The RONA JAFFE test
So, what's the REAL difference between mainstream academic literary critics, and scholars who focus on fantasy literature? Let me hereby propose the RONA JAFFE test, which I've discovered from recently reading (way too much) traditional literary criticism on postwar American literature. If you hear Jaffe's name and think about her best-selling 1958 novel, The Best of Everything , well then, you're a traditional mainstream literary criti. But if you think, "Wait, you mean that opportunistic nut-job who contributed to the mid-80s Satanic panic with Mazes and Monsters in 1981?", your fantasy credentials are assured.