The editors (both of the U. of Hamburg, Germany) present 21 papers from the October 2010 inaugural conference of Gesellschaft f羹r Fantastikforschung, a European research association dedicated
to the study of the fantastic. The papers are organized into four sections. The first explores theoretical approaches to the subject, as well as historical developments in the genre. The second
considers the fantastic across genres, including graphic novels, film, television, children's fairytales, and everyday politics. The final two sections each focus on one of the two key genres
of the fantastic--fantasy and science fiction--from a literary studies perspective. The volume also includes a "theme story" written exclusively for the conference by science fiction author
Paul Di Filippo. This is one of two non-identical volumes coming out of the conference. The other, Fremde Welten: Wege und R瓣umeder Fantastik im 21. Jarhrundert, contains a roughly equal number
of other papers from the conference, presented in German (all of the papers in this volume are in English). Annotation 穢2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
