Fantasy art is often considered a “low culture” ? Do you agree?

ABSTRACT
Fantasy ARt is often considered a “low culture” genre, not fit for college classrooms.


Many anti-Fantasy critics have erroneously argued that Fantasy is psychologically dangerous, without literary merit, or fit only for children. Despite the many pro-Fantasy critics who have attempted to refute these arguments, mainstream literary culture does not yet accept Fantasy as a useful genre.

In an attempt to determine how widespread the anti-Fantasy critics’ opinions are, We conducted a survey of college students designed to measure their personalities against their opinions of various types of art, television programs, and movies. The results were, unfortunately, inconclusive due to the students’ tendency to engage in socially acceptable responding.

Fantasy can and should be included in classroom discussions, not only in classes devoted to art surveys, but as a teaching tool. In order to explore the use of Fantasy as a teaching tool, I have applied three types of literary criticism to a popular Fantasy television show. This show is full of themes and metaphors that can be used to illustrate the concepts of literary theories such as archetypal, psychoanalytic, and cultural studies in order to assist students in comprehending and applying the principles of these and other types of criticism.

Shiloh Carroll, MA
Department of English, 2008
Radford University