Romance

From Unawiki

• R. is generally a fictional work dealing in a non-realistic way with unusual or fantastic events.
• R originated in the middle ages, but it was the 19th century historical r. of Walter Scott that formed the immediate basis for r. in America, where it became the dominant fictive form prior to the rise of Realism.
• In its simplest sense, r. may be used to distinguish a work of invention from a work that aims for historical accuracy.
• At its most complex (as in the Works of H. Melville and E. A. Poe), it is an introspective and highly self-conscious form, in which the nature of fiction and its relation to reality and to history may be examined.