Urban Fantasy Theorising an Emergent Literary Subgenre
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Urban Fantasy Theorising an emergent literary subgenre Sarai Mannolini-Winwood BA (Edith Cowan), BA (Hons) (UWA), DipEd (Notre Dame, Perth) This thesis is presented for the degree of Master of Philosophy of Murdoch University 2016 I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution. Sarai Mannolini-Winwood i Abstract Fantasy literature in the 1980s underwent a revisionist change, which resulted in the emergence of a number of subgenres that challenged the dominant Tolkien model of fantasy writing. One such subgenre, which continues in popularity today, is urban fantasy (UF). UF is distinguished by real-world urban settings unsettled by the presence of the supernatural and the non-rational. The exemplary writers in this genre are Emma Bull (War for the Oaks, 1987), China Mieville (King Rat, 1998) as well as Laurell K. Hamilton (in her prolific series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter), Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson Series) and Suzanne McLeod (Spellcrackers.com Series), among others. The classification of UF has predominantly been commercial or industry-based, with little critical or theoretical evaluation undertaken to define or establish its parameters. Within a limited frame of reference this thesis aims to fulfil a twofold purpose: first, to explore the evolution of UF from its roots in fantasy, urban realism and other antecedent genres so as to better establish its inherited characteristics; and, second, to offer a classificatory framework that identifies the distinctive elements of UF’s thematic concerns and protagonists. An exploration of UF highlights that it is a unique subgenre that comments on our inherent fears and anxieties of contemporary urban life. Furthermore, UF draws attention to culture’s disturbing fascination with the brutal, monstrous, facets of human life and, as a female- centric subgenre, challenges us to rethink our received perceptions of the female hero. ii Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ ii Contents .............................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 2 Urban Fantasy’s Generic Heritage .................................................................... 7 Theorising Urban Fantasy ............................................................................... 16 Chapter 1: The Evolution and Definition of Urban Fantasy ........................ 19 Considering the Genre of Fantasy ................................................................... 19 Distinguishing Urban Fantasy ......................................................................... 24 Previous Definitions of Urban Fantasy ........................................................... 30 A Brief Word on the Choice of Texts ............................................................. 35 A Provisional Definition for Urban Fantasy ................................................... 36 Chapter 2: The Literary Urban ....................................................................... 42 Real-world Urban Settings .............................................................................. 44 The Influence of the Literary Nineteenth Century .......................................... 50 Multiplicity in the Construction of Urbanscapes ............................................ 57 The City from Above ...................................................................................... 59 The City from Street Level ............................................................................. 64 The City from Below ...................................................................................... 67 Chapter 3: Fear, Anxiety and Dread ............................................................... 71 Liminal Spaces ................................................................................................ 76 Terminal Landscapes and Liminal Themes .................................................... 90 The City Edifice .............................................................................................. 93 Tensions between the Past and Present ........................................................... 96 Chapter 4: The Urban Hunter ......................................................................... 99 The Fantasy Hero .......................................................................................... 100 The Female Protagonist and Hero ................................................................. 104 The Urban Hunter ......................................................................................... 115 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 129 Appendix .......................................................................................................... 132 References ........................................................................................................ 141 iii Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the support of my family and friends during this process, especially that of my husband. I thank them for their patience, understanding and unwavering support. I acknowledge the work of my supervisors from Murdoch University, Australia. My primary supervisor, Vijay Mishra, supported me through the development and progression of my thesis. I thank him for alerting me to the current state of genre theory in respect of urban fantasy. My secondary supervisor, Anne Surma, skilfully and patiently guided me in the early stages of my thesis development and through the candidature process. I also acknowledge that this thesis was edited by Elite Editing, and editorial intervention was restricted to Standards D and E of the Australian Standards for Editing Practice. Finally, I wish to thank the authors and their amazing works (the subject of this thesis) that have inspired me throughout my life, and without whose creativity and brilliance this thesis would not exist. 1 Introduction This thesis explores the emerging subgenre of Urban Fantasy (UF) and examines how it is differentiated from other forms of fantasy literature. Engaging in a discussion of genre is a problematic endeavour because, as John Frow (2015) indicated in his seminal text Genre, it is ‘important to stress the open-endedness of genres and the irreducibility of texts to a single interpretive framework’ (p. 30). Further, as Heather Dubrow (1982) stated, ‘[t]he very question of whether one should accept the notion of generic classification or challenge its validity involves one of the broadest theoretical issues’ (p. 45). The debate concerning the validity of generic classification has a long history. For example, Frow (2015) highlighted that ‘just the same lack of internal coherence characterises almost all attempts at a systematic scholarly analysis of literary genres’ (p. 14). If discussing the broad category of genre is difficult, engaging in a discussion concerning a subgenre of fantasy literature is even more problematic. Fantasy as a genre (or subgenre) remains a highly contentious field. This issue was noted by Kathryn Hume (1984), who observed that too often theorists ‘assume that fantasy is a pure phenomenon, that a few clear rules will delimit it, and that the result will be a genre of form which can be called fantasy’ (p. 8). This point is emphasised by Gary Wolfe (1990), who claimed that ‘[t]here is no agreed-upon canon of fantasy works to discuss, and no agreed-upon definition of what fantasy is, exactly’ (p. 373). However, regardless of theoretical unease, categorisation based on genre, and especially subgenres, is one of the most effective avenues to examine literature that shares common characteristics. As noted by Dubrow (1982), the difficulty is that generic definitions are often circular in nature. Like biological categorisation, establishing a definition based on selected examples ‘from the multitude of possible ones implies a prior decision about the characteristics of the genre’ (Dubrow, 1982, p. 46). Frow (2015) was more forthright in observing that, ‘Genre is, amongst other things, a matter of discrimination and taxonomy: of organising things into recognisable classes’ (p. 56). Dubrow and Frow’s arguments are strong and indisputable, yet the fact remains that any form of codification will always be influenced by the user’s own assumptions. This is because ‘[e]ven when a text disrupts all the expectations we may have of it, these expectations nevertheless form the ways in which we can read it and the ways in which we can change our minds’ (Frow, 2015, 2 p. 31). In addition, language itself imposes constraints because the terminology we use is already arbitrary. Regardless, the value of generic classification cannot be overstated because genre categorisation is the primary entry point for interpretation. Thus, I return to Frow’s (2015) contention that genre ‘is central to human meaning- making and to the social struggle over meanings’ (p. 10). Jacques Derrida (1980) most forcefully made the case in favour of genre as a transcendental category for literary analysis, while simultaneously causing possible subversion