Our journey through the components of modern fantasy, borrowed from the classic epic, continues with the analysis of such a preponderant element whose centrality has given rise to a real sub-genre. It’s about the cityone of the possible settings of fantasy fiction, whose presence is closely linked to this specific sub-genre that develops throughout the twentieth century and which is established above all from the eighties, becoming nowadays an extremely beaten narrative field.
We are clearly talking abouturban fantasy, a sub-genre that provides for a city setting, in open contrast to the canonical frames of the genre, which instead usually represent imaginary worlds with a broader scope, strongly medieval in nature. Urban fantasy instead places the actions in city contextsalmost always real, but sometimes also fictitious even if based on real models, and is greatly affected by the contamination with the modern novel, establishing itself as a sort of contemporary development of fantasy, even if it would seem more like an alternative trend than a drift.
In any case, urban fantasy is now a dominant sub-genre and its presence is also very much felt in TV series, albeit with less ruthlessness than in books. The specifics of this narrative format lead to the adoption of certain schemes and compliance with certain conditions, which clearly guide the story. Despite its recent affirmation and linked to more modern formats, even urban fantasy, like its original genre, maintains clear links with theclassic epic and these are visible precisely through the analysis of the evolution of the central element of this sub-genre: the city.
Cities before modern fantasy
It is clearly no coincidence that urban fantasy is a modern subgenre and developed over the course of twentieth century. With some rare exceptions, the 20th century is crucial for the development of modern city, which in its greatest examples, such as London or Paris, obviously begins to form earlier, but which as a model begins to be dominant precisely during the twentieth century. The face of the planet changes, cities begin to mark the scene and consequently impose themselves in the collective imagination, also entering narrative formats with power, even those, such as fantasy, that are farthest from such a framework.
Before this great development, however, there were obviously cities and very important ones too. They didn’t have the modern face of today and were more unique specimens, but since ancient times people have set up large cities and their centrality is also perceived in the epic poems. The three great writings of antiquity, namely the Homeric poems and theAeneid, they have a city at the center of the story: Virgil’s work narrates the foundation of Romawhile those of Homer the conquest of Troy and the return of Odysseus a Ithaca. The city is what moves the threads of these stories, even if in reality it appears little like a real setting. In the’Iliad and inOdyssey Troy and Ithaca are only a partial frame of the story, in theAeneid Rome is not there yet. What matters, however, is to underline how the city is decisive in guiding the actions of the heroes: a trend that we will fully find in urban fantasy.
The great cities of antiquity disappear or in any case diminish their importance in the Middle Ages, before the advent of modernity and the birth of the first metropolises. Even in the chivalric poem, however, we still find the city, one in particular, as the engine of the action: it is Jerusalem, the Holy Land that the crusader warriors defend against the attack of the Muslims. The most fitting example in this sense is clearly the extraordinary Jerusalem Liberated Of Torquato Tassobut we find many variations on the theme, always with the defense of this city as the engine of the action.
From these examples provided by the classical epic we can notice a specific function of the cities, which is not so much that of a frame of the action, but of its trigger. In fact, without Troy, Ithaca, Rome and Jerusalem these four founding works of mankind that we have mentioned would not have taken place. Urban fantasy, as we will soon see, fully takes up this peculiarity, however making the city also a context of action, effectively adding this fundamental extra component.
The new role of the city
We have underlined how the development and affirmation of modern cities clearly played a decisive role in the birth of this subgenre. This upheaval has a decisive impact not only on an urban and social level, but completely changes the conception of the city and of life itself, which takes on new connotations with the metropolis. Progressively, the city begins to place itself more and more clearly contrast with rural environments, also developing contrasts clear-cut, and often misleading, which contribute to stereotyping the two landscapes, creating two parallel worlds. On one side the city, frenetic but dissolute, modern but diabolical, and on the other the countryside, calm and relaxed, but also staid and anachronistic.
This strong opposition is also reflected in the literature and the city becomes a fundamental component of the modern novel, which also breaks away from older genres thanks to this evolution. Unlike the chivalric or epic novel, for example, the modern one abundantly rejects that mythical and rural setting, which today we can define as medieval, and which flows fully into the fantasy genre. Given its direct lineage with the epic, fantasy has long maintained these guidelines and rejected the city setting, but modern times and contaminations have changed everything.
Modern fantasy, at a certain point, decides to take this setting as well, taking a step towards the modern novel and giving way to the birth of urban fantasy. The city, however, is no longer just the engine of the action, it is also made cornice and this leads to a whole series of changes e narrative constraints important. The breath of the story becomes more syncopated, the time less nuanced and the coexistence with the urban fabric leads to some due narrative choices, such as the masking of magical forces, the reasoning of the impact on the real world and the tendency to narrate events in the present , to facilitate the narration which otherwise would lead to science fiction with a futuristic setting or would lose meaning with an eye to the past.
The presence of these strong guidelines has meant that the urban setting becomes a real one subgenre and so, especially give the eighties of the 2000s, urban fantasy has established itself as a well-defined reality, which can now boast a very rich narrative, especially at a literary level. Even the TV series have looked at this new reality, however taking a very specific direction, namely that of preferring small towns rather than large cities, also in this case for narrative needs and to guarantee greater freedom. In television series, therefore, urban fantasy is not as developed and decisive as in literature, but it is a very present sub-genre, of which we will now analyze some fundamental examples.
Modern urban fantasy in TV series
We have said that in the serial panorama, urban fantasy has developed above all around small towns, often fictitious, which however are placed in a direct line with the large cities that characterize both the classic epic and contemporary fiction. A prime example is, of course, the Sunnydale Of Buffy, the town that rises above the mouth of hell and therefore conveys the great forces of evil. Here, as in the epic, the town is the reason that moves the action, because in another setting, without Hell’s Mouth, there would not have been all the creatures that populate the TV series, but it is also the setting where the action takes place and it is so important that it also becomes an important reference, not just a background.
A similar argument can be made for the Mystic Falls Of The Vampire Diaries, place where in fact vampires are born and which therefore conveys all the action. These towns, as well as others such as the Greendale Of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina o to Beacon Hills Of Teen Wolf, are all centers that stand in open contrast to the events that take place, because they look like placid provincial towns, where life seems to be able to flow calmly and without jolts. This dimension is very reminiscent of the contrast between city and countryside we were talking about and this choice seems to want to create a bridge between traditional fantasy and the urban setting. The city in these first TV series has the connotations of the rural setting: it is an urban fabric, but with the characteristics of the medieval environments that dominate the fantasy narrative. It is a compromise aimed at welcoming novelties, but without distorting tradition.
The real urban fantasy also arrives in the world of TV series with other products, including the adaptation of one of the most loved and famous literary sagas of this sub-genre: Shadowhunters. The serial adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s novels has not had the resonance and success of the paper equivalent and contributing to this lack of recognition is precisely the lack of characterization of the New York setting, fundamental in the saga. On the other hand, the Los Angeles setting of Lucifer, series in which we see the character of urban fantasy decided and not by chance The Angels contributes more to the success of Lucifer as compared to New York to that of Shadowhunters.
Apart from the size of the centre, however, there is not a huge conceptual difference between these different types of examples that we have provided. The city in serial modern fantasy, whether it is a small fictitious town or a huge metropolis, always maintains its role as motor e you cornice of the action, displaying its dual heritage from both the epic and the modern novel. The feeling is that in this field the TV series have yet to have their say, with a more unscrupulous and clear-cut urban setting, which goes beyond the nonetheless convincing Los Angeles of Lucifer. In any case, it is clear that urban fantasy now represents a dominant trend even in the serial panorama, awaiting its own consecration and a greater distinction from the traditional modern fantasy, already well present in the literature. It is equally clear that, albeit with a more nuanced path, this component too draws liberally from the classical epic and the chivalric poem, reinforcing this close bond that we have been dissecting for months now and which still has various elements to be explored.
