Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Many works within the genre take place in fictional worlds where magic is common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction in that it does not provide a logical (or pseudo logical) explanation for the scientifically impossible events that occur, though there is a great deal of overlap between the two (both are subgenres of speculative fiction).

In popular culture, the genre of fantasy is dominated by its medievalist form, especially since the worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings books by J. R. R. Tolkien. In its broadest sense however, fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today.

Fantasy is a vibrant area of academic study in a number of disciplines (English, cultural studies, comparative literature, history, medieval studies). Work in this area ranges widely, from the structuralist theory of Tzvetan Todorov, which emphasizes the fantastic as a liminal space, to work on the connections (political, historical, literary) between medievalism and popular culture.

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more highly imaginative fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.

Just as the phrase’s component word “speculative” in late modern and post-modern English retains both a sense of inquisitive—often rational—hypothesis and its original sense of that which is speculatus (Latin), or “envisioned” without direct correspondence to ordinary experience, it is the visionary aspect in the sense of an author’s vision beyond the limitations of accepted fact which distinguishes “speculative” art from more naturalistic fiction. This is especially true in the sense of using elements recognized as of fairly uncontroversially factual or fact-seeming type in the creation of fictional portrayals or stories. Speculative fiction therefore encompasses the range from hypothetical “what if” gedankenexperiment scenarios to fictive environments, beings and actions which are produced as the artist’s alteration or augmentation of extant fact with proposed or prospective or imagined qualities, abilities, and conditions.