Inspired by a universal cross-cultural vision this book provides a comparative analysis of
the rhetorical and stylistic features in fantastic literature effortlessly crossing the
boundaries of cultures languages and epochs to explore their literary manifestations of the
unknown. According to the author fantastic literature conveys a form of storytelling whose
poeticization bridges the known and the unknown realms (in Gilbert Durand's mythocritical
transcendental sense). The author's scope ranges from ancient myths to contemporary literature
and addresses developments in Chinese literature and the Greco-Roman fantastic tradition as
well as English French German and Hispanic literatures. The encyclopaedic breadth and depth
of her work responds to the long-felt need for a comparative approach to fantastic literature
bridging Eastern and Western traditions.
