This might be too broad, but I was thinking about doing my paper on the roots of anthropological fantasy using a couple of the early stories in the first Straub volume as sources. I don't have the book in front of my right now, and can't remember which ones in particular would be useful, but there were a couple I remember reading and thinking that they seem like the direct ancestor of things like Heinlein or Dune (if you turn your head and squint).
If this is too broad, I might do something about the Other and how it's treated in early fantasy.
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Claire, what stories were you thinking of, specifically, on each potential topic?
ReplyDeleteAlso, what do you mean by "anthropological fantasy"? In this essay, for example, novelist Marie Brennan calls it "cultural fantasy," and defines it thus: "Fantasy where the world is as interesting and developed as the characters are (and develops those characters in turn), where you'll find ideas and practices that aren't all familiar north-western European constructs."