Richard Danson Brown claims that ‘… the fantastic uses imagined other worlds and practices to make sense of experience in the broadest sense of the word’ (2019, pp. 12–13). Discuss this idea in relation to two of the set texts: Stardust, The Dispossessed and The Tempest. This question is designed to enable you both to engage with two of the final three texts – Stardust, The Dispossessed and The Tempest – and to think about issues which are relevant to the module as a whole, and to Book 2 in particular. You will need to consider the extent to which the quote in the question applies to the two texts you have selected. What does Tristran’s journey across fantastical realms in Stardust reveal about the human experience? Do the interconnected stories of Shevek and Annares in The Dispossessed help us to understand and make sense of our society? How do the ordeals of Caliban, Ariel and Sycorax in The Tempest illuminate marginalised experiences? These are samples of the kinds of question you may want to consider in your answer. Whichever of the two texts you select, identify precisely which fantastical stories you believe might (or might not) help us make sense of our experiences. Further, it is important to comment on whether you believe this capacity to help us understand our experiences is unique to fantastical (as opposed to realist) stories. In addition to looking back on the module chapters on your chosen texts, re-reading the introductions to Books 1 and 2 will help to inform your reflections on the key areas of distinction between the fantastic and realism. As this is a longer essay with a higher weighting, you need to be careful about how you structure your answer. Again, because this is a longer piece of work, it’s useful to read more widely, beyond the set text and module materials. In particular, you should consider making use of some of the critical works listed in the Further Reading for Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, Ursula Le Guin and William Shakespeare. This will ground your answer in a broader scholarly conversation, and help you develop your arguments. If you write on Stardust, you should show awareness that Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess are jointly responsible for the book. It would also be an added bonus to analyse some of the images not described in the module materials.
