From the history of research on the fantastic in the Russian criticism and literary studies of the 1820s-1970s

The fantastika as a phenomenon of art has a long history. Despite the popularity of fantastic literary works, criticism could give a definition of the fantastic as a category of poetics comparatively late. In Russia of the 1820s, the interest in the theory of the fantastic was expressed in the reflection concerning folklore and literary fairy tales, in debates pro and contra the fantastika of the Russian Hoffmanists. Rationalism and positivism were prevalent in aesthetics. These movements were instigating many critics to deny the fantastic under the veil of the fight for realism. Creating fantastic works, writers themselves were defending the right for the fantastika: A. S. Pushkin, V. F. Odoevsky, N. V. Gogol, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, N. A. Nekrasov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. P. Chekhov and many others. Dostoevsky has a very special role in the justification of the fantastika. He developed an original theory of the fantastic and defined the fantastic as a “form of art”, a “boundless imagination”, breach of the “laws of nature”, existence and sense. I. F. Annensky and V. S. Solovyov voiced profound opinions on the fantastic in art. In its turn, the conception of V. S. Solovyov was developed by B. V. Tomashevsky who associated the technique of fantastic narration with realistic motivations. Afterwards Yu. V. Mann and Tzvetan Todorov accepted B. V. Tomashevsky's ideas, and E. M. Neelov reflected concepts offered by I. F. Annensky and V. Ya. Propp in his works. In the 1970s-1980s, the age of the negation of the fantastika ended with its justification in Russian criticism and literary studies.