Timeline for When was the term "fantasy" first used to describe the genre?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 6, 2022 at 1:16 | answer | added | Ethan | timeline score: 2 | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 15:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackSciFi/status/1599780653498863618 | ||
| Dec 5, 2022 at 13:10 | comment | added | catemperor | @PM2Ring, good find, from the same page "Literary critics of the era began to take an interest in "fantasy" as a genre of writing, and also to argue that it was a genre worthy of serious consideration. Herbert Read devoted a chapter of his book English Prose Style (1928) to discussing "Fantasy" as an aspect of literature…". Need to comb through the sources, but we are close I think. | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 12:29 | comment | added | PM 2Ring | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_fantasy says "It was not until 1923 that the term "fantasist" was used to describe a writer (in this case, Oscar Wilde) who wrote fantasy fiction. The name "fantasy" was not developed until later; as late as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, the term "fairy tale" was still being used." | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 11:47 | comment | added | Eric Nolan | It might be worth checking out the term "romance" as it applied in the past. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_(prose_fiction) At some point most prose that we would call fantasy (also science fiction) today would have been called romance. It seems like you are looking for the point when this changed. Also, my perception, which I can't back up, is that book shops and publishers were primary drivers of the genrefication of fiction. "Fiction" became "SF & Fantasy", "Horror", "Romance", etc. Then SF & Fantasy were split. Then those were further divided in to sub-genres. | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 11:21 | comment | added | catemperor | @user14111, thanks for the sfdictionary link, so it could be argued that in 1932 already science fiction was seen as a subgenre of fantasy, which would imply that the genre of fantasy itself was recognized. | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 11:03 | comment | added | catemperor | @A.Steer, an indication of the recognition of it as a genre could probably be inferred from the creation of a library/publishing classification or from works on literary theory. | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:57 | comment | added | A.Steer | If people at the time of the Arthurian legends saw them as fantastical, would that then be the start of a genre, even if those people didn't understand that? I think this question will be hard to answer anyway | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:55 | comment | added | user14111 | @A.Steer I may be wrong, but I thought the OP was asking about the use of the term "fantasy" rather than the genre itself. | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:52 | comment | added | user14111 | Sorry about that. Here is a archive.org scan so you can judge for yourself: archive.org/details/miracle-v-01-n-01-1931-04-05 I'm not sure difinition of the "recognized and distinct genre" may have changed over time; in 1931 it was probably broader than "Tolkienesque quest adventure with elves, dwarves, wizards and orcs.". | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:51 | comment | added | A.Steer | If Arthurian Legend is seen as fantasy, it could go as far back as the 12th century | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:29 | comment | added | catemperor | @user14111, it shows "For performance reasons, Advanced Searches are currently restricted to registered users.". Anyway, can we be sure that the term was used to refer to the recognized and distinct genre? | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:24 | comment | added | user14111 | The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is a good resource for this kind of question: sfdictionary.com/view/1013/fantasy | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:20 | comment | added | user14111 | The word "fantasy" was used in magazine titles as early as 1931: isfdb.org/cgi-bin/… | |
| Dec 5, 2022 at 10:09 | history | asked | catemperor | CC BY-SA 4.0 |