New Directions of the European Fantastic

Edited by Sabine Coelsch-Foisner and Sarah Herbe. Assistant Editor: Eva-Maria Kubin.

Since the end of the Cold War a significant number of fantastic texts, films, artworks and new media practices across Europe have raised social and political questions. The fantastic typically works to disrupt the mimetic through supernatural, magical and visionary means. In this sense it breaks through boundaries of genre, space and identity. The 17 contributions to this volume explore a variety of contemporary fantastic literature and films, television, comics and cultural practices, ranging from new trends in European cinema over Polish fantasy novels to the role of the fantastic in contemporary European paganisms. The contributions show how the fantastic is used to comment on, and come to terms with, traumatic events; how it renegotiates the good-versus-evil opposition as well as the figure of the hero in texts produced after the end of the Cold War and in the wake of 9/11. A special focus is given to genre developments and to major themes such as the formation of national, cultural and personal identities or the blurring and redefinition of boundaries. - Contents: Roger Luckhurst: The Weird Rewired. Genres, Borders and the New Europe. - Edward James: The New Space Opera, 1991-2011. The European Contribution. - Mark Bould: Other Worlds Are Possible. Some Trends in European Fantastic Film after the Cold War. - Joe Grixti: The Intrigue of the Liminal. Fantastic Explorations of the Shadow Self. - Kathryn Rountree: The Role of the Fantastic in Contemporary European Paganisms. - Sonja Klimek: Illusion, Immersion and Identification. Storytelling Role-Playing Games as Interactive Media Practice. - Frans Mäyrä: The Global and Local in Fantastic New Media. The Case of Finland. - Christian Knöppler: Unexploded Bombs and Superpowers. Global Threats and Solutions in Warren Ellis's "The Authority and Global Frequency". - Stefanie Kreuzer: Constellations of a Postmodern Fantastic. - Marleen S. Barr: "The Sound of Music" Portrays an Alternative Universe Salzburg and Reflects Social Dialogue between an Unreal Austria and the United States. - Beatrix Hesse: A New Variation on the Alien Invasion Theme. Neill Blomkamp's "District 9". - Stefan Rabitsch: Rule, Britannia! Britannia, Rule(s) the Space in "Star Trek"! Maritime Histories, Transatlantic Anglophone Hegemonies and Science Fiction TV. - Inken Frost: "Doctor Who" in the Twenty-First Century. The Doctor after the (Cold) War. - Frauke Bode: Trauma and the Fantastic. Marcelo Figueras' "La batalla del calientamento" and Guillermo del Toro's "El laberinto del fauno". - A. J. Drenda: Geralt of Rivia. The Old and New Hero in Andrzej Sapkowski's "The Witcher" Cycle. - Stefanie Giebert: A Place for the Silver Horde or No Country for Old Men? Age and Aging in Fantasy and Science Fiction. - Brian Stableford: The Misdiagnosis of Madness in Science and Science Fiction. XIV,215 Seiten, gebunden (Wissenschaft und Kunst; Band 23/Universitätsverlag Winter 2012)