Guest Post by Matt Boone, East Campus Libraries
Have you ever wondered about how the urban fantasy subgenre functions in its own unique way? Urban fantasy can take a stereotypical fantasy story and give it a twist by setting it in a more modern setting and having the same elements interact with each other in different ways. This subgenre allows for interesting takes on fantasy archetypes and creatures. Examples would include a wizard detective, a vampire accountant, and ancient gods or other legendary figures interacting with and adapting to the modern world. Stories can have characters who operate within the more ‘realistic’ side of the setting react to the ‘fantastical’ side of the setting in different ways.
What goes into Urban Fantasy?
If the supernatural elements are supposed to be a secret, how and why do they stay hidden or, if they are known, how has the supernatural affected society and its development? This can include how the creatures have been integrated into society or how magic has been integrated into the day-to-day life of the characters. Examples would include characters utilizing cleaning spells to clean their homes, law enforcement utilizing actual oracles or seers to help solve crimes, doctors and nurses utilizing healing magic, or the entertainment industry hiring actual magic users to save on special effects.
Urban fantasy may be a good way to open new avenues of entertainment and encourage people to read more by finding books that they could enjoy and consume. The urban settings may also be more appealing for people who might not like the world-building in the regular fantasy genre. In an urban fantasy story, like The Dresden Files, supernatural elements are adapted to our modern society and technology. A classic fantasy story, like The Lord of the Rings, has kings, queens, knights, and wizards in a medieval setting.
The popularity of urban fantasy grew in the 1980s, encouraged by the success of Stephen King (IT, Christine, Pet Sematary) and Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles, The Mummy, or Rameses the Damned). Their success likely helped to encourage both writers and publishers to see the potential of the subgenre.
Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the present
This book is a survey of urban fantasy/fantasy writings/literature set in London between the Victorian era to the 21st Century. It discusses different works of multiple notable historical authors, such as Dickens, Wells, Orwell, and Peake. It also discusses how the authors’ different methods influenced what they wrote, such as with Wells having an imagination that is based more on science and preferring to state things in a more matter of fact way. Read more about Elber-Aviram’s book
This book gives readers an introduction into the genre of science fiction. It goes into detail explaining what science fiction is, its history, the representation of race and gender in the genre, and how the technology appearing in science fiction works correlates with our real-world technology. For example, cyberspace is typically portrayed as being more ‘exciting and dynamic’ than reality’s more limited digital environment. Read more about Roberts’ book
This book was written to explain how the fantasy genre can be relevant and meaningful to our real world and lives if it is not a realistic representation of said world. Another question that the book sets out to answer is what sorts of changes that the genre can have in the world. The book goes on to how fantasy can represent truth in a metaphorical manner. Read more about Attebury’s book
This novel takes place in late 19th Century America (specifically New York City) where a newly awakened golem whose master died en route and a newly released jinni must try to fit into different subcultures of New York City and not to draw attention to themselves. The novel delves into how each of them have trouble fitting in due to their different, supernatural natures. They do eventually encounter each other and learn how to interact with the other and eventually form a small group of people who they trust. Read more about Wecker’s book
Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination
This book was written with the intention to help its readers to better appreciate the possibilities that that the fantasy literary genre can unleash for creativity. It goes over how the genre has evolved over time and includes the names of authors and works that have impacted the genre in major ways, such as J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, and Ursula K. Le Guin and the Earthsea Cycle. The book goes on to describe how the different works and authors that it describes have had an impact on the fantasy genre in their own ways. Read more about Mathews’ book
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature
This book discusses various aspects of the fantasy genre, including its history, the different ways of reading the literature of the genre (thematic, political, psychoanalysis, etc.), and the various clusters of the genre (i.e. urban fantasy, historical fantasy, magical realism, etc.). It covers urban fantasy in chapter 17 with four main sections of the chapter. Read more about Chapter 17
Genres of Doubt: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the Victorian Crisis of Faith
This book describes how the fantasy and science fiction genres got a start in 19th Century Britain. The book goes into detail about how speculative fiction at the time, such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, had started to challenge what society at the time was used to and its norms. This was likely influenced by the relatively recent geological findings and the writings of Charles Darwin. Britain being exposed to more cultures from around the world likely also had an effect during this period. Read more about Sanders’ book
Look for another blog post on The Exciting World of Urban Fantasy: Films. It’s coming soon!
The cityscape in the feature image is a section of “Clouds- Hong Kong” by carloyuen. See the full image on Pixabay.