Fantastyczna krytyka - krytyczna fantastyka. O kłopotach współczesnej krytyki literackiej z literaturą fantastyczną

Abstract

The phenomenon of literary hermeticism and critical “self-service” concern different environments: on the one hand the literary avant-garde, on the other popular literaturę, including science fiction. However, with the growth of significance of popular culture, contemporary critics start noticing fantasy production. Traditional literary and critical means that I described within two frameworks: research (internal literary) and hermeneutic, cannot serve the purpose of investigating popular literaturę in its native contexts. Dominant features of this poetics, that is a schematic character and stereotyping, pass Iow judgements. With reference to that critics and literaturę specialists depart in the direction of external literary research, for example ethnological, religious, cultural and sociological contexts of that literaturę. A number of publications are ąuoted from the fantasy and science fiction domain. Specialists in the mentioned disciplines criticise these kinds of publications because of their methodological unsteadiness. However, in my opinion they express athird, pragmatic attitude towards literaturę, accepting non-discursive character which is characteristic of pop culture. Pragmatic aesthetics as understood by Richard Shusterman announces closeness of art and life, thus literaturę researcher is its fan at the same time, simultaneously investigating and living a literary work. Pragmatic aesthetics may become a bridge between the traditional literary studies and popular literaturę, and a good researching device to investigate fantasy literature.