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Larisa S. Sokolova
A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The fantastic space in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Notion Club Papers”: the specific nature of the fantastic in fantasy literature
Sokolova L.S. The fantastic space in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Notion Club Papers”: the specific nature of the fantastic in fantasy literature. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2026, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 143–149. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2026-32-3-143-149
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2026-32-3-143-149
УДК: 821(410).09«20»
EDN: KZTFGA
Publish date: 2026-09-10
Annotation: This article uses Igor Smirnow’s theoretical approach to the fantastic to propose a new, more relevant for modern fantasy literature, differentiation of literary terms “the fantastic” and “the marvellous” proposed in Tzvetan Todorov’s “The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre”. We use J.R.R. Tolkien’s term “Secondary Belief” as an alternative to Todorov’s “hesitation”. The term “fantastic” is understood here as that which disrupts the natural course of time, is fundamentally unverifiable, relies on an unreal past, and contradicts the laws of nature. The “marvellous” is compared here with the sacred. This article applies this theoretical approach to the unfinished novel “The Notion Club Papers” by Tolkien (1945–1946). The analysis identifies a system of three spaces in the novel: the unusual space, the fantastic space and the marvellous space. The space of Britain in the years 1986–1987 (which means the future relative to the time of the novel’s writing) is defined as unusual. The space of some characters’ dreams is defined as fantastic. A third space is also identified: the marvellous space of the sacred “shining land” mentioned in the draughts of the novel’s unwritten part. A similar system of spaces is found in the medieval English poem “Pearl” – and also in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” by Clive Staples Lewis (1952) which was written later than “The Notion Club Papers” yet published much earlier. The article assumes that the system of spaces in the novel by Tolkien could have influenced the further development of fantasy literature through the works of C. S. Lewis.
Keywords: fantastic, marvellous, fantastic theory, fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien, space, Igor Smirnow, Tzvetan Todorov.
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Author's info: Larisa S. Sokolova, postgraduate, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, solar2000@inbox.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3084-8711