Man and Superman
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Bangsian fantasy is a fantasy genre which concerns the use of famous literary or historical individuals and their interactions in the afterlife. It is named for John Kendrick Bangs who often wrote it.
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Definition
According to E. F. Bleiler, in his 1983 Guide to Supernatural Fiction, "Bangs' most noteworthy achievement was a contribution to literary typology: the so-called Bangsian story, in which important literary and historical personalities serve humorously as characters in a slender plot line. Bangs did not invent this subgenre, but his work gave it publicity and literary status".
This definition does not take into account that some of Bangs' stories took place in the afterlife. Jess Nevins' 2003 definition in Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen says it is "a fantasy of the afterlife in which the ghosts of various famous men and women come together and have various, usually genial, adventures", which closely agrees with Rama Kundu's 2008 definition.
ARSDnet suggests it is a fantasy "which focuses primarily on the exploration of the afterlife and possibly where various ancient and influential figures ended up in the scheme of things."
Works of Bangsian fantasy
A large number of books and films that are Bangsian in nature are identified within the genre's category. The following are some major genre works:
By Bangs
- A House-Boat on the Styx (1895)
- Pursuit of the House-Boat (1897)
- The Enchanted Type-Writer (1899)
- Mr. Munchausen: Being a True Account of Some of the Recent Adventures beyond the Styx of the Late Hieronymus Carl Friedrich, Sometime Baron Munchausen of Bodenwerder, as originally reported for the Sunday Edition of the Gehenna Gazette by its special interviewer the late Mr. Ananias formerly of Jerusalem, and now first transcribed from the columns of that journal by J. K. Bangs (1901)
By others
- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
- God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut
- Riverworld by Philip José Farmer, began 1971
- The third act of George Bernard Shaw's play Man and Superman (1903) is a long philosophical discourse set in hell, between the shades of Don Juan, the Devil, Dona Ana, and Don Juan's nemesis, the statue of her father Don Gonzalo.
- Dragon Ball series by Akira Toriyama, began 1984
- Heroes in Hell series by Janet Morris, began 1986
- Yu Yu Hakusho series by Yoshihiro Togashi, began 1990
- Bleach series by Tite Kubo, began 2001
See also
