The Genre of Fantasy

Writing Fantasy Fiction

In this course, Professor Lars Iyer (University of Newcastle) explores writing fantasy fiction. In the first module, we introduce the genre of fantasy and its sub-genres. In the second module, we look at setting and world building in fantasy. In the third module, we examine magic in fantasy. In the fourth module we look at how to structure your fantasy story, using the model of the hero’s journey.

The Genre of Fantasy

In this module, we look at fantasy as a genre, focusing in particular on (i) characterising fantasy (ii) world-building (iii) high fantasy (iv) heroic fantasy (v) types of low fantasy (vi) comic fantasy.