The Lord of the Rings - Fantasy as a literary genre

“Lord of the Rings” is unquestionable a fantasy novel. Or one might say “Lord of the Rings” is the fantasy novel. But what is fantasy and how is it defined?

Before talking fantasy I’ll briefly sum up, what a genre is and with what purpose novels are categorized in genres. Genre can be defined as an agreement between the audience, the producers and the mass media, which gives the movie or book publicity. An agreement simplifying the communication between the mass media and the audience.

A genre is set of conventions or expectations, which recur in novel after novel. The genre conception can often be difficult to define, though, because of the sometimes rather fluent conventions and expectations.

When defining a certain genre various things or conventions must be considered…