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This paper reflects on the secular mistreatment of fantasy genre. The inquisition this kind of literature has suffered has its origin in two events whose influences have endured centuries: on the one hand, the biased interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics, particularly of the concepts of mimesis and verisimilitude, and, on the other hand, Christian (and Catholic, in particular) prejudices against the artist's creative imagination. Both facts influenced greatly Spanish literature, a literature traditionally considered as an epitome of realism, but in which fantasy can be traced even in Cervantes himself (as we shall see), yet it appears in a hidden way in order to avoid retaliation or criticism. We will have to wait until the Romantic age to end (briefly) with fantasy's misfortunes and to defend fantasy's capacity to transmit realities belonging to human nature in the same level than the realist ones. Following this Romantic line, today can be found several schools of thought which vindicate fantasy as a vehicle for a symbolic reality, an imagined or created reality, but a deep reality belonging to human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the secular mistreatment of fantasy genre. The inquisition this kind of literature has suffered has its origin in two events whose influences have endured centuries: on the one hand, the biased interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics, particularly of the concepts of mimesis and verisimilitude, and, on the other hand, Christian (and Catholic, in particular) prejudices against the artist's creative imagination. Both facts influenced greatly Spanish literature, a literature traditionally considered as an epitome of realism, but in which fantasy can be traced even in Cervantes himself (as we shall see), yet it appears in a hidden way in order to avoid retaliation or criticism. We will have to wait until the Romantic age to end (briefly) with fantasy's misfortunes and to defend fantasy's capacity to transmit realities belonging to human nature in the same level than the realist ones. Following this Romantic line, today can be found several schools of thought which vindicate fantasy as a vehicle for a symbolic reality, an imagined or created reality, but a deep reality belonging to human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]