Speculative Mimesis in Fantasy Literature : Rethinking Relations Between Fiction and Reality

With perceptions of reality in the 21st-century increasingly seen as pluralistic and a matter of interpretation, this open access book identifies fantasy literature as a uniquely and highly effective form of storytelling for engaging with our contemporary sense of reality in all its fluidity and complexity. Proposing a new theory of fantasy’s relationship with our reality as a speculative form of mimesis, Elise Kraatila demonstrates how the genre exemplifies literary ways of engaging with the complexities of our contemporary sense of reality by means of “what if?” propositions, grand-scale scenario models, imaginative world-building and thought experiments. Discussing works of 21st-century fantasy by celebrated authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, N.K. Jemisin, Joe Abercrombie and Lev Grossman, Speculative Mimesis in Fantasy Literature lays bare the complexity and interpretive ambiguity that characterizes the relationship between fantasy fiction, the art of storytelling, and our contempor