Fantasy

La resonancia de la fantasía épica en el panorama literario actual es un hecho. La llegada de grandes obras del género como Canción de hielo y fuego, popularmente conocida como Juego de tronos, ha supuesto un salto cuantitativo-y quizá también cualitativo en las obras que surgen de este tipo en la actualidad, a las que hoy accede el gran público. Pero ¿cuáles son las bases del género? ¿Tiene unas características preestablecidas? La presencia, cada vez mayor, de este tipo de obras hace necesaria una reflexión teórica sobre estas y otras preguntas. En el presente ensayo ofreceremos una visión general de la fantasía épica: desde los ingredientes que la componen hasta el estado en que se encuentra en la actualidad.

With dragons, dogs, wolves, ravens, and so many more, animal symbolism is endlessly significant in Game of Thrones. Discover their meanings in heraldry, in Celtic myth, and other clever correspondences. What do red, green, black, and grey symbolize, in heraldry and fiction? Why does Daenerys wear so much blue? What about golden roses? As George R.R. Martin’s characters chomp on bloody beef, blood oranges, red wine, beets, and pomegranates, they foreshadow the inevitable bloodbaths. Thus the intricately crafted world of books and show has endless depth, revealed in this spoiler-free talk for fans of every flavor. (This is a free powerpoint of a presentation I've done--this is also a book, written by me, with this title).

Moral education through the work of literature and story-telling has long been present in our society. With the curriculum this moral education is something that should be present in today's education as well. By studying the fundamental values in the curriculum and how they are expressed in the fantasy novel New Spring, the moral values will be present in education. Using literature in the classroom has many benefits and by specifically using fantasy we might catch the interest from the students. By using New Spring as a case study I will do a lesson plan that incorporates the fundamental values in education.

Quattro chiacchere sull'urban fantasy con Luca Tarenzi e Aislinn Ovvero, come approfittare del lancio dell'antologia Terra Senza Cielo per chiacchierare di urban fantasy e del nostro modo di accettare il nuovo e il diverso L'anteprima di un nuovo libro è un'ottima scusa per incontrare due tra i maggiori autori del fantasy italiano, soprattutto se si tratta della preview di Terra senza Cielo, l'antologia che Luca Tarenzi e Aislinn hanno lanciato in anteprima al Lucca Comics and Games e che sarà disponibile in cartaceo da maggio 2019. Antologia a quattro mani o esperimento di metaletteratura dialogata? L'idea di un'opera a quattro mani, ci racconta Aislinn, nasce durante una chiacchierata davanti a un sushi. Un'antologia di racconti già pubblicati in altre antologie, ormai introvabili, con una sola regola: il numero di pagine a disposizione dei due autori deve essere la stessa; non importa la quantità dei racconti, ma lo spazio nell'antologia sarà perfettamente diviso a metà. E quindi, perché non aggiungere qualche racconto inedito? Una collezione di racconti che sia anche la fotografia dell'evoluzione dello stile e dei temi dei due scrittori, ma anche la storia della loro collaborazione: riprendere in mano vecchi testi, limarli, ma lasciare che raccontino il momento in cui sono stati scritti. Così scopriamo, per esempio, la storia di Lucifero, che lega tra loro i due Angelize (avete scovato la strizzata d'occhio ai romanzi in Né al Dio né al Diavolo?); ma anche un racconto su Azazel, rimasto nel cassetto per dieci anni, che prende forma proprio grazie alla collaborazione tra i due autori (e che troverete come bonus track solo nella versione cartacea dell'antologia). Terra senza Cielo è quindi un enorme puzzle del percorso narrativo di Luca Tarenzi e Aislinn, di cui ogni frammento viene raccontato nell'introduzione a ciascun racconto: non solo narrativa, quindi, ma una sorta di storia della storia, che procede con botte e risposte tra i due autori, fino a diventare un vero esperimento di metaletteratura dialogata. Un esperimento che culmina quindi in un mescolamento delle carte in gioco: ognuno dei due autori scrive un racconto che ha come protagonista il personaggio di un libro dell'altro. E quindi, ecco che Tom di Né al Dio né al Diavolo prende forma nelle mani di Luca Tarenzi, mentre Giacomo di Di Metallo e Stelle rivive nella penna di Aislinn. I due scrittori spiegano le difficoltà di questo lavoro: capire, profondamente, l'ambientazione dell'altro, attraverso appunti, mappe, discussioni, ma anche entrare nella storia e immaginarne sviluppi successivi che possano essere condivisi da chi ha partorito il personaggio nella sua mente. Ma…e l'urban fantasy? Come tradizione ormai consolidata per i due autori, il genere dell'antologia è l'urban fantasy ed è Luca Tarenzi, con la consueta passione (e competenza) a spiegarci il motivo della sua propensione per questo genere. Uno dei possibili presupposti della narrativa fantastica (di cui avevamo parlato anche con Fabio Guaglione e Maurizio Temporin, autori di IF, la Fondazione Immaginaria) è la presa di coscienza che la realtà in cui viviamo non ci soddisfa e questo ci porta a tre possibili reazioni: possiamo crearne una nuova (la strada del fantasy); possiamo portare la nostra alle sue estreme conseguenze (in una distopia o, più in generale, nella fantascienza); oppure, e questo è il

Cyproterone acetate is a powerful antiandrogen used in the treatment of the paraphilias for at least a decade. Studies have reported it effective in reducing the recidivism rates of sexual crimes perpetrated by men. It acts through competitive inhibition of the androgen receptors blocking the effects of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. Systematic clinical study of its effectiveness and its clinical effects on sexual behavior is lacking, however. In the current study 19 paraphilic men who had also recidivated in a variety of sexual crimes were treated with cyproterone acetate and placebo in a double-blind crossover design. The use of active drug was associated with a significant reduction of some aspects of sexual behavior, particularly sexual fantasies. There were also significant effects on levels of circulating sex hormones and some effects on physiological measurements and self-reports of sexual arousal.

Since the advent of the Internet, convictions for the possession, display, trading, and distribution of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) have risen steadily, but little is known about their appropriate assessment and treatment, especially concerning their risk of reoffending. It has been suggested that a conceptual distinction of fantasy- versus contact-driven CSEM users might be of merit. Sixty-eight offenders recruited from sex offender treatment providers were assessed via an anonymous computer survey including a variety of clinical and risk-related variables; the findings showed differences in the psychological profiles between CSEM users and contact child sex offenders. Numerical and spatial methods of data analysis were used to identify subgroups of CSEM users; these confirmed the twofold distinction of fantasy- versus contact-driven offending. The spatial representation of participants identified three dimensions as crucial in the classification of these subgroups: d...

Much controversy remains regarding the ability of children with autism to engage in spontaneous play. In this study children with autism, Down syndrome and typical development with verbal mental ages of approximately 2 years were assessed for play abilities at three data points. Even in this group of children with autism, who had relatively low verbal mental ages, symbolic play skills were not totally absent. However, it was possible to distinguish their pattern of play behaviors from the other two groups. Consequentially, it is argued that there are unusual features in early spontaneous play in children with autism and these atypical patterns are not restricted to their difficulties in the production of symbolic play. Such differences in early spontaneous play raise interesting questions about the etiology of autism, the direction of future research, and the theoretical models that can account for the condition.

Fantasy genre fiction has increasingly received academic attention for its representations of gender and sexuality, and scholars have acknowledged that the genre has the potential to challenge accepted ideas about femininity and heterosexuality. However, few studies have questioned how men and masculinity are constructed within the fantasy genre, despite the prevalence of masculine characters and readers and the influence that popular cultural texts exert over young audiences. This paper uses Raewyn Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity and Judith Butler's poststructuralist gender theories to reveal how dominant ideas about masculine stoicism are negotiated and (re)imagined within Christopher Paolini's young adult fantasy series The Inheritance Cycle (2005-2011). I argue that while unemotional masculine discourses are present within the narrative, fantasy genre conventions such as magic and magical creatures invite readers to question their desirability and recognize how they are socially constructed and compelled. By analysing magical telepathic bonds, crying, magical races, and magic, I find that young readers are presented with complex but often progressive ideas about how masculine subjects may experience and express their emotions. The article demonstrates that fantasy genre fiction is a crucial site for analysis in masculinities studies because it provides a means of reflecting and recreating masculine discourses without the constraints of realism.

Niniejsza praca ma na celu przedstawienie teorii mitotwórczej J. R. R. Tolkiena, z perspektywy jej wymiaru duchowego. Od czasów antycznych teorie, tudzież filozofie, opierały się na myśleniu abstrakcyjnym i miały za zadanie wyjaśnienie ówczesnemu człowiekowi otaczającej go rzeczywistości. Nie inaczej było z Tolkienowską teorią, na potrzebę której ukuł swój termin Mitopoeia. „Duchowy wymiar Tolkienowskiej Teorii Mitotwórczej” – tłumacząc tytuł tej pracy na język Polski – przekłada się na wiele sfer życia Tolkiena. Pierwsza z tych płaszczyzn, to przypisywany mu przez niektórych krytyków program filozoficzny. Na tym wymiarze skupia się pierwszy rozdział tej pracy: „The Philosophical Disenchantment.” Jednak jak sugeruje tytuł, stanowi on zaledwie tło wszelkich dalszych poszukiwań, gdyż oferuje badaczom Tolkienowskiej myśli jedynie jej racjonalizację i demitologizację. Życiowa pasja Tolkiena, filologia komparatywna, daje wystarczające zrozumienie jego fenomenu, a przynajmniej zdaniem kilku krytyków. Niezaprzeczalnie stanowiła ona inspirację, a zarazem była narzędziem, którego Tolkien użył podług swej ogromnej wiedzy z zakresu językoznawstwa. Pomimo, iż w tej pracy „Comparative Philology” jest omawiana w drugiej kolejności, to właśnie ta dyscyplina była źródłem znajomości filozofii u Tolkiena. Podążając krokami Tolkieniany nie można jednak na tym poprzestać. Trzeci wymiar, jakże metafizyczny i filozoficzny w swych założeniach i implikacjach to odkrycie Owena Barfielda, znajomego Tolkiena. Barfield odkrył Teorię „Jedności Semantycznej,” co Tolkienowi przyszło łatwo przyjąć do wiadomości: język jako narzędzie może również być transcendentny, ze względu na swe początki. Dla Tolkiena była to jedna z tych rzeczy, która pozwoliła mu uwierzyć w smoki. „Philological Philosophy: Let There Be Dragons” – jest zatem łącznikiem między dwoma światami. Jednakże Tolkien nie był byle fantastą, oderwanym od ziemi. Teoria Barfielda, obudziła w nim nadzieję. Pomimo to, tak jak każdy rozsądny i racjonalny człowiek Tolkien musiał dowiedzieć się, „czy to prawda.” Potrzebował czegoś, aby idee odnieść do nie tyle rzeczywistego doświadczenia, ile prawdy. Prawda, bowiem wyzwala. Mimo nieustannego negowania jego wiary, to właśnie ona umożliwiła mu dalsze rozważanie tych teorii. I nie da się inaczej wytłumaczyć jego mitotwórstwa, jak przez uznanie jego wiary. Miłości do Boga, która była tak głęboka, że aż sięgała wiedzy teologicznej. Tego, między innymi, tyczy ostatni rozdział tej pracy: „Myth Becomes Truth.”
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The Lacanian concept of fantasy is an essential locus for the conception of subjectivity and reality in the work of Slavoj Žižek, particularly in his initial English texts from 1989–2002 (roughly from his first major book, The Sublime Object of Ideology, to Welcome to the Desert of the Real). Whilst looked at creatively in its various guises and extended beyond clinical applications in his vast oeuvre – e.g. toward the exploration of the social, in terms of ideological fantasy foremost, to fuller elaborations in The Plague of Fantasies and beyond – the conceptual heritage (from philosophical analogues to Freud's definitions and ruminations; to Freud's followers, particularly Klein; to the early works of Lacan, i.e. the scattered articles of the 1930s and 1940s as well as Family Complexes; and to a strictly Lacanian definition of fantasy developed in the early seminars) is in need of fleshing out within contemporary scholarship. To this end, and as part of a larger project currently underway, in the following we will trace the somewhat staggered development of the concept of fantasy in Lacan's initial meetings held at le Centre hospitalier Sainte-Anne between 1953 and 1961 where 'fantasy' as subjective component (as opposed to fantasies, fantasizing as such, etc.) was truly born. Ultimately, the understanding of this trajectory and the changing significations involved in conceptual evolution can broaden our insight into Lacan's (and therefore Žižek's) theoretical methodology as well as their insistence on retaining the category of subject in the philosophical tradition.

The forest is intrinsic to the lives of shepherds, who are constantly on the move in search of fresh pastures for their goats and sheep. The forest, or the ‘waste-land’, separates the shepherds from the settled communities that they interact with across the altitudinal landscape. The forest is also a dominant cultural ‘space’ in which the variegated ethos, imbibed over centuries of interaction with the ‘settled communities’, is processed to impart a new meaning to the universe of the shepherds. This is an enchanted universe where birds speak, animals help and humans are transformed, to evoke in ‘us’ the sense of the ‘miraculous’ and the ‘marvellous’. In this world, the grotesque and sublime merge into each other and conjure a unique cosmology where the sense of wonder is heightened by the ‘super-natural’ that fashions a new myth. The vibrancy of struggle between  ‘settlement’ and ‘nomadism’ is reflected in the folk-imaginary, where the ‘elements’, animals and humans  play a role in attempting to create a ‘just-society’. This is illustrated through folktales, two of which have been translated and presented here, popular among the shepherds of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh.

Innovations are produced by entrepreneurs’ imaginations. To turn imagined ideas into realized innovations, entrepreneurs must attract the resources necessary to create the innovations they envision. Resource acquisition involves crafting and communicating compelling narratives that persuade stakeholders to provide resources. However, there is not a clearly articulated theory linking entrepreneurial imagination, narratives, and the production of innovations. To construct such a theory, this paper extends work on narratives in literary theory and, specifically, Tolkien’s theory of narrative fantasy. It is proposed that entrepreneurs’ narratives about innovations are, initially, “fantasies” because they describe possible worlds in which the imagined innovations exist. As fantasies, the characteristics of persuasive fantasy narratives, such as the degree to which the narratives achieve an inner consistency of reality and suspend audiences’ disbelief, influence entrepreneurs’ ability to convince stakeholders about the viability of imagined innovations. The proposed theory contributes to entrepreneurship scholarship by developing a process model that articulates how entrepreneurs’ imaginations manifest in their narratives, which, in turn, influence the realization of innovations. The theory generates concrete implications for entrepreneurs and suggests that as the novelty of an imagined innovation increases, it becomes more critical for entrepreneurs to construct compelling narratives to describe the innovation. Thus, entrepreneurs and scholars should be attentive to the role narratives play in moving beyond the idea phase of entrepreneurship and bridging imagination and innovation.

The 9th issue of Fantasy Art and Studies gathers the proceedings of the symposium "Représentations animales dans les mondes imaginaires" (Université d'Artois, November 2019) organised by Marie-Lucie Bougon, Charlotte Duranton and Laura Muller-Thoma. It explores the animal theme in Fantasy fiction with papers dealing with the link between woman and dragon in Game of Thrones and Robin Hobb's works, the swine animalisation of Orcs, the bestiary of Harry Potter...
It also includes short stories, including a new tale by Charlotte Bousquet, a figure of the French Fantasy scene, and the new chapter of Guillaume Labrude's comics, plus beautiful illustrations by Océane Azeau, GaëlleC., Antoine Pelloux, Guillaume Labrude, Guillaume Sallah Thomas, Princesse Mandragore Art and Véronique Thill who signs the cover art.

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Le 9e numéro de Fantasy Art and Studies rassemble les actes du colloque "Représentations animales dans les mondes imaginaires" (Université d'Artois, novembre 2019) organisé par Marie-Lucie Bougon, Charlotte Duranton et Laura Muller-Thoma. Il explore la thématique animale dans la Fantasy à travers des articles sur le lien entre femme et dragon dans Game of Thrones et l'oeuvre de Robin Hobb, l'animalisation porcine des Orques, le bestiaire de Harry Potter...
Il inclut également des nouvelles, dont un récit inédit de Charlotte Bousquet, figure majeure de la Fantasy française, et le nouveua chapitre de la BD de Guillaume Labrude, ainsi que de superbes illustrations d'Océane Azeau, GaëlleC., Antoine Pelloux, Guillaume Labrude, Guillaume Sallah Thomas, Princesse Manadragore Art et Véronique Thill qui signe l'illustration de couverture.

Romantic love overwhelms 1950s Bombay cinema. Love and romance is evident in the themes, lyrics and visual aesthetics of films of the period, as it is in the publicity and gossip surrounding films and film stars. Love in cinema becomes significant when social reality constrains its quotidian experience and expression. By bringing a spectacular imagination of love to centre stage, the 1950s cinema deflected anxieties of 'Indianness' even as the new aesthetic and affect of romance offered an alternative engagement with the contradictions of modernity. This book explores the films, the songs, the stars and the extracinematic discourse of the period to read love and romance as its most productive trope that mobilized a dynamic and contested public sphere.

From a behaviorist perspective, the desire to upload “minds” is already being realized on a mass, hyper-industrial scale thanks to the convergence of cognitive computing and Big Data. The accusation is that the “mind” is not an entity that exists intracranially. Instead, it is conceived as a process of individuation, which occurs in different modes and numbers. Some narratives of mind-uploading and technics in popular culture are explored: Transcendence (2014, dir. Wally Pfister) and Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. The discussed issues consider Bernard Stiegler’s phenomenological notion of originary default and Thierry Bardini’s analysis of junk. Several questions are raised regarding miscalculations, accidents, in addition to Nicolas Agar’s discussion on the end of humanity, and Daniel Dennett’s Multiple Drafts theory within the context of exteriorization, which is considered as constitutive of interiority.

This paper aims to address the mythopoeic aspect of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, so as to disclose the elements of American cultural identity embedded in the novel. It is an attempt to analyse its legends, myths, folklore, popular culture figures, intertwined with Old World mythology, assessing their viability as modern myths, through the lens of formalist and structuralist reading.

In this paper, Jungian and Freudian perspectives on the fantasy of rebirth are explored and a brief review of the literature on the theme is used to show how that the rebirth fantasy seems to be a universal fantasy in the human mind, connected with the experience of both destruction and creation. In the psychoanalytic process the rebirth fantasy is connected with initial hopes for a better life, but is also a vehicle for creating the analytic pair and for separating from the 'totalitarian object'. An account of clinical work with a patient is given to illustrate the mutual and parallel process of rebirth in both the patient and the therapist. For the patient, the therapy was experienced as an awakening or a birth. The therapist was initially doubtful about the patient's capacity to engage in the analytic process but his involvement and interest were 'born' during the early sessions, enabling the patient to rely on him to lead her out of the claustrophobic power of the totalitarian object.

The relationship between fantasy and reality in Freudian theory is a complementary yet paradoxical one. On the one hand, fantasy has been construed as a vehicle for self-deception, standing in contradistinction to the objective appreciation of external reality. Fantasy can serve as a substitute for external reality that denies, remodels, and replaces an objective perception of external reality when that reality proves to be unacceptable. On the other hand, fantasy has been understood as constituting a symbolic description of external reality which represents actual events. In this model, fantasy, through concrete symbolization, reflects a mode of apprehending external reality through the use of imagery and metaphor. The question arises as to how fantasy can represent both a self-deception and a valid metaphorical description of reality. Freud formulated the resolution of this paradox in his theory of mental life as a compromise formation between the conflicting forces within the mind. Thus, fantasy involves a compromise between the way one wishes reality to be and the way it actually is and has been. The paradox that remains is that, if all aspects of mental life are constituted by compromise formations, then what we take to be objective reality can never be construed as being a purely objective observation but must inevitably be in part a by-product of wishful thinking. This line of reasoning led Freud to the discovery of the ubiquitous presence of the subjective in what we take to be objective. The purpose of this paper will be to examine how Freud grappled with this issue in both his theorizing and his clinical practice.

In fantasy literature, the setting is as important to the story as are character and plot. This article demonstrates how topofocal (place-focused) perspectives yield valuable insights into various fantasy texts. The examples include discussions on how the nature/culture relationship is tied to the ideological centre in Charles de Lint’s Newford stories; how a careful examination of Sauron’s land in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings reveals how the text views the nature of evil; and how the structure of the land develops along with the stories in the Mythago Wood novels by Robert Holdstock. In a genre where there are no limits to the shape a setting can take, the central question must be: Why is it shaped the way it is?

Fiction presents a unique challenge to the developing child, in that children must learn when to generalize information from stories to the real world. This study examines how children acquire causal knowledge from storybooks, and whether children are sensitive to how closely the fictional world resembles reality. Preschoolers (N = 108) listened to stories in which a novel causal relation was embedded within realistic or fantastical contexts. Results indicate that by at least 3 years of age, children are sensitive to the underlying causal structure of the story: Children are more likely to generalize content if the fictional world is similar to reality. Additionally, children become better able at discriminating between realistic and fantastical story contexts between 3 and 5 years of age.

El videoclip como formato audiovisual publicitario suele ser sinónimo de efectismos, intertextualidad y marcos visuales complejos, funciones para las que sin duda se sirve de toda la vanguardia tecnológica de la que pueda disponer. Este artículo trata de analizar qué ventajas encuentra en la integración de modelos 3D animados para el desarrollo de mundos irreales como parte de su puesta en escena. Desde los primeros casos hasta la actualidad, se presenta una serie de ejemplos que sirven como muestra cronológica de la evolución de la animación 3D integrada en videoclip para concluir finalmente en sus aportaciones vinculadas a la relación escenografía/narración y a su idoneidad como nexo de unión con los marcos referenciales usados en el formato cinematográfico.

The Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire (WSFQ; Wilson, 1978) is a 40-item self-report questionnaire that assesses 4 types of sexual fantasies: Exploratory, Intimate, Impersonal, and Sadomasochistic. The goal of the present study was to examine the differences between child molesters (n = 64) and nonsexual offenders (n = 41) on the WSFQ. Comparisons included the four underlying factors, 2 factors associated with the fantasizer's role in the fantasy (active vs. passive), and 2 items most closely related to sexual molestation behavior. Results found that molesters reported higher scores on the Exploratory and Intimate subscales, as well as overall fantasy. Scores on the Impersonal and Sadomasochistic subscales were not significantly different. Molesters also reported higher scores on fantasies where they were the actor, and higher scores on fantasies most closely related to sexual molestation behavior. Subsequent analyses found that both offender groups reported significantly lower levels of fantasies than college comparison subjects and noncriminal sexual deviants. Differences among the 2 study groups are discussed in terms of social and cognitive characteristics of molesters.

Warum moderne Märchen? Gegen die Wunder der Technik berufen sie das Wunderbare, das nicht machbar ist, gegen die Beschleunigung der modernen Welt berufen sie die Einheit von Kindheit und Alter, gegen ihre Zahlenhaftigkeit die ziellose Sehnsucht, gegen die absolute Trennung von Gut und Böse die Verwandlung der beiden ineinander. Sie lehren, nicht die Augen zu verschließen vor der Unmenschlichkeit der Machbarkeits-Welt wie auch vor dem Gemeinen, das guten Gewissens weitergründelt wie eh und je, während oben die Wogen der Veränderung schlagen, beides aber mit einem Lächeln zu betrachten, das sich einig zu müssen weiß mit der Vergänglichkeit. „Wucherpfennigs Märchen sind satirische Arabesken aus Wehmut und Ironie.“ (Fr. Schlegel)

Gender issues in the media and, particularly, in video games have been extensively investigated over the past decades (see Ross 2020). Conversely, the linguistic and cultural dimension of gender is still understudied and, due to the challenges it may pose in translation, especially when the transfer is from the mainly semantic gender system of English into the grammatical gender system of Romance languages, systematic research is paramount. This paper examines a fantasy war-themed role-playing game titled Dragon Age: Inquisition (Electronic Arts 2014), which presents a gender-customizable playable character, and which was purposefully selected in order to extend the realism-fictionality spectrum of war video games developed by Pettini (2020). This study investigates the representation of female characters in the game and analyzes the translation of gender from English into Italian and Spanish from the perspective of Game Localization (O’Hagan and Mangiron 2013; Bernal-Merino 2015). Parallel excerpts from in-game dialogues are compared in order to (1) explain how gender as a variable affects game translation, (2) show whether and how female characters are represented through language in the original game and through translation in the two localizations, and (3) make a quantitative and qualitative comparison between the Italian and Spanish translational approach. As findings show, this research analysis confirms clear linguacultural-specific tendencies (Pettini 2020) which, as concerns Italian, disclose a sociocultural resistance to the symmetrical use of the language of gender.

The talk will open with a discussion of a set of poems from Lyn Hejinian's The Unfollowing, which puts a positive spin on the association of old age with childhood. a trope that is often deployed to infantilize and disenfranchize older people. By contrast, Hejinian uses it to highlight life's openness and contigency. Taking a cue from the poet, I will mobilize the notion of "the old child" to explore questions like: do we get less creative as we age? Are we born with certain talents and/or do we keep acquiring and developing them later in life? What obstacles get in the way of the expression of our multiple valences as we get older? We will survey the latest research on the epigenetic development of giftedness across the life span, dwell on the lives of exemplary polymaths and late bloomers and discuss how these matters relate to the topics of labor division, meritocracy and leisure.

This paper identifies the “virtual worlds” paradigm in psychoanalytic approaches to video games. Sometimes counterproductive to game interpretation, this paradigm views all games as an escape into separate and substitutive virtual reality. I argue that the virtual worlds framework only applies to some video games, and rarely encapsulates most games’ address to the player. I propose an alternative approach based in separation-individuation and attachment theory, pointing to how a wide variety of games provide players with “secure base” experiences as a form of affect regulation and metacognition. Introducing three broad categories of tether fantasies in video games—lifeline, home base, and perpetuum mobile—, I map out some of the generic terrain of commercial games from a secure base perspective, emphasizing the value of going and coming in the process of developing autonomy. I argue that the tether fantasy in video games not only illustrates the integration of attachment and separation-individuation schools of thought, but also offers a compelling reason to reconsider the analytical meaning of video game play. The paper’s analysis of Minecraft as a home base tether game also explores the question of how games can themselves serve as an anchor for ventures into more complicated social worlds at times of transition like nest-leaving, or for times of stress in adult life.

Many books for young children present animals in fantastical and unrealistic ways, such as wearing clothes, talking and engaging in human-like activities. This research examined whether anthropomorphism in children's books affects children's learning and conceptions of animals, by specifically assessing the impact of depictions (a bird wearing clothes and reading a book) and language (bird described as talking and as having human intentions). In Study 1, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children saw picture books featuring realistic drawings of a novel animal. Half of the children also heard factual, realistic language, while the other half heard anthropomorphized language. In Study 2, we replicated the first study using anthropomorphic illustrations of real animals. The results show that the language used to describe animals in books has an effect on children's tendency to attribute human-like traits to animals, and that anthropomorphic storybooks affect younger children's learning of novel facts about animals. These results indicate that anthropomorphized animals in books may not only lead to less learning but also influence children's conceptual knowledge of animals.