The article provides a comparative analysis of fantastic, the youngest literary genre created by scientific and technological progress, with folklore, the oldest type of oral literature, analyzes their similarities and differences.
At first glance, the genre of folklore and fantastic seem extremely distant from each other: folklore has its roots in very ancient times, in the distant past, and fantastic, especially science fiction, was created in the era of industrial development and scientific and technological progress. Naturally, it is this difference that makes their comparison especially significant.
The genres of folklore are very diverse, this includes myths, epics, fairy tales, legends, etc. The difference between myth and legend and fairy tales is that the events described occur in a certain historical period. Fairy tales are much younger than myths in terms of the time of their creation, and most of them have authors, and the authors of myths are in most cases unknown. Fairy tales and epics are epic genres that vary greatly in scope as well. Although myths and legends are treated as descriptions of real events, they share a fantastic component, and for this reason science fiction is sometimes called modern mythology. Analyzing fantastic as a genre that is subdivided into many subgenres, we see that it is an ancient and
integral part of art. The most popular in this genre are science fiction and fantasy. Science fiction mainly explores the impact of science and technology on society or individuals, illuminating the future. And the authors of fantasy works popular in the middle of the 20th century were inspired by myths, legends, fairy tales, referring to their plots and images. Thus, analyzing the similarities and differences between these genres, we can say with confidence that regardless of whether they are ancient or modern, the power of influence of a legend, myth, fairy tale or fiction on the spiritual and mental world of a person is important and remains unchanged from ancient times to the present day.