21st Century High Fantasy in Term Paper

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Indeed, the presence of both realistic and fantastical elements in the novel was a strategy consciously made to make young adults appreciate "Harry Potter" fantasy, and at the same time, have the adults achieve a greater imagination development, thereby making the novel also an example of high fantasy literature. Creating the characters in the image of humans, and even the inclusion of the mortal world in the novel, are strategic attempts to make the novel more relevant, if not totally fantastical, to adult people's lives, views and perceptions of reality. Thus, in "Harry Potter," the genre of high fantasy is maintained through this strategy.

Simmons and Evely (2006) classified "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," and the other Harry Potter novels as examples of 'magical realism' novels. This, they believed, was the most appropriate term to define the kind of fantasy tackled and illustrated in the novel, since the authors took into account the "adult elements" that are relevant to, and oftentimes targeting at, the adults. In their analysis, high fantasy was substituted by magical realism, for high fantasy requires the individual to seek greater imagination development devoid of one's awareness of the existence of the human world. This was not the case in the Harry Potter novels, that is why they deemed it necessary to opt for the "magical realism" concept instead, to make the assessment more realistic and true to the present nature of the fantasy-reading adult segment in the market today.

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Under the concept of magical realism, "the fairytale genre is extended to create a hybrid of the real and the fantastic. It is a genre that deals in heightened reality, or an additional dimension of reality conveyed through a symbolic or metaphoric structure. This provides a new perception, like that of a child looking at the world for the first time" (78). Indeed, similarities in objects and concepts between the magical and the Muggle world in "Harry Potter" pertain to this kind of realistic-fantastical mix that is common in high fantasy fiction. Moreover, the inclusion of magical elements such as the display of extranatural powers of the wizards and witches in the novel is an example of how, inasmuch as they are similar to humans, they also greatly differ from them by virtue of their powers alone. This being the reality in the "Harry Potter" novel, the adult reader learns to compromise between these two facts: that there are elements similar between the human and magical world, while the latter is able to maintain its identity because of what it has over the other (human world) -- extranatural magical powers......

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