Fantasy is now an established and lucrative genre with a dizzying array of popular iterations across literature, games, and film. But the story of how hobbits, dungeons, knights, and dragons took over our collective imaginations is a long, complex one, with many surprising twists and turns. Historian Justin M. Jacobs explores the origins of the modern fantasy genre, from the evolution of obscure Gothic novels to the iconic works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, and the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons.
Jacobs, a professor of Chinese and global history at American University, is the author of several books, including Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures. He is currently designing a tabletop roleplaying game inspired by Chinese history.
October 22 Evolution of Fantastic Storytelling
Since time immemorial, humans have been telling fantastic stories about the world around us, both visible and invisible. Jacobs traces the history of our species’ compulsion to spin dramatic tales of powerful deities and spiritual afterworlds in order to fulfill a deep-rooted psychological need. After exploring the difference between institutionalized religion and several forms of fantastic storytelling, Jacobs discusses the origins of a literary genre of “fantasy” in the form of the Gothic novel and examines its fate and reception up until the early 20th century, contrasting it with Chinese fantastic storytelling traditions.
October 29 Robert E. Howard and Pulp Fantasy
One of the first modern writers to publish serious fantasy stories for an adult audience was the eccentric Texan author Robert E. Howard. Most famous today for his creation of Conan the Barbarian, Howard was a highly successful pulp fiction writer of the 1920s and ‘30s—and Conan the Barbarian was merely one of his many fantasy characters. Jacobs explores Howard’s life and times and the low-brow pulp magazines in which he was forced to publish by a literary establishment unwilling to view “fantasy” as anything other than bedtime stories for children.
November 5 J.R.R. Tolkien and High Fantasy
Now widely regarded as the father of the modern fantasy literary genre, J.R.R. Tolkien spent most of his life struggling to find anyone willing to take his so-called fairy tales seriously as respectable literature for adults. Jacobs explores the life and influences of the most influential fantasy writer of all time, highlighting how the after-hours diversions of an Oxford professor led to the elevation of what were originally seen as children’s fairy tales into the pantheon of a newly respected fantasy genre.
November 12 The Creation of Dungeons & Dragons
When the fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons appeared in 1974, it bore the cumbersome subtitle of “rules for fantastic medieval wargames campaigns playable with paper and pencil and miniature figures.” Jacobs unpacks the cultural, social, and economic developments captured by this subtitle. He also examines the influences that co-creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson integrated into the game’s design—from centuries-old Prussian war games and the burgeoning field of psychological roleplaying to the surprising counterculture embrace of The Lord of the Rings and Conan the Barbarian in the 1960s and ‘70s.
November 19 Fantasy After Dungeons & Dragons
The cultural impact of Dungeons & Dragons simply cannot be overstated. Be it in film, literature, art, or games, the recipe for modern fantasy consumer products bears the indelible imprint of Dungeons & Dragons, an influence rivalled only by that of Tolkien. Take a deep dive into how an obscure hobby popular among a handful of niche gaming communities in the Midwest became a global phenomenon with an outsized impact on the fantasy genre. Jacobs examines how the counterculture of the 1960s prepared fertile ground for the reception of Dungeons & Dragons, how the roleplaying gaming template was adapted to the computer gaming and paperback gamebook market, and the inadvertent free advertising provided by the so-called Satanic panic of the 1980s.
5 sessions
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