Roots of SF & Fantasy

[sleigh]

I'll be teaching an English Lit course next semester -- it's a Gen Ed 200 course, "Understanding Literature" where the student is looking at fiction, drama, and poetry, but I'm doing this one as a "Special Topics" course with an emphasis on science fiction and fantasy. I'll be using the first few weeks of the class to look at the 'roots' of the genre -- going well back past the 19th Century to look at material that might be considered in the genre if we were to look at it today (for instance, Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" is an obvious fantasy).

I have several thoughts along those lines, but I'm curious as to what some of you think. So... what would your choices be for ancient works that point toward the eventual modern genre of sf/fantasy? What piece of literature/mythology/etc might you pick to examine if you were teaching the course?

Comments

[braider.livejournal.com]

...are you going to cover folklore, and the uses of fantasy? I would argue (without putting much thought into it) that the uses of fantasy have changed from folklore to written work. Traditional folklore was typically a means of assuaging grief, and explaining things that people didn't want to explain were part of human nature. Written fantasy is a way to step out of the ordinary life and, at times, to examine the impact of possible futures/to discuss current culture and its ramifications in a "safe" environment.

And more - are you going to force them to read Udolpho? I never managed to make it through that.

Gilgamesh?

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

01. Gilgamesh
02. Homer
03. Virgil?
04. Saga/Kalevala
05. Mabinogion
06. Arthurian
07. Dante
08. Spenser? Bunyan?

Hmm, I guess I should ask you to define "ancient"...

Cyrano

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I'm voting for Cyrano de Bergerac's "A Voyage to the Moon." It's utopian fiction with a space feel.

Re: Cyrano

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Like Dante, Spenser, and Bunyan, ain't ancient... ;-)

[jennlk]

Beowulf.
A lot of the tales of Odysseus are fantasies.

One could argue (and I have had a prof argue this), that Paradise Lost is a fantasy. Spenser's Faerie Queen is (almost too obviously) fantasy, as are parts of Dante.

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

There's Gawain and the Green Knight and also Aladdin and the Sinbad tales. Though Thousand Nights, Aladdin and Sinbad aren't Western European, they were known in the Western World at least as early as the 17th century. Poe wrote a Sinbad story, for example.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Marie de France's short Lay on the Werewolf
Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parsifal and Chretien de Troyes, ditto (they make an interesting pairing).
The Tempest
Legenda Aurea.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

When I was teaching at the U of M, I used Plato's Republic as a an example of utopian fiction, and a proto-sf work. Among other tidbits, it's the origin of the Atlantis myth.

Iirc, Fritz Leiber used to say that he got all his plot ideas from Herodotus and the Bible. A bit o'Herodotus is always fun. Gilgamesh, Illiad, Beowulf, Erewhon and a few others are in the mix.

On Shockwave, we tried to come up with the most influential sf novel ever. Not necessarily the best, but the one that had the most impact on sf and popular culture. There weren't that many options, really. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Hobbit/LotR, Plato's Republic, and we eventually decided on Gulliver's Travels.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

similarly, of course, there's Moore's Utopia.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

This is probably not the age that you're looking for, but I've always loved "Orlando" by Virgina Woolf. Definitely fantasy, and quite a nice one.