). The characters in Murakami’s and Yoshimoto’s works are ones of emotional isolation. Mayer argues that the characters isolation is “caused by a perceived barrier between their private and public personae, with the magical events eventually acting as a bridging mechanism between those two spheres” (Mayer, 2011, pg.2).
CLASSIFICATION Fairy characters are very important figures in Shakespeare’s comedy. Inhabitants of the play’s fairy world call themselves spirits, ghosts, or shadows, what makes their kind unclear and hard to define. The fairies of A Midsummer Night 's Dream are seen to be what Oberon calls them: " spirits of another sort." However, Shakespeare 's fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream match the category of trooping fairies. They seem to be elemental creatures, nature ones.
Through the evaluation of moral and ethical undertones, it is evident that fairy tales positively and negatively affect the mindset of children. Fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Snow White, have all become household stories. They started out as small tales to tell at night, and have turned into big businesses, with movies, tv shorts, soundtracks, even plays on Broadway. Each story has left us with a message that both consciously and subconsciously have left some long lasting mark on us. Whether that be through the plotline itself, or even through its imagery, fairy tales seem to have a great impact on us from our first interactions with the stories.
When Angela Carter died in 1992, Salman Rushdie said that “English literature has lost its high sorceress, its benevolent witch-queen,” Margaret Atwood called her “the Fairy Godmother,” BBC Late Show presenter “white witch of English literature,” and J.G. Ballard a “friendly witch.” Thus, due to her interest in fairy tales and folklore, the praises and compliments she received were mainly about her rewriting of fairy tales. As Stephen Benson suggests, “the facet of Carter’s work that seems to have made the transition into the mainstream is its association with the fairy tale,” since “[t]he majority of her work as editor and translator revolved around the fairy tale.” In fact, she is preoccupied with fairy tales in most of her fiction works, including her novels, which frequently include fairy-tale motifs or images. As Merja Makinen points out, fairy-tale elements had been present in Carter’s work as early as in her novel The Magic Toyshop (1967). However, it was during the 1970s that Carter became “more explicitly and systematically interested in narrative models that pre-date the novel: fairy tales, folk tales, and other forms that develop by accretion and retelling,” and focused on editing, translating and rewriting fairy tales.
WHEN A SPLIT-PERSONALITY DISORDER COMES IN HANDY William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play that is set in Athens, containing characters with English names, and half of the story takes place in a forest filled with fairies. There is no single grounding to this story as it contains multiple narratives and through this, it questions the singularity of any entity. The characters of Puck/Robin Goodfellow and Francis Flute who plays Thisbe in Pyramus and Thisbe are foils to the search for a true identity, a theme that is revisited often in the play. One of the most noticeable features of both Puck and Francis Flute are the way they deliver their speeches. Flute’s speech is fragmented and involves a lot of questions and broken sentences: