Populism and Fantasy Fiction

Like other forms of popular fiction, fantasy fiction has traditionally been considered formulaic, perpetuating pre-existing cultural patterns of thought and behavior. A populist understanding of fantasy fiction, however, would foreground readers’ experiences and interpretations. The genre would thus become a space to affirm, question, or deny these pre-existing patterns. Transmediality and fandom subcultures play a large part in this. Drawing from Ebony Elizabeth Thomas’ idea of the dark fantastic, this entry extends it to include works of fantasy fiction that feature BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) protagonists. While mainstream fantasy literature is still primarily populated by white characters, the movement of the Dark Other, from a shadowed haunting of fantastic texts, toward emancipation is more visible. The entry shall therefore discuss recent examples of emancipatory dark fantastic texts with “endarkened” protagonists, where BIPOC characters are given centrality—a marked shift from the othering and invisibilization they were traditionally subjected to—and situate them within the context of participatory, transmedial fandom cultures. This entry shall also examine ways of oppositional reading that can be applied to fantastic texts that still other BIPOC bodies, or only offer token representation, in keeping with homopopulist politics that still seek to impose white normative ideals.