Fantasy in Asimov's Fictional World: Across Media

Abstract

Fantasy is the most attention seeker genre whether it is used in literature or film. Fantasy generically englobe four basic categories: horror, science fiction, fairy tales and a certain type of adventure (journeys to improbable places and meetings with implausible ‘creatures’, such as Planet of the Apes etc. Film and literature are interrelated at various levels. The narrative is one of them. Filmic narrative and literary narrative both have the potential to communicate the message with full potential but with a difference. Therefore, the popularity of fantasy literature and film needs to be examined. The two media: Literary fantasy and film fantasy will be examined with emphasis on the ways they signify things in a fantasy story. Discussion on literary fantasy will show how the audience is enabled by the author to cooperate in the imagination of fantasy’s world, whereas examining film fantasy, the focus will be on how film works visually as a medium to convey fantasy story by enriching viewers’ capacity for imagining and experiencing fantasy’s world.

This paper will search out the features of fantasy (in science fiction) that creates such attraction in readers and in viewers alike. It also discusses the affect fantasy evoke from the person who reads or watches it and how does fantasy differ in its effects when conveyed through the written word versus filmed images.