Dissertations / Theses: 'English Fantasy fiction'

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Westlake, David Michael. "Fantasy and Imagination: Discovering the Threshold of Meaning." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2005. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/WestlakeDM2005.pdf.

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Gevers, Nicholas David. "Mirrors of the past : versions of history in science fiction and fantasy." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10511.

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The primary argument of this Thesis is that Science Fiction (SF) is a form of Historical Fiction, one which speculatively appropriates elements of the past in fulfilment of the ideological expectations of its genre readership. Chapter One presents this definition, reconciling it with some earlier definitions of SF and justifying it by means of a comparison between SF and the Historical Novel. Chapter One also identifies SF's three modes of historical appropriation (historical extension, imitation and modification) and the forms of fictive History these construct, including Future History and Alternate History; theories of history, and SF's own ideological changes over time, have helped shape the genre's varied borrowings from the past. Some works of Historical Fantasy share the characteristics of SF set out in Chapter One. The remaining Chapters analyse the textual products of SF's imitation and modification of history, i.e. Future and Alternate Histories. Chapter Two discusses various Future Histories completed or at least commenced before 1960, demonstrating their consistent optimism, their celebration of Science and of heroic individualism, and their tendency to resolve the cyclical pattern of history through an ideal linear simplification or 'theodicy'. Chapter Three shows the much greater ideological and technical diversity of Future Histories after 1960, their division into competing traditional (Libertarian), Posthistoric (pessimistic), and critical utopian categories, an indication of SF's increasing complexity and fragmentation.

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Hurst, Edmund. "Dawnsmoke and the influence of character tropes on the construction of fantasy fiction." Thesis, University of Hull, 2017. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:16540.

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This thesis is formed of a fantasy novel, Dawnsmoke, and an exegesis that will examine the role played by character tropes on the creation of the three principal protagonists in Dawnsmoke. Dawnsmoke interweaves three narrative strands from a diverse set of principal protagonists. Luke, Samantha and Kain combine narratives in order to tell the story of Arx, a city where fire burns blue and memories can be trapped in metal. Told through three distinct third-person-limited voices, this novel explores the concept of self-induced memory loss, isolation and the price of heroism. The exegesis considers the definitions of fantasy offered by C. N. Manlove, W. R. Irwin, T. E. Apter, Tzvetan Todorov and Rosemary Jackson and contrasts these definitions with modern considerations from Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Ursula LeGuin and Kazuo Ishiguro. It posits a definition of fantasy literature that encompasses the traditions that Dawnsmoke shares. It analyses the impact of specific sub-genres on the character norms in Dawnsmoke. It examines the inception of Luke, Samantha and Kain in relation to common character tropes and how the subversion of these thematic expectations impacts the narrative arc of each character. It observes the techniques used in crafting unique voices for each character. It concludes with an examination of the resolution of each protagonist’s journey.

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McSporran, Cathy. "Letting the winter in : myth revision and the winter solstice in fantasy fiction." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5812/.

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This is a Creative Writing thesis, which incorporates both critical writing and my own novel, Cold City. The thesis explores ‘myth-revision’ in selected works of Fantasy fiction. Myth-revision is defined as the retelling of traditional legends, folk-tales and other familiar stories in such as way as to change the story’s implied ideology. (For example, Angela Carter’s ‘The Company of Wolves’ revises ‘Red Riding Hood’ into a feminist tale of female sexuality and empowerment.) Myth-revision, the thesis argues, has become a significant trend in Fantasy fiction in the last three decades, and is notable in the works of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman. Despite its incorporation of supernatural elements, myth-revision is an agnostic or even atheistic phenomenon, which takes power from deities and gives it to moral humans instead. As such it represents a rebellion against the ‘Founding Fathers’ of Fantasy, writers such as Tolkien or CS Lewis, whose works stress the rightful superiority of divine figures. The thesis pays particular attention to how the myths surrounding the Winter Solstice are revised in this kind of fiction. Part One consists of my novel Cold City, with appropriate annotations. In Part Two, Chapter One compares and contrasts Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials with CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. It argues that Pullman’s sequence of children’s novels is an anti-Narnia, which revises CS Lewis’s conservative Christian allegory into one supporting Pullman’s secular humanist viewpoint. Chapter Two explores myth-revision in Elizabeth Hand’s novel of adult Fantasy Winterlong. It examines how Hand ‘revises’ the Hellenic myth of the god Dionysos, especially as it is related to Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae. Chapter Three examines the use of ‘Ragnarok’ – the ancient Norse myth of the end of the world – in Cold City.

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Varnado, Ethan C. "A Wonder Book." VCU Scholars Compass, 2017. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4965.

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This thesis is a collection of nine short stories about real people dealing with unreal problems. In one story, a small-town man answers a knock at his door, only to find three wisemen, who have followed a star and proclaimed him as their new messiah. In another, a reporter travels across the snowy length of Canada looking to interview people who have witnessed the Virgin Mary materialize above Toronto. Deranged Egyptologists, vampires with diseased blood, wacky witches, and unhappy mediums all inhabit tales whose landscapes span the distance between Chattanooga, Tennessee and the afterlife.

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Leroux, Julie. ""Shocking his readers out of their complacence": gothic and fantasy tropes in H.G. Wells' «fin-de siècle» science fiction novels." Thesis, McGill University, 2011. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=97160.

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The main goal of this thesis is to identify Gothic and fantasy tropes in four fin-de-siècle novels by H.G. Wells – The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon and The Food of the Gods – and to examine their rhetorical effects within the framework of science fiction. More precisely, my project was inspired by Kelly Hurley's analysis of the thematic similarities shared by the science fiction and Gothic genres during the fin-de-siècle, and by Darko Suvin's definitions of science fiction and of the Gothic as being rhetorically antithetical. Through an analysis of how the two thematically compatible but rhetorically antithetical genres interact in the novels, I evaluate the potential responses that could be expected from readers, and compare these responses to the contemporary reception of the work. My research is based on the idea that Wells' novels promote a social message based on Darwinian theory and socialism, and that he uses the combination of SF and the Gothic in order to lead his complacent readers to intellectual conclusions by first drawing their attention through shock and terror. This study will seek to determine whether the author's use of the Gothic ultimately benefits the works by enhancing their social message, or if it results in the contrary effect.
Ce mémoire vise à identifier les tropes gothiques et fantaisistes dans quatre romans de la fin-de-siècle par H.G. Wells – The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon et The Food of the Gods – et d'examiner leur effet dans ces romans de science fiction au niveau rhétorique. Plus précisément, ce projet fut inspiré par l'analyse qu'a faite Kelly Hurley des ressemblances thématiques entre la science fiction et le gothique au tournant du vingtième siècle, et par l'argument de Darko Suvin selon lequel la science fiction et le gothique seraient antithétiques au niveau rhétorique. À travers une analyse de l'interaction entre ces deux genres compatibles au niveau thématique, mais théoriquement incompatibles au niveau rhétorique, j'évalue les réponses potentielles que l'on peut attendre des lecteurs de ces romans, et je compare ces réponses théoriquement possibles aux la réception contemporaine réelle de ces œuvres. Ma recherche repose sur l'idée que Wells tentait de promouvoir dans ses romans une réflexion sociale basée sur les théories darwiniennes et sur le socialisme, et qu'il utilisait la combinaison de la science fiction et du gothique afin de mener ses lecteurs vers des conclusions intellectuelles par le biais d'un éveil brusque causé par le choc et la terreur. Cette étude tente de déterminer si l'utilisation du gothique faite par l'auteur mène vraiment ses lecteurs à porter davantage attention aux thèmes contenus dans les romans, ou si, au contraire, ces tropes ne font qu'engendrer une réponse émotive chez le lecteur.

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Duttler, Sabine-Michaela. "Die filmische Umsetzung der Harry-Potter-Romane /." Hamburg : Dr Kovač, 2007. http://www.verlagdrkovac.de/978-3-8300-3314-1.htm.

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Hanson, Scot A. "Ruling Powers." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2003. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6102.

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While the fantasy genre is one of the most widely read modes of writing, literary criticism and academic discussion of the genre takes place at a much lower level. This imbalance has developed in part because of a misconception that fantasy genre writings cannot accomplish significant, literary purposes. This thesis first offers an argument for why the fantasy genre should receive more attention in scholarly circles, then presents an excerpt of a fantasy novel. The argument draws from the limited amount of existing criticism to highlight the strengths of the fantasy genre, building a case that, in most respects, works of heroic fantasy deserve thoughtful critical attention, and concluding with a proposal that further attention will elevate the acknowledged weaknesses. The excerpt from the novel is not intended as an exemplary model of what fantasy can accomplish; it is merely a first step on the long journey to those goals.

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Harris, Jason Marc. "Folklore, fantasy, and fiction : the function of supernatural folklore in nineteenth and early twentieth-century British prose narratives of the literary fantastic /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9456.

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Chapin, Elizabeth. "What Fantasy Can Do for Her: A Critical and Creative Exploration of Secondary and Fractured Worlds." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1199.

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In making a distinction between secondary and fractured worlds, we can begin to determine the possibilities that fantasy literature, as a wider subject, holds for female characters and for feminine themes. These two areas of fantasy represent very different possibilities for women and the feminine, as a result of their approaches towards the presentation of ideology and authority. These approaches find their root most clearly in the creation of a story’s place and time, a fact I will explore through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the “chronotope.” For, though both high fantasy and the fantastic question the real, representing, as Rosemary Jackson writes, a “dissatisfaction with what ‘is,’” they undermine the structure of that reality to very different degrees, with one mode seeking out a stabilizing transcendence, while the other revels in an ambiguous immanence. The creative response to this critical exploration will both imaginatively reflect on and practically test the initial questions posed and arguments made, in an effort to more personally understand how each tradition does or does not make room for women and the feminine.

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Eckstein, Simon J. "The shadow of the past : fantasy, modernism, and the aftermath of a world at war." Thesis, Swansea University, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678625.

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This study constitutes a single strand of a wider argument for a thorough-going reassessment of the place of fantasy literature within the canon. In particular, it aims to redress a marked lack of critical attention paid to the distinct movement towards fantastic modes of representation in the mid-twentieth century.

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Glover, Jayne Ashleigh. ""A complex and delicate web" : a comparative study of selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2007. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1001/.

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Fratini, Claudia Caia Julia. "Beyond the invisible a representation of magic in contemporary fantasy literature /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2005. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06172005-113436/.

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Rish, Ryan M. "Engaging Adolescents' Interests, Literacy Practices, and Identities: Digital Collaborative Writing of Fantasy Fiction in a High School English Elective Class." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1316521200.

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Cristofari, Cécile. "Cosmogonies imaginaires : les mondes secondaires dans la science-fiction et la fantasy anglophones, de 1929 à nos jours." Thesis, Aix-Marseille, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013AIXM3030.

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J'ai voulu étudier un phénomène qui sous-tend l'écriture de la littérature spéculative (science-fiction et fantasy) aujourd'hui : la création d'un « monde secondaire », selon l'expression de J.R.R. Tolkien. Deux problèmes se posaient de prime abord. Premièrement, l'ensemble culturel et éditorial que recouvre l'expression « littérature spéculative » est relativement flou, du fait des problèmes de délimitation des genres et de la problématique culturelle plus générale (la littérature spéculative est-elle définie par des motifs littéraires, ou par l'appareil culturel qui l'entoure ?). Deuxièmement, un « monde secondaire » est-il uniquement un univers inventé entièrement différent ou détaché du monde réel, ou peut-il recouper le monde réel, etc. ? La littérature spéculative étant un genre foisonnant et en pleine évolution, j'ai pris le parti de ne pas donner de réponses définitives. Plutôt que de tenter de tracer des frontières, j'ai cherché à mettre en évidence les différents éléments dont se constituent les mondes secondaires : les traditions du genre sur lesquels les auteurs s'appuient pour transmettre la vision d'un univers original à leurs lecteurs, entre mise en avant de l'originalité et utilisation d'éléments connus comme soubassement, ainsi que la vision particulière de l'histoire, de la géographie et de la place de l'humanité dans le monde que les auteurs développent. Cette réflexion se veut située à la fois en amont et en aval de l'acte d'écriture. Elle se conclut sur les questions qui se posent aux auteurs contemporains : questions de renouvellement du genre, ou d'ouverture sur les autres médias, en particulier ceux que pratiquent les amateurs
I endeavoured to study a phenomenon underlying contemporary speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy): the creation of a ‘secondary world', to use J.R.R. Tolkien's phrasing. I had to solve two preliminary problems. First, the cultural and economic phenomenon that speculative fiction represents has a blurry outline, questions regarding genre delimitation and wider cultural problems (is speculative fiction defined only by a number of literary patterns, or by the whole cultural apparatus that goes with it?) being difficult to answer. Secondly, does the notion secondary worlds only apply to invented worlds that are entirely different or detached from the real world, or can it be applied to texts that take place at least partly in the real world, etc.? Speculative fiction being a diverse genre that has been steadily evolving for years, I have chosen to avoid giving definitive answers to those questions. Instead of looking for boundaries, I have tried to emphasise the various building blocks of secondary worlds in speculative fiction: the traditions of the genre authors rely on to convey their view of an original universe to their readers, in a dialogue between known elements used as a foundation and the idiosyncratic view of history, geography and the place of mankind in the particular secondary world developed by the author. In an attempt to open this study to the contemporary practice of world-building, I have concluded with the questions that speculative fiction authors face today: how to renew the tropes of the genre, how speculative fiction pervades other media, in particular the practices of fans

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Langwith, Mark J. "'A far green country' : an anlaysis of the presentation of nature in works of early mythopoeic fantasy fiction /." St Andrews, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/313.

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Sebree, Adrien E. "Living Fairy Tales: Science Fiction and Fantasy's Visionary Retellings of "Beauty and the Beast"." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2011. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/204.

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This thesis explores how science fiction and fantasy retellings of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" bring visionary insights to the fairy tale. Stories such as Tanith Lee's science fiction novella "Beauty" and Mercedes Lackey's fantasy novel The Fire Rose constitute living and developing incarnations of "Beauty and the Beast." To better explore the visionary leaps made by these stories, they are placed in contrast with one of the original recordings of the story by Madame Marie Le Prince de Beaumont and the 1991 Disney film version, Beauty and the Beast.

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Crowe, Elizabeth A. "The Wit and Wisdom in the Novels of Diana Wynne Jones." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2005. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd846.pdf.

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McIntire, Janet E. "H. Rider Haggard and the Victorian occult." Full text available online (restricted access), 2000. http://images.lib.monash.edu.au/ts/theses/McIntire.pdf.

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Pond, Julia. "Divine destiny or free choice Nietzsche's strong wills in the Harry Potter series /." unrestricted, 2008. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-03312008-142833/.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008.
Title from file title page. Pearl McHaney, committee chair; Stephen Dobranski, Nancy Chase, committee members. Electronic text (71 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed July 2, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-71).

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Zadworna-Fjellestad, Danuta. "Alice's adventures in wonderland and Gravity's rainbow a study in duplex fiction /." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm, Sweden : Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1986. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q5laAAAAMAAJ.

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Koras, Demetra. "Primrose and Other Stories." Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2020. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/grtheses/519.

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Sanders, Elizabeth Mildred. "Enchanting Belief: Religion and Secularism in the Victorian Supernatural Novel." Diss., University of Iowa, 2015. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5186.

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Langwith, Mark J. "'A far green country' : an analysis of the presentation of nature in works of early mythopoeic fantasy fiction." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/313.

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This study undertakes an examination of the representation of nature in works of literature that it regards as early British ‘mythopoeic fantasy’. By this term the thesis understands that fantasy fiction which is fundamentally concerned with myth or myth-making. It is the contention of the study that the connection of these works with myth or the idea of myth is integral to their presentation of nature. Specifically, this study identifies a connection between the idea of nature presented in these novels and the thought of the late-Victorian era regarding nature, primitivism, myth and the impulse behind mythopoesis. It is argued that this conceptual background is responsible for the notion of nature as a virtuous force of spiritual redemption in opposition to modernity and in particular to the dominant modern ideological model of scientific materialism. The thesis begins by examining late-Victorian sensibilities regarding myth and nature, before exposing correlative ideas in selected case studies of authors whose work it posits to be primarily mythopoeic in intent. The first of these studies considers the work of Henry Rider Haggard, the second examines Scottish writer David Lindsay, and the third looks at the mythopoeic endeavours of J. R. R. Tolkien, the latter standing alone among the authors considered in these central case studies in producing fiction under a fully developed theory of mythopoesis. The perspective is then widened in the final chapter, allowing consideration of authors such as William Morris and H. G. Wells. The study attempts to demonstrate the prevalence of an identifiable conceptual model of nature in the period it considers to constitute the age of early mythopoeic fantasy fiction, which it conceives to date from the late-Victorian era to the apotheosis of Tolkien’s work.

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Waddell, Heather. "Reading with thought and effort : Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and its connections to the works of John Milton and William Blake /." Connect to online version, 2007. http://ada.mtholyoke.edu/setr/websrc/pdfs/www/2007/245.pdf.

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Lacy, Dianna C. "Expanding the Definition of Liminality: Speculative Fiction as an Exploration of New Boundaries." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2019. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2698.

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Speculative fiction allows an expanded view of literature and so allows scholars to explore new boundaries in the way words and ideas work. In the titular character of The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, the reader sees an expansion of self through liminality while A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick explores its collapse. In order to portray each of these the character examined must move though one seems to move upward and the other downward. This idea of movement is only part of what expands the idea of liminality past the traditional idea of a doorway to create a hallway that the character might traverse on the way from place to place. This is not a redefinition of the term but a revision, a change in the way that we look at the concept as we accept and explore newer genres.

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Ross, Larry J. "The use of Tolkien's 'The lord of the rings' trilogy in contemporary pre-evangelism." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2008. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p001-1235.

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Thesis (D. Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008.
Includes abstract. Appendix A: Pastor's guide to The lord of the rings : a resource for fellow pastors who love "The lord of the rings" / by Larry J. Ross. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-112).

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Abbott, William Thomas. "White Knowledge and the Cauldron of Story: The Use of Allusion in Terry Pratchett's Discworld." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2002. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/630.

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In the last twenty years, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has become very popular. Pratchett's success hinges in part on his use of allusion, in what Tolkien called the "Cauldron of Story," and what Pratchett refers to as "white knowledge." This paper explores the Discworld novels and illustrates Pratchett's use and success of storytelling through a few key directions: folk tales, fantasy literature, movies, and rock music. Pratchett has received limited critical review, mostly of a negative nature, while producing a strong literary series, one crafted with both obvious and subtle recognition of his genre's sources. While standing on the shoulders of giants, Pratchett both respects and scrutinizes the myths and stories that construct our reality. Critically, Pratchett's fiction deserves more respect and closer study; this paper attempts to give him his due.

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de, Vries Catharina, and Emelie Strandberg. ""They can cut out the world as it is, and just move to the world of ideas." : A Qualitative Study on How Upper Secondary Teachers of English in Sweden Introduce Learners to Different Genres of Fiction." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-36750.

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The aim of this study was to explore ways in which ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers introduce different forms of literary writing such as poems, plays, fiction, genres and fantasy in the ESL classroom. The main method used was semi-structured interviews with six upper secondary ESL teachers in the South of Sweden. The interview questions were analyzed taking into account current research within the area, and further based on our own experience. The benefits of using the fantasy genre in teaching was one of the main focuses for this study. The compiled results showed varying strategies to teaching fiction in general. Only fifty percent of the interviewed teachers would actively have chosen the fantasy genre in their teaching practice. However, the interviewees saw potential beneficial outcomes from using the fantasy genre. All but one would consider incorporating the fantasy genre in their future teaching. Despite the negative view on fantasy being an unhealthy escapism, the positive effects outweigh the negative. In conclusion, the results and the analysis are in line with the established author Lloyd Alexander who states the following: “Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”

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Glover, Jayne Ashleigh. ""A complex and delicate web" : a comparative study of selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002241.

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This thesis examines selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy. It argues that a specifiable ecological ethic can be traced in their work – an ethic which is explored by them through the tensions between utopian and dystopian discourses. The first part of the thesis begins by theorising the concept of an ecological ethic of respect for the Other through current ecological philosophies, such as those developed by Val Plumwood. Thereafter, it contextualises the novels within the broader field of science fiction, and speculative fiction in particular, arguing that the shift from a critical utopian to a critical dystopian style evinces their changing treatment of this ecological ethic within their work. The remainder of the thesis is divided into two parts, each providing close readings of chosen novels in the light of this argument. Part Two provides a reading of Le Guin’s early Hainish novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest and The Dispossessed, followed by an examination of Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Lessing’s The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The third, and final, part of the thesis consists of individual chapters analysing the later speculative novels of each author. Piercy’s He, She and It, Le Guin’s The Telling, and Atwood’s Oryx and Crake are all scrutinised, as are Lessing’s two recent ‘Ifrik’ novels. This thesis shows, then, that speculative fiction is able to realise through fiction many of the ideals of ecological thinkers. Furthermore, the increasing dystopianism of these novels reflects the greater urgency with which the problem of Othering needs to be addressed in the light of the present global ecological crisis.

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MacDonald, Elizabeth. "A Longer Spoon: A Novel." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2014. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/1612.

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The intent of this thesis is to create a novel-length narrative based around a premise conceived in a workshop setting. The novel, while containing elements of fantasy, will be character-driven and feature psychological character development as its primary goal. Lawrence Caligny, a young cook newly instated at a castle, is coerced by his mother, an infamous witch named Mallory, to concoct a sleeping potion for the country’s crown prince, beckoning comparison to the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale. As Lawrence prepares for his opportunity, he unwittingly befriends the prince and his sister and stumbles across an assassination plot. Being thoroughly inept at witchcraft himself, Lawrence fails to put the prince to sleep when he gets the chance, knocking out the entirety of the castle inhabitants and staff instead. The story concludes with the revival of those in the castle and Lawrence being fired from his (ignominious) position in the kitchens, but otherwise pardoned in acknowledgement of his help in stopping the assassination.
B.A.
Bachelors
English
Arts and Humanities

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Glover, Jayne Ashleigh. "The Harry Potter phenomenon literary production, generic traditions, and the question of values." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002243.

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This thesis is a study of the first four books of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. It accounts for the widespread success of the novels by examining their publication and marketing histories, and their literary achievement as narratives including a sophisticated mix of generic traditions. Chapter One looks at the popularity of the novels, comparing their material production and marketing by Rowling’s English language publishers: Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States of America. The publisher’s influence on the public perception of each book is demonstrated by comparative study of its mode of illustration and layout. Further, the design of the books is linked to their strategic marketing and branding within the literary world. The second chapter considers Rowling’s debt to the school story. It concentrates first on the history of this relatively short-lived genre, briefly discussing its stereotypical features and values. Traditional elements of setting and characterisation are then examined to show how the Harry Potter novels present a value system which, though apparently old-fashioned, still has an ethical standpoint designed to appeal to the modern reader. Chapter Three focuses on the characterisation of Harry as a hero-figure, especially on how the influence of classical and medieval texts infuses Rowling’s portrayal of Harry as a hero in the chivalric mode. The episodes of “quest” and “test” in each book illustrate specifically how he learns the values of selflessness, loyalty, mercy and fairness. Chapter Four surveys the contribution of modern fantasy writing to the series. It shows how Rowling creates a secondary world that allows us to perceive magic as a metaphorical representation of power. This focus on the relationship between magic and power in turn has a bearing on our assessment of the author’s moral stance. The thesis concludes by suggesting that Rowling’s unusual mix of genres is justified by the values they share, and which are inscribed in her work: the generic combination forms a workable, new and exciting mode of writing that helps to account for the phenomenal popularity of the series.

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Smith, Roslyn Nicole. "Medias Res, Temporal Double-Consciousness and Resistance in Octavia Butler's Kindred." unrestricted, 2007. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11242007-230409/.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2007.
Title from file title page. Elizabeth West, committee chair; Layli Phillips, Kameelah Martin Samuel, committee members. Electronic text (52 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Jan. 30, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-52).

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Dihal, Kanta. "The stories of quantum physics : quantum physics in literature and popular science, 1900-present." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ebe4c5eb-ce48-495f-b015-024f8ac4f4ac.

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This thesis investigates quantum physics narratives for non-physicists, covering four interlocking modes of writing for adults and children, fictional and nonfictional, from 1900 to the present. It brings together three separate scholarly fields: literature and science, science fiction, and science communication. The thesis has revealed parallels between the approaches to quantum physics in these disparate narratives that have not been addressed before, shedding new light on the mutual influences between science and narrative form. The thesis argues that similar narrative tropes have been employed in popular science writing and in fiction across all age groups, changing non-physicists' ideas of quantum physics. This understanding differs significantly from the professional understanding of quantum physics, as I establish by means of a series of case studies, including popular science books for adults by Alastair I.M. Rae, George Gamow and Robert Gilmore; popularizations for children by Lucy and Stephen Hawking, Russell Stannard, and Otto Fong; children's fiction by Philip Pullman and Madeleine L'Engle; and fiction for adults by Greg Egan, David Walton, Blake Crouch, and Iain Pears. An analysis of authors who wrote for various audiences or in multiple genres, such as Fred Hoyle, Stephen Hawking, and Ian Stewart, shows how the same concerns and conflicts surface in a wide range of stories. Quantum physics is not yet fully understood; the Copenhagen, conscious collapse, many-worlds and other interpretations compete for both scientific and public acceptance. Influential physics communicators such as John Gribbin and Brian Cox have written popularizations in which they express a personal preference for one interpretation, arguing against others. Scientific conflict, which tends to be omitted from university teaching, is thus explicitly present in popularizations, making it clear to the reader that quantum physics is in a constant state of flux. I investigate the conflicts between Fred Hoyle and George Gamow, and Stephen Hawking and Leonard Susskind, to see how they undermine the alleged objectivity of science. The interplay between the different stories of quantum physics shows how the science not only shapes the stories: the stories shape the science, too.

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Wallner, Lars. "I Have Dreamed a Dream... : An Analysis of H.G. Wells' Short Stories "Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland", "The Door in the Wall" and "A Dream of Armageddon"." Thesis, Linköping University, Language and Culture, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-17555.

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"I Have Dreamed a Dream..." is an analysis of the three short stories "Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland", "The Door in the Wall" and "A Dream of Armageddon" by H.G. Wells. The essay makes a comparison of the three short stories from the perspectives of the dreamland, the inner struggle of the protagonist and the message of the story. The purpose is to show that the three seemingly similar short stories have different outcomes and deliver different messages to the reader. The essay finally presents a theory of how these messages coincide despite their differences.

"Jag har drömt en dröm..." är en analys av de tre novellerna "Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland", "The Door in the Wall" och "A Dream of Armageddon" av H.G. Wells. Uppsatsen gör en jämförelse av de tre novellerna utifrån tre perspektiv: drömvärlden, huvudpersonens inre kamp och historiens budskap. Syftet är att visa hur de tre till synes lika novellerna har olika resultat och presenterar olika budskap till läsaren. Uppsatsen framför slutligen en teori för hur dessa budskap överensstämmer trots sina olikheter.

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Geldenhuys, Vincent. "A signification in stone the lapis as metaphor for visual hybridisation in the Harry Potter films /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2008. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11132008-191836.

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Kwong, Lucas Emile. "Extravagant Practices: Experiencing Religious Pluralism in the Victorian Fantastic." Thesis, 2015. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8D799SM.

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This dissertation explores how Victorian fantastic fiction reimagined an experience central to its era: the full range of affective responses to religious pluralization, from devotion to disillusionment. Indeed, "Extravagant Practices" argues that authors of the fantastic gave voice to late Victorian Britain’s dawning awareness of creeds outside the Judeo-Christian tradition. Toward the close of the nineteenth century, three interrelated developments fueled this awareness: unprecedented proximity to Asian traditions, made possible by imperial circuits of knowledge; comparativist accounts of world religions, which stressed their hidden unity; and the array of esoteric spiritual movements, such as Theosophy and occultism, in which “Christian Britain” took increasing interest. These developments exerted powerful but conflicting pressures on believers and freethinkers alike. In yoking supernatural events to naturalistic detail, authors such as Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Bram Stoker found a way to capture the sometimes exhilarating, often disorienting experience of exploring religious difference at the fin de siecle. Far from offering mere escapes from disenchanted modernity, then, the fantastic fictions surveyed in this dissertation illumine the complex religious lives of the late Victorians.

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Rubenstein, Avril. "Bearers of dreams : a study of archetypal symbolism in fantasy and science fiction." Thesis, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/29722.

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Aslami, Zarena D. "State fantasy : the late nineteenth-century British novel and the cultural formation of state personhood /." 2002. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3070153.

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Fratini, Claudia Caia Julia. "Beyond the invisible : a representation of magic in contemporary fantasy literature." Diss., 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25587.

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The realm of fantasy literature has always been that of the 'invisible', in as much as it has either been 'excluded' from traditional academic circles or at most marginalised from the general body of literary texts and considered a literature of 'escape'. This positioning of fantasy literature has caused a definition of the genre that is two-dimensional, and that perpetuates its alienation from the 'canon'. Although the works of fantasy literature by J.R.R. Tolkien are sometimes considered 'worthy' literature, but he is an exception in literary circles. In light of the 'invisible' position that fantasy literature occupies, this thesis attempts, through the use of Derridian and Jungian theory to (re)define fantasy literature by proposing a definition of fantasy literature that is three¬dimensional and that stems precisely from its 'invisible' position. The 'spherical' theory proposed illustrates how fantasy literature allows the reader to (re)examine his/her reality by presenting him/her with a reality that is different to his/her everyday concrete reality, but that at the same time shares the same moral, ethical and identity issues found in the 'visible' world and that the reader is faced with on a daily basis. The prolific use of magic in fantasy cannot be ignored and in this thesis, the use of magic within the texts and its function in a scientifi-rational world is focused on in detail. With each text, a different kind of magic is focused on. In Tolkien, the focus is on Alchemy and how the characters in his novels undergo an Alchemical transformation. The Tolkien texts that are focussed on are The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The chapter on Patricia McKillip focuses primarily on the use of magic in her protagonist's search for identity. The texts used form part of her Riddle Master trilogy and are, The Riddle Master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire and Harpist in the Wind. The section on Katherine Kerr explores the idea of a 'new' magic for a 'new' world and focuses on how in the three novels, The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven and The Fire Dragon, magic takes on a 'new' definition.
Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2006.
English
unrestricted

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Potter, Mary-Anne. "Arboreal thresholds - the liminal function of trees in twentieth-century fantasy narratives." Thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/25341.

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Trees, as threshold beings, effectively blur the line between the real world and fantastical alternate worlds, and destabilise traditional binary classification systems that distinguish humanity, and Culture, from Nature. Though the presence of trees is often peripheral to the main narrative action, their representation is necessary within the fantasy trope. Their consistent inclusion within fantasy texts of the twentieth century demonstrates an enduring arboreal legacy that cannot be disregarded in its contemporary relevance, whether they are represented individually or in collective forests. The purpose of my dissertation is to conduct a study of various prominent fantasy texts of the twentieth century, including the fantasy works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Robert Holdstock, Diana Wynne Jones, Natalie Babbitt, and J.K. Rowling. In scrutinising these texts, and drawing on insights offered by liminal, ecocritical, ecofeminist, mythological and psychological theorists, I identify the primary function of trees within fantasy narratives as liminal: what Victor Turner identifies as a ‘betwixt and between’ state (1991:95) where binaries are suspended in favour of embracing potentiality. This liminality is constituted by three central dimensions: the ecological, the mythological, and the psychological. Each dimension informs the relationship between the arboreal as grounded in reality, and represented in fantasy. Trees, as literary and cinematic arboreal totems are positioned within fantasy narratives in such a way as to emphasise an underlying call to bio-conservatorship, to enable a connection to a larger scope of cultural expectation, and to act as a means through which human self-awareness is developed.
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

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Le, Lievre Kerrie Anne 1967. "The world is changing : ethics and genre development in three twentieth-century high fantasies / Kerrie Anne Le Lievre." 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/22037.

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"December 2003"
Bibliography: leaves 249-263.
vii, 263 leaves ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, Discipline of English, 2004

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Höfel, Anne-Kathrin [Verfasser]. "Current developments at the intersection of fantasy fiction and British children's literature / Anne-Kathrin Höfel." 2010. http://d-nb.info/1009463055/34.

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Slabbert, Mathilda. "Inventions and transformations : an exploration of mythification and remythification in four contemporary novels." Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2267.

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The reading of four contemporary novels, namely: Credo by Melvyn Bragg, The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett, Everything You Need by A.L. Kennedy and American Gods by Neil Gaiman explores the prominent position of mythification and remythification in contemporary literature. The discussion of Bragg's novel examines the significance of Celtic mythology and folklore and to what extent it influenced Christian mythology on the British Isles and vice versa. The presentation of the transition from a cyclical, pagan to a linear, Christian belief system is analysed. My analysis of Bennett's novel supports the observation that political myth as myth transformed contains elements and qualities embodied by sacred myths and investigates the relevance of Johan Degenaar's observation that "[p]ostmodernism emphasises the fact that myth is an ambiguous phenomenon" and practices an attitude of "eternal vigilance" (1995: 47), as is evident in the main protagonist's dispassionate stance. My reading of Kennedy's novel explores the bond that myth creates between the artist and the audience and argues that the writer as myth creator fulfils a restorative function through the mythical and symbolic qualities embedded in literature. Gaiman's novel American Gods focuses on the function of meta/multi-mythology in contemporary literature (especially the fantasy genre) and on what these qualities reveal about a society and its concerns and values. The thesis contemplates how in each case the original myths were substituted, modulated or transfigured to be presented as metamyth or myth transformed. The analysis shows that myth can be used in various ways in literature: as the data or information that is recreated and transformed in the creative process to establish a common matrix of stories, symbols, images and motifs which represents a bond between the author and the reader in terms of the meaning-making process; to facilitate a spiritual enrichment in a demythologized world and for its restorative abilities. The study is confirmed by detailed mythical reference.
English Studies
(D. Litt. et Phil. (English))

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Potter, Mary-Anne. "The worlds between, above and below : "growing up" and "falling down" in Alice in Wonderland and Stardust." Diss., 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/11870.

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The purpose of my dissertation is to conduct an intertextual study of two fantasy texts — Alice in Wonderland by Victorian author Lewis Carroll, and Stardust by postmodern fantasy author Neil Gaiman — and their filmic re-visionings by Tim Burton and Matthew Vaughn respectively. In scrutinising these texts, drawing on insights from feminist, children’s literature and intertextual theorists, the actions of ‘growing up’ and ‘falling down’ are shown to be indicative of a paradoxical becoming of the text’s central female protagonists, Alice and Yvaine. The social mechanisms of the Victorian age that educate the girl-child into becoming accepting of their domestic roles ultimately alienate her from her true state of being. While she may garner some sense of importance within the imaginary realms of fantasy narratives, as these female protagonists demonstrate, she is reduced to the position of submissive in reality – in ‘growing up’, she must assume a ‘fallen down’ state in relation to the male.
English Studies
M.A. (English)

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'English Fantasy fiction'

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