From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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-	[[Image:Doré's caricature of Münchhausen.jpg|200px|thumb|left|	+	#redirect[[Fantastique]]
-	[[Doré's caricature of Münchhausen]], a portrait bust of [[Baron Münchhausen]] by French artist [[Gustave Doré]]]]	+
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-	"The metaphysicians of Tlön do not seek for the [[truth]] or even for [[verisimilitude]], but rather for the astounding. They judge that [[metaphysics]] is a branch of [[fantastic literature]]." --"[[Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius]]" by Borges	+
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-	{{Template}}	+
-	'''Fantastic literature''', '''fantastic fiction''' or '''fantastic tales''' is a [[literary genre]]. A great deal of literature, from every part of the world and dating back to time immemorial, falls within the category of ''[[fantastic]]''. Fairy tales like ''[[The Book of One Thousand and One Nights]]'' and epic literature like the ''[[Romance of the Holy Grail]]'' are within the [[scope]] of this genre.	+
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-	'''Fantastic''' as a literary term perhaps first appeared in the 1940 anthology ''[[Antologìa de la Literatura Fantàstica]]'' by Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Silvina Ocampo.	+
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-	Academic interest in the '''fantastic''' originated in the structuralist theory of critic [[Tzvetan Todorov]] and his 1970 treatise ''[[The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre]]''. Todorov describes the fantastic as being a [[liminal]] state of the [[supernatural]]. A truly fantastic work is subtle in the working of the feeling, and would leave the reader with a sense of [[confusion]] about the work, and whether or not the phenomenon was real or imagined. [[Tzvetan Todorov]] holds that [[fantastic literature]] involves an [[unresolved]] [[hesitation]] between a [[supernatural]] (or otherwise paranormal or impossible) solution and a psychological (or realistic) one. His term ''hesitation'' is reminiscent of the terms ''[[ambiguity]]'' and ''[[ambivalence]]'' used in the definition of the [[Grotesque sensibility in literature|grotesque]].	+
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-	Todorov compares the fantastic with two other ideas: The [[Uncanny]], wherein the phenomenon turns out to have a rational explanation such as in the [[Gothic fiction|gothic]] works of [[Ann Radcliffe]]; or the [[marvelous]], where there truly is a supernatural explanation for the phenomenon.	+
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-	The first text cited in the genre of fantastic fiction is customarily [[Jacques Cazotte]]’s short novel ''[[The Devil in Love]]'' (Le Diable amoureux, [[1772]]). Other examples of writers of fantastic literature include:	+
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-	*[[Théophile Gautier]]'s ''[[The Dead in Love]]''	+
-	*many of [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s short works	+
-	*[[Nikolai Gogol]]'s "[[The Nose]]"	+
-	*[[Mikhail Bulgakov]]	+
-	*[[Algernon Blackwood]]'s works	+
-	*[[Sheridan Le Fanu]]'s "[[In a Glass Darkly]]"	+
-	*[[Mervyn Peake]]'s ''[[Gormenghast series]]	+
-	*[[E.T.A. Hoffmann]]'s works, notably [[Der Sandmann]], "[[The Golden Pot]]", and "[[The Nutcracker|The Nutcracker and the King of Mice]]"	+
-	*[[Gerard de Nerval]]'s "[[Aurelia]]"	+
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-	In [[Elizabethan]] slang, a 'fantastic' was a fop; an "improvident young gallant" who was obsessed with showy dress. The character Lucio in [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Measure for Measure]]'' is described in the Dramatis Personae as a 'Fantastic'.	+
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-	It should be noted that in popular usage, the word "fantastic" has become a casual term of approval, a synonym for "great" or "brilliant", and this has to a great extent supplanted the original meaning of the word. However, the [[Concise Oxford English Dictionary]] still lists the original meaning first, with the popular meaning listed second and described as "informal".	+
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-	== See also ==	+
-	*[[Fantasy literature]]	+
-	*[[Fantasy or fantastique?]]''	+
-	*[[Grotesque]]	+
-	*[[Supernatural fiction]]	+
-	*[[Fantastique]]	+
-	*''[[Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion]]''	+
-	{{GFDL}}	+

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1. redirectFantastique