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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at the function of fantasy in contemporary cinema, with particlar reference to myth in film, as evinced by Lord of the Rings, the Star Wars series and Harry Potter. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
9 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLcinfan.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
In order to assess the function and relevance of fantasy in contemporary cinema, it is helpful to first consider the ways in which fantasy
might be defined, and the relationship which it has to both art and myth in modern culture. Feehan (2004), for example, comments that "fantastic" is most often interpreted as being
expressive of the subconscious in some way, although she also notes that one might draw a significant distinction between the totalising function of myth, and the inversion function of fantasy
- a distinction which, as we shall see, is often blurred when one considers fantasy in modern cinema.
Flieger (2001) combines the two as "mythic fantasy", pointing out that "in an age of impoverished belief, emphatic materialism,
cultural fragmentation and erosion of assumed values" (Flieger, 2001, npa), such a genre is gaining increasing popularity in both literature and cinema. The fantasy "packaging", he asserts, is designed to
make myth more palatable to the audience, but at the heart of the representation, one finds myth. Because myth "shows us our place in the scheme of things" (Flieger, 2001,
npa), the use of the fantasy genre allows the author or director to stand outside of the reality with which we are familiar, and give us a different perspective on
that reality through the use of fantasy characters and themes.
He also makes the salient point that not only has "fantasy fiction" made the transition from subculture to mainstream, there is no longer the same tendency
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