Fantasy literature in the context of comparative literature: Works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Barış Müstecaplıoğlu

In this study, the place of fantastic literature in the context of Comparative Literature was investigated. Fantastic literature, which is not defined as a serious literary genre in the dominant literary circles, has been considered to be on the rise in parallel with the transformation of literary activity with digitalization in the last twenty years, which is theoretically located in the periphery of canonical literatures. As a genre nourished by the romanticism, it is seen that fantastic literature has a dynamic structure with different themes in each period, as it corresponds with the social problems and the pursuits of the individual. It has been concluded that Tolkien and Müstecaplıoğlu have different approaches in regarding with the parallel changes in course of development of the genre. While Tolkien had a traditional social and religious motivation, Müstecaplıoğlu has an approach derived from the ideals of enlightenment. Tolkien unintentionally became the founder of the transnational fantasy repertoire as the founder of the genre. Müstecaplıoğlu, on the other hand, intentionally wrote texts that do not include national cultural elements, and when they are used, they are transformed into elements of the fantastic universe. The concept of World Literature, a dynamic process, has been used in this study as a situation that corresponds to the literary products circulating in the world at different times as a result of globalization. In this respect, fantasy literature has been accepted as an element of World Literature, based on the transnational position of imaginary communities gathered around the stories produced. Both authors are part of World Literature with their transnational texts based on the fantasy literature repertoire circulating around the world.