Review article
https://doi.org/10.21066/carcl.libri.14.1.6
The Poetics of Low Fantasy in Examples from Children’s Literature
Kristina Giacometti
; Primary School “Ivan vitez Trnski”, Nova Rača, Croatia
Abstract
The paper approaches the classification of fantasy literature through an analysis of spatial organisation in story worlds, with the primary focus on distinguishing the genres of low and high fantasy. The distinction clearly highlights the key difference between the two types of
narrative structures: while the plot in low fantasy takes place in the everyday, primary world where supernatural elements suddenly appear, in high fantasy, the plot is set in a complex, secondary world where magic is a rare but natural phenomenon. Based on the previous theoretical insights into genre issues, the paper explores the formal, thematic, and rhetorical dimensions of the genre, and defines the characteristics of the low fantasy genre through the unique dynamic between the everyday and the supernatural. The defining features are then identified in various examples from children’s literature, thereby affirming the structure of the low-fantasy genre.
Keywords
children’s literature; low fantasy; primary world; secondary world; high fantasy; genre;
Hrčak ID:
334895
URI
Publication date:
30.8.2025.
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