The world of fantasy creation (on psychological truthfulness requirements in fantastic fiction)

The given article deals with one of the existing criteria of the fantasy genre characteristic of the Russian fantasy of the late 1990s. This criterion is presented by the unique genre forming feature - specific psychological truthfulness in fantastic fiction. The essence of truthfulness is traditionally pursued by all fantasy writers who create their own imaginary and “impossible” world, which is formed in the process of actable interpretation of two worlds: a real and a historical one and the unreal, a non-narrative one. The latter embraces a fantastic plot. It also involves a unique application of the “a text in the text” method. Thus, every fantasy writer tries to create, by all possible means, a particular attitude of the secondary fantastic world to himself, a textual-illustration of the personal self-understanding. For this exclusive purpose a fantastic plot is enriched by a system of the secondary world maps and invented languages, by the secondary literature, and by the secondary folk-lore and myths.