Experts have set up a specialist centre to explore fantasy works such as The Hobbit, Game Of Thrones and Dungeons & Dragons.
Glasgow University is to become home to the world’s first ever research facility focusing on the fantasy genre.
The Gothic revival architecture of its Gilbert Scott building has often featured on screen, including in the time travelling TV series Outlander.
Based at the College of Arts, the centre will be led by Dr Dimitra Fimi, an expert on Tolkien, and Dr Rob Maslen, who created its Masters in fantasy literature.
Dr Maslen said: “Fantasy can be found everywhere in 21st-Century global culture – in films, TV shows, plays, games, comics, the visual arts and literature.
“The new centre allows us to pay close attention to this extraordinary phenomenon, its past, its present and its many possible futures.”
Students at the university are already researching fantasy in their PhDs, with one recent thesis exploring how younger readers receive Tolkien’s work much differently.
Another ongoing PhD is looking at urban society in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, while a third is examining how fantasy novels are dramatised on stage.
