Fastitocalon 9.1&2: Fantastic Languages - The Language of the Fantastic

Dimitra Fimi, Thomas Honegger, Allan Turner (Eds.)

Fastitocalon - Studies in Fantasticism Ancient to Modern. Vol. 9, Iss. 1 & 2: Fantastic Languages - The Language of the Fantastic

ISBN 978-3-86821-874-9, 100 S., 2 Abb., kt., € 25,00 (2020)

If language can create fantasy, then fantasy can also create language. Invented languages have long been a key element of creating fantastic worlds, both in print (at least from the early modern period) and, more recently, on screen. If language can create fantasy, then fantasy can also create language. Invented languages have long been a key element of creating fantastic worlds, both in print (at least from the early modern period) and, more recently, on screen. The underlying reason for this persistence is to be found in the partially linguistic nature of human and, arguably, alien/non-human identities.
The contributions to this volume consider not only the construction of languages, which has long been a staple of writing in the fantastic mode, but explore the more complex areas of stylistic variation in the narrative itself, the effects of language on communication in secondary worlds, and even the very possibility of meaningful communication through an imperfect medium.
Contributors are: Evelyn Koch (The Lunar Language in Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone (1638) and Its Impact on Early Modern Invented Languages), Thomas Honegger (Language, Historical Depth, and the Fantastic in the Work of H.P. Lovecraft), Allan Turner (Language and verisimilitude in animal fantasy), Mia Khachidze (Languages of Becoming in Scott Westerfeld's Fine Prey and China Miéville's Embassytown), and Stefan Donecker, Werner Döring and Lukas Daniel Klausner (Languages and Linguistic Communities of the Fantasy Role-Playing Game The Dark Eye).