Фэнтези манер: История и особенности поджанра

Subgenre of fantasy literature

The fantasy of manners is a subgenre of fantasy literature that also partakes of the nature of a comedy of manners (though it is not necessarily humorous). Such works generally take place in an urban setting and within the confines of a fairly elaborate, and almost always hierarchical, social structure. The term was first used in print by science fiction critic Donald G. Keller in an article, The Manner of Fantasy, in the April 1991 issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Keller used the term to describe a group of American fantasy writers who emerged in the 1980s, including Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Caroline Stevermer, and Terri Windling; Kushner suggested the name. These writers were influenced by television, children's literature, and the works of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and Dorothy Dunnett; in fantasy fiction, Fritz Leiber was important, as were Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison. Their works included themes of negotiating social structures, disguise, the importance of childhood, the necessity of self discovery, and the importance of manners and especially of language. This emphasis meant that their characters' speech tended to be more important than their actions, and they used a wide range of diction. After the article was released, fantasy of manners was nicknamed "mannerpunk".

A class of fantasies set in contemporary times and blending some characteristics of fantasies of manners with the subgenre urban fantasy has been dubbed, tongue even further in cheek, elfpunk. A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold has been described as "science fiction of manners".