Fantasy jako prostor duchovního hledání a proměny
Fantasy as a space for spiritual quest and change

Summary/Abstract: The essay focuses on selected literary works of the fantasy genre, both those intended for children (C. S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia, Tonke Dragt: The Letter for the King /De brief voor de Koning, etc.) as well as those that became children’s literature unintentionally (especially J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings). It discusses the motifs of quest for the fundamentals of life and the world, the higher order and the place of man in this order, and maturation or internal change of literary characters. In this connection the essay asks to what extent these motifs are typical for the genre of fantasy, what the role of the fantasy genre heritage is and why, especially due to its close relationship with fairy tales, chivalric epic or classic adventure literature. It also deals with the problem of whether fictional worlds create or do not create a specific space for the “initiation of the process of change” of young or possibly adult readers, i.e. whether the genre offers more than light reading.

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