Phantasms of Hope: The Utopian Function of Fantasy Literature
Abstract
Fantasy literature has long been considered an inherently conservative genre. However, Ernst Bloch’s Marxist theory of a utopian anticipatory consciousness and his concept of nonsynchronism recognize a progressive, utopian function within the archetypes and allegories of fairy tales, a precursor to modern fantasy. Bloch argues that archetypes are not static entities and can be repurposed to critique the world contemporary to a text’s production. Even archetypes produced under a past mode of production, like those used in fantasy, can therefore be anticipatory and utopian. By extending Bloch’s utopian function to include fantasy and integrating his philosophy with the historical-materialist hermeneutic of Fredric Jameson’s Political Unconscious (1981), I articulate a Marxist reading of the utopian function in the works of William Morris, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ursula K. Le Guin, demonstrating how the archaic figures and motifs of fantasy texts convey anticipatory glimpses of a utopian future.