Key Terms and Books to Connect To

Question 1

Verbal Irony

Answer 1

When a speaker says one thing, but means another (e.g. Dracula)

Question 2

Situational Irony

Answer 2

Dependent on the situation, contradictory, like the song Ironic by Alanis Morissette (e.g. Victor aims to create life, but instead takes his own)

Question 3

Dramatic Irony

Answer 3

When the audience knows something the characters don’t (e.g. dont choose this one)

Question 4

Difference between myth and fantasy

Answer 4

Mythology predates fantasy, often allegorical (e.g. Moonshot)
Myth also informs fantasy (The Celestial Omnibus by E.M. Forster)

Question 5

The Creation Story

Answer 5

Myth that makes sense of the world’s early beginnings, similarly to greek mythology

Question 6

The Prometheus Legend

Answer 6

Known as being a champion of mankind, defying power and promoting power to the people (The Celestial Omnibus through Mr. Bons/snob)

Question 7

Second World Fantasy

Answer 7

Fictional universe, The Kingdom of Cards by Rabindranath Tagore

Question 8

High vs Low Fantasy

Answer 8

Epic fantasy, set in a secondary world (e.g. The Kingdom of Cards or The Reluctant Dragon) vs. set on earth in the primary world and includes magical elements (The Celestial Omnibus and The Ensouled Violin)

Question 9

Frame Story

Answer 9

A story set within a story, Kenneth Grahame’s The Reluctant Dragon

Question 10

Metafiction

Answer 10

Attention is paid to the process of fictive composition, Kenneth Grahame’s The Reluctant Dragon

Question 11

Hard vs. Soft Sci-Fi

Answer 11

Leans into known science and steers away from the fantastical (e.g. War of the Worlds or The Voices of Time) vs. stretches the word “science” to its limits, sometimes with only a thin veil over the story (e.g. Frankenstein or Transformation)

Question 12

Key themes of Robinsonade

Answer 12

Distant places with fantastic adventure, common themes: progress through technology, a storyline following the triumphs and the rebuilding of civilization, economic achievement, unfriendliness of nature (Vaster than Empires and More Slow)

Question 13

Gender Criticism approach

Answer 13

Goes beyond the binary in contrast to the feminist approach (e.g. Frankenstein) Explores gender envy and masculine energies not necessarily distinguished by human, but by the power of the creature, another example is Dracula, explores queer desire

Question 14

Postcolonial Criticism

Answer 14

Focuses on cultural behaviour in relation to the colonized world, written by those under colonial power or those of colonial power (usually critical) e.g. Vaster than Empires and More Slow, fear of the colonized environment as the crew is the colonizer

Question 15

Orientalism

Answer 15

Projections of western identity, the west as the future and not the past (Vaster than Empires and More Slow)

Question 16

New Historicism

Answer 16

Assumes every work is a product of the historic moment that created it (e.g. Voices of Time and the evolution of science in relation to the expiry on life)

Question 17

Utopian sci-fi

Answer 17

Agrees with the author’s ethos (Strike and Bolt)

Question 18

Dystopian sci-fi

Answer 18

Disagrees with the author’s ethos (Vaster than Empires, Kingdom of Cards, Voices of Time)

Question 19

Afrofuturism

Answer 19

A literary movement that imagines a future in which Black history and culture are connection to conventions of sci fi, fantasy, and technology (e.g. The Princess Steel and The Comet by W.E.B Du Bois)

Question 20

Critical Race Theory

Answer 20

Interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analyzing how social and political laws and media shape social conceptions of race and ethnicity (The Comet)

Question 21

Coming-of-age story

Answer 21

Start with some kind of loss (of childhood innocence), concludes with some newfound maturity and sense of self (e.g. Bloodchild)

Question 22

Personification vs symbol

Answer 22

Personification is more literal (The Celestial Omnibus, Mr. Bons), whereas a symbol is a representation of one thing to make a certain point (The Celestial Omnibus)

Question 23

School of Terror

Answer 23

Psychological horror, suspense, mystery (e.g. Frankenstein and Dracula)

Question 24

School of Horror

Answer 24

Gore, death, graphic, plot driven (The Metamorphosis and Bloodchild)

Question 25

Imperial Gothic

Answer 25

Most commonly refers to fiction set in the British Empire that employs and adapts elements drawn from Gothic novels such as gloomy, forbidding atmosphere. Mysticism, degeneration, irrationality, barbarism were all words associated with the “other”, which came to be deeply feared. (e.g. Dracula)

Question 26

Intrusive fantasy portals

Answer 26

Intrudes on current world (e.g. The Celestial Omnibus and The Ensouled Violin)

Question 27

Immersive fantasy portals

Answer 27

Immerses into a completely new world (The Kingdom of Cards and The Reluctant Dragon)