The Fantastic in World Literature and the Arts

From a discussion of the problem of communicating with non-human beings and a review of popular fantastic films to an examination of stage portrayals of Dr. Frankenstein's monster, the essays included reflect and reinfoce the international appeal of the fantastic. Studies on J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Caroll, Carlos Fuentes, Edgar Allen Poe, Jorges Luis Borges, and others show how writers, artists, and directors use the impossible as a way of presenting familiar problems and themes--such as the relation of the past to the future or our attitudes towards death--in a new light. Several essays suggest new or newly refined ways of approaching the fantastic in literature from a critical standpoint, while others focus on the visual and kinetic arts. Taken together, the essays accurately mirror the flux and vitality of the current study of the fantastic in the arts.