Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fantasy in literature'

Drawing on Bakhtin’s theory of the literary artistic chronotope and the interdisciplinary spatiotemporal theories of geocriticism, this study identifies three particular modes of the fantasy spatiotemporality presented in modern children’s fantasy works. They are the epic chronotope, the “fantastic” time-travel chronotope and the heterotopian chronotope. Each fantasy chronotope is examined in the specific but interrelated textual contexts of selected children’s fantasy works in relation to the three main research questions: (i) How is the fantasy chronotope embodied and strategically deployed in the focused children’s fantasy works? (ii) What ideas and values are conveyed by its syntagmatic interplay with other chronotopes that characterise the textual quotidian world? (iii) How do characters, through their spatiotemporal practices, negotiate with the divergent chronotopic values that converge and wrestle in the textual universes? This study builds on existing works in relation to chronotopic considerations and develops the understanding of the fantasy chronotope in these particular ways: a) It moves the study of the fantasy chronotope from generalities to specific instances, so that the inner diversity of the fantasy spatiotemporal arrangements can be perceived and explored. b) It examines the syntagmatic spatiotemporal relations constructed between the fantasy and the “real” in individual children’s fantasy works and their connotations. In so doing, it reveals how each of the identified fantasy chronotopes can be strategically deployed in fantasy cartographies to convey meanings and values. c) This study also delves into the spatiotemporal embedding of human actions that is distinctively shown in fantasy chronotopes. This is done by reading characters’ spatiotemporal practices in and their negotiations with the projected fantasy worlds. d) Taking Bakhtin’s literary artistic chronotope as the link, my reading of the fantasy chronotopes also demonstrates an interpenetrative and reciprocal relation between fantasy spatiotemporal imaginations and the theoretical interpretations of space and time in geocriticism.

This thesis examines the way in which modern women writers use non-realistic literary forms in order to create new role models of and for women. The work of six authors are analysed in detail - Angela Carter, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Ursula Le Guin, Joanna Russ and Kate Wilhelm. I argue that they share a discontent with the conventions of classic realism, which they all regard as perpetuating ideologically-generated stereotypes of women. Accordingly, they move away from mimetic modes in order to formulate a discourse which will challenge conventional representations of the 'feminine', arriving at a new conception of the female subject. I argue that although these writers represent a range of feminist responses to the dominant order, they all arrive at a s1mil~r conviction that such an order is male-dominated. All exhibit an awareness of the work of feminist critics, creating texts which consciously interact with feminist theory. I then discuss how these authors use their art to examine the their own situation as women who write. All draw the attention to the existence of a tradition of female censorship, whereby the creative woman has experienced, in an intensified form, the repression experienced by all women in a culture which privileges the male over the female. All these writers exhibit a desire to escape such a tradition, progressing towards the formulation of a utopian female subject who is free to be fully creative a project they represent metaphorically in the form of a quest.

This thesis is a development of the theories presented by Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Bruno Bettelheim concerning archetypes, the anima/animus concept, the Hero Cycle, and identity development through fairy tales. I argue that there are vital rites of passage missing in Anglo-Saxon culture, and while bibliotherapy cannot replace them, it can help adolescents synthesize their experiences. The theories of Jung, Campbell, and Bettelheim demonstrate this concept by defining segments of the story and how they apply to the reader. Because of the applicability, readers, despite their age, can use the examples in the book to help reconcile their own experiences and understand life as it relates to them. The works I examine include J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy, and David Eddings' Belgariad. Though it is impossible to test the effects of reading such works on readers, the possibility of those effects exists. Bettelheim's work, The Uses of Enchantment, discusses similar themes and he provides scientific support through his use of anecdotal evidence. Following his example, I have tried to include evidence from my own life that exemplifies the effect reading epic fantasy has had on me. The aspects of epic fantasy in relation to going through adolescence I examine include the concept of responsibility and its relation to progress and maturity; gaining a social identity; and reconciling oneself to the dark side within and without, in society. These aspects are found within the superstructure of the Hero Cycle and the actions and motivations of the characters—archetypes—within the cycle. They are also present in real life and necessary concepts to understand to be accepted into society as a mature contributor.

The original thesis contains the novel "Stranger, I" as an integral part of the thesis. However this novel has been omitted in this digital copy.
Thesis (MA (Hons))--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2006.
Bibliography: p. 93-97.
On divergence in fantasy -- Introduction -- Preliminary -- The thousand and one definitional nights -- Characteristic works: inclusions and exclusions -- Critical objections to fantasy -- Conclusion.
On Divergence in Fantasy explores the ways in which fantasy criticism continually redefines its boundaries, without arriving at agreement. The paper draws on Foucault to suggest that these disputes and dispersions are characteristic of the operation of fantasy critisim as a discursive formation.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
97 p

This thesis investigates the representation of systemic oppression in Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Employing Foucauldian poststructuralism and critical discourse analysis, this research identifies how the social systems of the fantasy texts construct hierarchies based on race and gender, and social norms based on sexuality and disability. Privilege and oppression are identified as the results of the relaying of power relations by social institutions through strategies such as dominant discourses. This study questions the historically understood role of children’s and fantasy literature as socialization tools, and the potential negative consequences of this.
Arts, Faculty of
Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of
Graduate

Drawing upon academic and critical literature, the introduction to this exegesis considers how J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954) became the ‘norm’ in modern second-world fantasy. Just as Tolkien’s ‘high fantasy’ mediated the fantasies of the sociohistorical periods that preceded it (James, 2012), so subsequent fantasy authors and sub-genres have inherited from and had to react against ‘high fantasy’ in order to discover their own definitions and distinct voices, styles and relevance. Thus, the introduction argues, in order to define and demonstrate the distinct nature of second-world ‘metaphysical fantasy’, of which Empire of the Saviours (2011) is a defining novel, this exegesis is required to show how the second-world ‘epic fantasy’ of the 1980s and 90s inherited from and reacted against ‘high fantasy’, and how ‘metaphysical fantasy’ in turned inherited from and reacted against the ‘epic fantasy’ sub-genre. There is also a discussion of how competing sub-genre definitions within academia and the publishing industry have complicated the debate. The first chapter considers the sociohistorical context of the development of the various sub-genres of fantasy literature, moving from the ‘high fantasy’ of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, through the nature-based fantasy of the 1960s, to the ‘swords and planets’ sci-fi crossover sub-genre of the 1970s, to the ‘epic fantasy’ of the 1980s and 90s, to the ‘urban fantasy’, ‘flintlock fantasy’, ‘steampunk’ and ‘comedic fantasy’ of the new millennium, to the ‘dark fantasy’ and ‘metaphysical fantasy’ (the latter established by my various novels) of the mid to late 2000s, to the ‘grimdark fantasy’ and ‘dystopian YA’ of the 2010s. The chapter shows how each sub-genre is informed by and reacts to its own sociohistorical moment and that each sub-genre in large part derives its distinctiveness from that unique moment. The second chapter considers how second-world ‘metaphysical fantasy’ in large part derives its definition and particular motifs from a ‘Millennial’ sociohistorical moment. The chapter then analyses how ‘metaphysical fantasy’ is distinctly informed by, reacts to and differs from the preceding sub-genre of second-world ‘epic fantasy’. Finally, the chapter considers how subsequent second-world ‘grimdark fantasy’ is informed by, reacts to and differs from ‘metaphysical fantasy’. The third chapter sets out how my novel Empire of the Saviours further exemplifies ‘metaphysical fantasy’ and has served to establish the sub-genre as a distinct and valuable contribution to the wider genre of fantasy. Drawing upon Empire of the Saviours, the chapter identifies further literary features and themes (other than those detailed in the second chapter) that are unique to the ‘metaphysical fantasy’ sub-genre.

Tese (doutorado) - Univesidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-graduação em Inglês
Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-22T04:29:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0
O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é o de iluminar uma área que ainda permanence amplamente inexplorada dentro dos Estudos da Tradução (ET): Tradução de Literatura Infanto-Juvenil (TLIJ). Mais especificamente, este estudo investiga as práticas de traduzir nomes na literatura de fantasia

Orientador: María Dolores Aybar Ramírez
Banca: Karin Volobuef
Banca: Maira Angélica Pandolfi
Resumo: O presente trabalho apresenta uma reflexão acerca da configuração das personagens fantásticas femininas nas três seguintes obras: "Ojos Verdes" (1861), de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer; "Mi vida con la ola" (1949-50), de Octavio Paz e "Historia del lagarto que tenía la costumbre de cenar a sus mujeres" (1993), de Eduardo Galeano. Tendo em vista a perspectiva dos estudos mitocríticos que contemplam o aspecto ancestral do feminino maléfico, observa-se o modo como se produzem as manifestações da mulher fatal, vinculada ao feminino terrível e às águas nas literaturas de diferentes épocas. Analisa-se, assim, a representação simbólica que denominamos mulher-sereia, imagem que, repleta da carga mítica, se apresenta nos três contos construindo a figura arquetípica de mulher sedutora e atraente, mas causadora de danos, perigosa e por vezes, fatal. Atenta-se, ainda, para a questão do gênero literário nos referidos contos, analisando sua construção através da personagem feminina, enquanto representação do fenômeno insólito que aparece nas narrativas
Abstract: This work presents a reflection about the configuration of fantastic female characters in the following three works: "Ojos Verdes" (1981), by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, "Mi vida con la ola" (1949-50), by Octavio Paz and "Historia del lagarto que tenía la costumbre de cenar a sus mujeres" (1993), by Eduardo Galeano. In view of the mythcritical studies prospect that comtemplates the malefic female ancestral aspect, observe the way that they produce the manifestations of the femme fatale, linked to the terrible female and to the waters in different times. Thus analized a symbolic representation that we call mermaid-woman, a image that, full of mythical load, presents in these three tales on contours of the archetypal figure of seductive and attractive woman, but damage causer, dangerous and sometimes, deadly. Also, attentive to the literary genre issue in these tales analyzing its construction through the female character, as an unusual phenomenon representation in the narratives
Mestre

This thesis explores the use of literary fantasy in the construction of identity and ‘home’ in contemporary diasporic Chinese women’s literature. I argues that the use of fantasy acts as a way of undermining the power of patriarchal values and unsettling fixed notions of home. In each of these four texts by Chinese diasporic women author, the authors or their protagonists describe different explorations of the search for home: a space where they can articulate their voices and desires. The notion of home for these diasporic Chinese women is much more complex than a simple feeling of nostalgia in response to a state of displacement and unhomeliness. The idea of home relates to complicated struggles to gain a sense of belonging, as experienced by marginalized subjects constructing their diasporic identities — which can best be understood as unstable, shifting, and shaped by historical conditions and power relations. Fantasy is seen as a literary mode in the corpus of this study, as described in Rosemary Jackson’s Fantasy: the Literature of Subversion (1981). Literary fantasy offers a way to rework ancient myths, fairytales, ghost stories and legends; it also subverts conventional narrative representation, and challenges the restricting powers of patriarchy and other dominant ideologies. Through a critical reading of four texts written by diasporic Chinese women, namely, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior (1976); Adeline Yen Mah’s Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter (1997); Ying Chen’s Ingratitude (1995) and Larissa Lai’s When Fox is a Thousand (1995), this thesis aims to offer critical insights into how these works re-imagine a ‘home’ through literary fantasy which leads beyond the nationalist and Orientalist stereotypes; and how essentialist conceptions of diasporic culture are challenged by global geopolitics and cultural interactions.

"Of That Transfigured World" identifies a generally unremarked upon mode of nineteenth-century literature that intermingles realism and fantasy in order to address epistemological problems. I contend that works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Walter Pater, and Oscar Wilde maintain a realist core overlaid by fantastic elements that come from the language used to characterize the core narrative or from metatexts or paratexts (such as stories that characters tell). The fantastic in this way becomes a mode of interpretation in texts concerned with the problems of representation and the ability of literature to produce knowledge. Paradoxically, each of these authors relies on the fantastic in order to reach the kinds of meaning nineteenth-century realism strives for. My critical framework is derived from the two interrelated discourses of sacred space theology and cultural geography, focusing primarily on the terms topos and chora which I figure as parallel to realism and fantasy. These terms, gleaned from Aristotle and Plato, function to express two interweaving concepts of space that together construct our sense of place. Topos, as defined by Belden C. Lane, refers to "a mere location, a measurable, quantifiable point, neutral and indifferent" whereas chora refers to place as "an energizing force, suggestive to the imagination, drawing intimate connections to everything else in our lives." In the narratives I examine, meaning is constructed via the fantastic interpretations (chora) of realistically portrayed events (topos). The writers I engage with use this dynamic to strategically address pressing epistemological concerns relating to the purpose of art and its relationship to truth. My dissertation examines the works of Dickens, the Brontës, Pater, and Wilde through the lens of this conceptual framework, focusing on how the language that each of these writers uses overlays chora on top of topos. In essence each of these writers uses imaginative language to transfigure the worlds they describe for specific purposes. For Dickens these fantastic hermeneutics allow him to transfigure world into one where the "familiar" becomes "romantic," where moral connections are clear, and which encourages the moral imagination necessary for empathy to take root. Charlotte and Emily Brontës's transfigurations highlight the subjectivity inherent in representation. For Pater, that transfigured world is aesthetic experience and the way our understanding of the "actual world" of topos is shaped by it. Oscar Wilde's transfigured world is by far the most radical, for in the end that transfigured world ceases to be artificial, as Wilde disrupts the separation between reality and artifice. "Of That Transfigured World" argues for a closer understanding of the hermeneutic and epistemological workings of several major British authors. My dissertation offers a paradigm through which to view these writers that connects them to the on-going Victorian discourses of realism while also pointing to the critical sophistication of their positions in seeking to relate truth to art. My identification of the tensions between what I term topos and chora in these works illuminates the relationship between the creation of meaning and the hermeneutics used to direct the reader to that particular meaning. It further points to the important, yet sometimes troubling, role that imagination plays in the epistemologies at the center of that crowning Victorian achievement, the Realist novel.

In this thesis I examine the ways in which the Victorians used fantasy in literature, art, and architecture to explore the main areas of debate and key issues which were giving rise to anxiety in their society, in some cases upholding the status quo, but in others questioning accepted social mores. In particular, I consider the ways in which fantasy was used to examine what happens in a society when its traditional religious beliefs are challenged, either by commercialism as an economic creed, or by the acquisition of new knowledge, be this in the realm of science (theories of evolution) or the humanities (the new biblical criticism from Germany). Following on from this, I look at the possible alternatives to traditional religious belief which fantasy seemed able to offer to an age which appeared to need spirituality without dogma. I argue that one of the strategies most commonly adopted by the Victorians in the creation of fantasy is the disruption of time, and I consider the part played in literature and art by medievalism, and in architecture by the Gothic style and the Gothic Revival movement. This is followed by an examination of the role of Classicism in architecture, and ancient mythologies, such as Greek, Hebraic, or Babylonian, in literature and art. Finally, I consider the use of geological time as a point of departure in creating scientific fantasies. Given the very close links between the arts until the advent of aesthetic criticism at the end of the nineteenth century, I have drawn freely upon the visual and the literary arts. The main emphasis is, however, on literature and painting, with architecture playing a lesser, though still important, part in this thesis.

Two children, Dan and Una, sit in the woods and listen to a story of Britain's early history told to them by Sir Richard, a spirit conjured from the past for this instructive purpose. In this tale, Sir Richard gains treasure by defeating the "devils" that terrorize a village of African people. In many ways, this framed narrative sets up the expected hierarchy found in children's literature wherein the adult actively narrates a story and the child silently listens and learns. However, the children of Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill do something else--they question and challenge. At the end of the story, Dan declares, "I don't believe they were Devils" and backs up his disbelief by drawing on other books he has read. While much scholarship on children's literature reads child characters through the lens of adult desire and finds them voiceless and empty, I seek out moments wherein these imagined children, like Dan and Una, challenge adult dissemination of knowledge. Building upon recent scholarship that sees the child less as a straightforward projection of desire and more complexly as a site for conflicting ideologies and tensions, my dissertation enters into the critical conversation concerning the figure of the child and suggests a fresh, new approach to reading adult-child relations in children's literature. Urging readers to focus on the ways in which fantasy literature imagines and represents child characters' relationships to language--as readers, authors, storytellers, and questioners--I argue that whether deliberately or unselfconsciously these works imagine a child capable of interacting with language in order to seize power and thus unsettle the force of adult desire. Even as the characters themselves remain the products of adult creation, the relationship to language they model for their implied readers transcends a simple one-to-one correlation of adult authorial desire and a child reader's internalization. Each of my four chapters focuses on a pair of authors: Sarah Fielding and Mary Martha Sherwood, Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald, Frederika Macdonald and Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Rudyard Kipling and E. Nesbit. Instead of mere escapism and fancy, these portraits of childhood address debates surrounding the emerging genre of the novel, religious censorship, educational legislation, imperial ideology, medical discourses, and textbook publication. By juxtaposing these novels in pairs alongside these significant historical contexts, my project brings the child's voice, which we often ignore, to the surface. Like Dan and his declaration of disbelief, the readers imagined by these important works of fantasy refuse to sit in silence and instead play with words to question, create, and challenge.

This thesis deals with the strategies in the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Pu Songling that are used to arrange the fantasy elements. It examines the basic settings of the environments and social backgrounds as presented in several works by Hoffmann and by Pu Songling. It also investigates and compares the various modes of presentation considering the adventures of the protagonists in these selected works by a German and by a Chinese author. It demonstrates that, although both authors tend to use fantasy elements as an important part in their narration each, they organize them differently. Hoffmann first puts his characters into a daily life background and then constantly brings fantasy events to them in order to arouse the feeling of amazement and to romanticize the world. Pu Songling uses elements of fantasy power to create a paradise that is like an idealized version of the human world. By juxtaposing the two authors, this thesis argues that both Hoffmann and Pu Songling play significant but also quite different roles in the transition process from traditional tales with fantasy elements to modern fantasy fictions in their own traditions. Hoffmann inherits but also makes some unique and remarkable innovations to the literary heritage of German Romanticism; Pu Songling modifies the usual pattern of zhiguai and chuanqi to achieve better art effect. Hoffmann’s unique style of intertwining reality with fantasy has influenced many modern writers, including Herman Hesse. Pu Songling’s creation of a secular paradise and the promotion of qing (a Chinese notion that represents emotion and love) may also be seen as the precursor for later works such as Dream of the Red Chamber.

What I am offering in this thesis is a kind "contaminated" reading, that is a reading deeply involved in the stylistic and ideological dissonances of Carter's fiction, to the point that they are assimilated within different and, in some cases, contrastive interpretative paths. But the contamination works also on another level: to read Carter is to tackle some very complex questions, including the possible articulations of Marxism and deconstruction/postmodernism or, more generally, the role played by ideology with reference to the tendencies and movements deriving from poststructuralism; my argument is that Carter's writing itself is heavily "contaminated" by postmodernist aesthetics despite her implicit denial and negative attitude towards it. In the thesis I have discussed three collections of short-stones (The Bloody Chamber in Chapter 1, Black Venus and Fireworks in Chapter II) and four novels (The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman, The Passion of New Eve. Nights at Circus and Wise Children from Chapter HI to VI). I have also quoted extensively from the numerous interviews given by Carter in different stages of her career and from her critical works, in particular from The Sadeian Woman, a sort of aesthetic manifesto for a literary corpus in which the worlds of Eros and sexuality play a crucial role in transgressing and subverting the habitual dichotomies of gender. In the final Chapter (VII) Carter's work is located in the framework of the debate between feminist and postmodernist thought.

É da natureza do ser humano encantar-se, ao menos em determinada fase da vida, pela narrativa de um conto de fadas, deixando-se levar pela fantasia da Literatura, acreditando que nas páginas de um livro tudo é possível. Essa crença na fantasia, no entanto, pode não lhes acompanhar a vida toda, uma vez que a passagem da infância para a adolescência e a fase adulta, bem como as exigências do mundo moderno, cerceiam essa capacidade de fantasiar, ao mesmo tempo inata e necessária ao homem. A escola, então, teria o papel fundamental de preservá-la, perpetuando nos alunos o gosto pela fantasia, tão essencial ao seu desenvolvimento cognitivo e psicológico, além da percepção estética; afinal, Literatura é arte. Nem sempre é isso o que ocorre, e o ambiente escolar torna-se um espaço de reprodução de conhecimentos, com o ensino focado na norma gramatical, na historiografia literária, sendo o texto relegado ao simples papel de pretexto para análises dissociadas do que realmente importa: o texto e os recursos que o compõem. No caso da Literatura, arte da palavra, parte-se do pressuposto de que um dos recursos essenciais para sua concepção sejam as metáforas, instaurando a fantasia. Chega-se, então, a um ponto crucial desse trabalho: as metáforas são componentes essenciais da fantasia, mas ambas são relegadas pela escola, que não se pauta por um ensino produtivo. Ao invés de compreenderem o potencial metafórico, aos alunos cabe a simplória tarefa de reconhecê-las e classificá-las. Essas constatações despertaram o desejo de entender melhor a relação existente entre fantasia, metáfora e literatura infantil, gerando alguns questionamentos: afinal, o que é fantasia? É o mesmo que fantástico? A fantasia caracteriza, apenas, a Literatura infantil? Essas indagações propiciaram reflexões acerca da importância do texto literário na sala de aula e no trabalho feito com ele. Assim, lançando à teoria um olhar docente, empreende-se uma análise do livro A casa da madrinha, de Lygia Bojunga, verificando a fantasia presente na obra perfeita fusão entre o real e imaginário e como ela se instaura: pelas metáforas
It is of the human nature the fascination, at least in some phases of the life, by fairy tales, where they are carried away by the fantasy present in literary texts. People believe that, on the pages of a book, everything is possible. Such belief in the fantasy, however, may fade away as time goes by since the passage of time from childhood into adolescence and yet into adulthood, as well as the demands of modern life restrict our potential for daydreaming. Schools, therefore, undertake a pivotal role to preserve and cherish it alive in the students. Still, it is crucial to their psychological and cognitive development, and, of course, to the development of their esthetical sense; after all Literature is art. Unfortunately, it hardly ever occurs and the classroom reality turns out to be a mere knowledge-passing resource, privileging the grammar rules and the literature background. Conversely, text is relegated to a mere pretext for analyses unrelated to what really matters: the text itself and its respective resources. We believe that, as to Literature, one of the essential resources to conceive it is metaphors by means of fantasies. We have now come to a key point where metaphors are major components of fantasies. However, both are poorly regarded by schools, which do not embark on a productive policy. Rather than effectively understanding the metaphorical potential, students are held to primary (and witless) tasks of recognizing and classifying metaphors. Such verifications arouse the interest in better figuring out the existing relation between fantasy, metaphor, and literature for children. It all poses questions: after all, what is the meaning of fantasy? Is it the same as fantastic approach? Fantasy characterizes literature for children only? Such questions make us ponder over the importance of literary texts and the respective tasks carried out as in classroom. In view of it all, we have taken a teaching look at the book A casa da madrinha (Godmothers house) by Lygia Bojunga, verifying the fantasy present in the work perfect fusion of reality and imagination and how it takes place by means of metaphors

The concept of ‘middlebrow’ literature in the twentieth century, which received minimal critical attention from the Leavises onwards, has recently become a site of literary and sociological interest, especially regarding the interwar period. This thesis considers the ways in which a corporate middlebrow identity, amongst an intangible community of like-minded readers, was affected by a popularity of the fantastic in the 1920s and 1930s. This subgenre, which I term the ‘domestic fantastic’ (in which one or more elements of the fantastic intrude into an otherwise normalised domestic world) allowed middlebrow authors and readers to focalise and interrogate anxieties affecting the status of the home and its inhabitants which were otherwise either too taboo or, conversely, too well-worn for a traditional, non-fantastic examination. This fantastic vogue was largely initiated by the success of David Garnett’s metamorphosis novel Lady Into Fox (1922), which prepared the way for the other novels discussed in this thesis, predominantly Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes (1926), Elinor Wylie’s The Venetian Glass Nephew (1926), Ronald Fraser’s Flower Phantoms (1926), Edith Olivier’s The Love-Child (1927), John Collier’s His Monkey Wife (1930) and Green Thoughts (1932), and Frank Baker’s Miss Hargreaves (1940). Through the lenses of metamorphosis, creation, and witchcraft, these novels respond to and reformulate contemporary debates concerning sexuality in marriage, childlessness, and autonomous space for unmarried women. The ‘middlebrow fantasy’ of the stable, idealised home was being revealed as untenable, and the fantastic responded. During the interwar years, when assessments of British society were being widely recalibrated, the domestic fantastic was a subgenre which produced a select but significant range of novels which (whether playful or poignant, hopeful or tragic, nostalgic or progressive) provided the means for both author and reader to interrogate and comment upon the most pervading middle-class social anxieties, in unusual and revitalising ways.

Thesis advisor: Timothy Duket
Synthesizing elements of so many traditions, fantasy has grown into perhaps the most pervasive genre of literature in the western world. The archetypal adventures and themes that have been carried into fantasy through ancient legends and myths have survived over the ages because it was decided long ago those tales had great worth. It was the unpopular and poorly formed legends that died out, while the superior stories were carried from culture to culture under new guises. In this way, fantasy can be seen as the culmination of human legends, filtered throughout history so that only the great tales remain. On what greater pedestal could a form of literature be based? Fantasy has even continued the refinement process in the last fifty years, with active writers like Jordan and Goodkind incorporating elements from the greatest of previous fantasy authors like Tolkien, Howard, and Donaldson. Thus fantasy is continually improving upon itself and evolving in new ways through its modification of old themes. How long can critics refuse to recognize fantasy as a legitimate form? With such admirable authors writing today, it seems logical that the answer would be sooner rather than later. Might fantasy be vanquished by sneering critics and replaced with another form of fiction? Gandalf claims even the Wise cannot see all ends, and while in no way do I profess such wisdom, I find it difficult to believe that, as the successor of mythology, fantasy will ever fizzle and die. A force greater than all the magic swords and rings combined would be necessary to kill four thousand years of human imagination
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2003
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: English
Discipline: College Honors Program

The world today is globalized like never before and with countries becoming more multicultural it is important to strive towards an intercultural society. This essay aims to answer the question “In what ways can one teach representation in the intercultural classroom through fantasy literature?”. That is, to illustrate and exemplify how one can use fantasy literature in the English classroom to give students intercultural knowledge through discussions on representation and intersectionality. The discussions in the essay are based in the democratic values stated in the Swedish course curriculum for upper secondary school (Gy11) in relation to the theoretical background. With examples from the book Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, the essay breaches both difficult and sensitive subjects that can be discussed to make certain issues less alien for the reader. Cultural diversity is magical and it is important that students get the right tools to form deep relationships across cultural borders, and the fantasy genre is a great tool to use in the classroom to lessen these bridges between different cultures since the genre creates an arena for intercultural meetings where ‘the other’ is in focus, which reduces the alienating aspect of different cultures and identities.

This thesis discusses twentieth century children's fantasy fiction. The writers whose creative output is dealt with include Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, Pat O'Shea, Peter Dickinson, T.H.White, Lloyd Alexander and, to a lesser extent, C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien. These authors have been chosen because their books, whilst being of a broadly similar nature, nevertheless have a sufficient diversity to illustrate well many different important aspects of children's fantasy. Chapter I examines the sources of modern fantasy, presents the attitudes of different authors towards borrowing from traditional sources and their reasons for doing so, and looks at the changing interpretation of myths. Chapter II talks about the presentation of the primary and secondary worlds and the ways in which they interact. It also discusses the characters' attitudes towards magic. Chapter III looks at the presentation of magic, examines the traditional fairy-tale conventions and their implementation in modern fantasies, and discusses the concepts of evil, time, and the laws governing fantasy worlds. Chapter IV deals with the methods of narration and the figure of the narrator. It presents briefly the prevailing plot patterns, discusses the use of different kinds of language, and the ideas of pan-determinism and prophecy. The concluding chapter considers the main subjects and aims of children's fantasy, the reasons why the genre is so popular, and its successes and failures.

Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald are responsible for some of the most popular yet obscure texts in the English Canon. Because Carroll and MacDonald are often credited with pioneering much of their genres — Nonsense Literature and Fantasy Literature — it seems that often they are labeled as originators, and not as active contributing members of a much larger literary tradition. Carroll and MacDonald were close friends and literary confidants, using each other’s works, as well as employing that of other writers. This is a study of the sources Carroll and MacDonald used in an attempt to better understand the underlying meanings and symbols in some of their works. For example, I study the analogous symbols they utilized, along with the words used to express them, to convey their ideas about identity and metamorphosis. I show that they rely on ancient, complex symbols, and the traditional language and meanings associated with them, to communicate deeply embedded messages to their readers. They employ the symbols of the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, in several different guises, in their complex works. It is these symbols that allowed them to elucidate the concepts of the individual’s initial materialist state, followed by the midway period of dreaming/reflecting, and the subsequent spiritual awakening. The analysis of the literary sources they used helps to uncover symbols and themes of interest for Carroll and MacDonald, which in turn help to expose other of their sources, such as the Bestiaries, biblical stories, and the works of Isaac Watts, and William Blake. I attempt to explain how some of these symbols and themes function in the portrayal of coherent, yet creative, meanings in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy.

The focus of this study is a trend in British children’s literature concerning the ancientness of British landscape, with what I argue is a Neo-Romantic sensibility. Neo-Romanticism is marked by highly subjective viewpoints on the countryside, and I argue that it illuminates our understanding of post-war children’s literature, particularly in what is often called its Second Golden Age. Through discussion of four generally overlooked authors, each of importance to this formative publishing era, I aim to explore certain aspects of the Second Golden Age children’s literature establishment. I argue that the trend I critique is characterised by ambiguity, defined by the imaginative practice entailed in the archaeological view.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 1990.
Submitted to the Dept. of English Literature. Adviser: Martin Green. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [261]-269). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Literature uses dance to reveal underlying messages of fantasy through the themes of the central narrative of female characters. Examining the original texts with respect to their varying adaptations for film and stage, performance literature reveals how directors relate a three-dimensional story to an audience from a two-dimensional world. Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes” shows an underlying semiotic code where transitioning from the black and white of reality to the red of fantasy is only accomplished through dancing. Oscar Wilde’s Salome displays an eroticization of the exotic solo-improvised dance that provides a semblance of control for the main character. The story of Giselle reveals a meta narrative describing the desire and plight of the professional dancer. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, in contrast, provides a world in which dance as a fantasy element cannot exist. Examining the physical elements of these works of literature elucidates the use of dance as a lens that lets the performance become speech.

When Ursula K. LeGuin revisited the world of Earthsea with Tehanu (1990), her return to an established classic of the fantasy genre came with a powerful desire to revisit its construction and reinterpret its assumptions from a female perspective. Drawn to the side of her dying former tutor, protagonist Tenar is repeatedly posed with the question of what to do with his lore books, which could never offer to her what they had his conventionally male students. Even if this time-honored tradition excludes her, however, Tenar cannot bring herself to discard or abandon the books, for all that they seem "nothing to her, big leather boxes full of paper." Traveling on foot, forced often to flee for her life and pack light, she feels compelled to carry these book on her back. For Tenar, the tomes are a considerably "heavy burden," and, given the context in which this novel appears, this female protagonist's struggle with the weight of traditional, respected patriarchal male text is particularly significant. In LeGuin's fantasy, the image of Tenar traversing her story with Ogion's great "lore-books" strapped to her back is emblematic of the struggle many authors have faced in negotiating the received texts and tropes of their generic inheritance in order to create female-centered fantasy. Indeed, the transformation of Ogion's great lore-books into Tenar's conflicted baggage literalizes what many other texts have more figuratively confronted. My dissertation, "A Noted Departure: Metafiction and Feminist Revision within a Tradition of Fantasy Writing," considers the compelling frequency of such self-conscious textual moments in female-centered fantasy of the 80s and 90s and argues for their importance as a writing strategy that challenges the assumptions of more formulaic fantasy texts and tropes, especially those that inform expectations about roles for women. Examining this moment in which the legacy of a revisionist feminist impulse converges with a post-modern, post-structural metafictional critique of traditional narrative forms and the ideologies they encode, my dissertation sheds light on many critically ignored self-conscious fantasy texts which feature heroines whose critical, textual negotiations bring readers to reconsider the nature of fantasy and the danger and wonder, the limits and liberty, of fictional representation. Taken together, as important and largely overlooked entries in a genre which thrives on the tension between tradition and innovation, these works represent a significant transitional moment in the fantasy genre, bridging the gap between a relatively limited female presence and a more contemporary diversity. My first chapter, "Doing the "Not Done": Wrede's 'Improper' Princess and her Whimsical Revision of Fairy-Tale Expectation and Convention," demonstrates the fluid link between the established tradition of feminist fairy tale revision and the self-critical generic departure my dissertation presents as an important literary moment in the fantasy genre. As the archive my dissertation constitutes might be understood as the answer to Angela Carter's frustrated plea that we must "move beyond revision," this chapter acknowledges the fairy tale's potency as a purveyor of romantic archetypes and, thereby, of cultural precepts for young women in a reading of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (1990-5). In threading seemingly simple and conventional plotlines together with unexpected and innovative departures, Wrede upsets narrative expectation and undercuts generic convention, particularly those associated with the 'princess' trope. Achieving her critical commentary on the commonplaces of the genre by first invoking the traditional before establishing a heroine who positions herself against it, Wrede's plot also reveals the importance of textual negotiation and interpretation, and this chapter underscores the generative relationship this kind of critical interplay bears on the need for new plots and narrative options. Chapter two, "'In Search of 'Something New': Metafiction as Critical and Creative Discourse" offers a sustained discussion of the theoretical work of metafiction. Opening with an examination of the historical precedent of feminist metafiction and its desire to create an alternative tradition to a limited masculinist tradition in the 60s, 70s and early 80s, I demonstrate how aptly feminist metafiction aligns with a fantasist's impulse to challenge the same constraints within genre. Examining how metafiction can function as a critical and creative narrative strategy within a generic context, I adapt the conceptions of theorists such as Roland Barthes, Jean Genette, Gayle Greene, Amie A. Doughty, and Brian Stonehill to an understanding of how metafiction functions in fantasy. "Plotting Change, Imagining Alternatives: Metafiction as Revision in Feminist Fantasy," argues that while thematic or plot-based investigations into feminist fantasy are useful, understanding the way in which generic push-back occurs requires closer attention to the writing strategies which articulate such artistic feats and aesthetic negotiations. This third chapter examines several significant but critically ignored fantasy works which demonstrate how writers of this period signal their departure from generic tradition through key metafictional moments in which a heroine herself invokes text or turns, within her own story, to a text that exists within her own world. Alanna of Trebond in The Song of the Lioness series (1983, 84, 86, 88), Daikin of The Farthest Away Mountain (1976), and Talia in The Heralds of Valdemaar series ("Arrows Trilogy," 1987-88) all experience transformative and liberatory adventures that afford a break with tradition that is drawn along lines of both gender and narrative. Thus, texts occupy a central role in these adventures, providing opportunities to investigate the cultural role they play and the tensions they surface between providing inspiration and motivation on the one hand and limitations that must be overcome on the other. As revisionist quest-narratives which are also deeply internal feminist Bildungsroman, the frequently close relationship between heroine and text in these works is deeply telling; such metafictional moments allow their adventures to advance not only plot or individual story, but a critical conversation about the literary conventions and cultural traditions which condition their representation. In calling attention to the critical work of these metafictional moments, I reveal that the most fruitful feminist fantasy criticism must not be only about plot, but the possibility of plot. Indeed, as these heroines become legends themselves, their narratives not only deconstruct traditional discourses, engaging with the need to re-write tradition, to counter narrative expectation and convention with the creation of new stories; they also more collectively re-mythologize. In creating new stories and new patterns of storytelling, this chapter reveals how these writers do not just expose the cultural power of tradition and myth and critique the representation of women within them, but counter its absences and suppressions with their own mythopoesis. Taken together, such a wealth of significant but critically ignored examples demonstrates how writers employ metafiction as a strategy to enact criticism and imagine alternatives in the fantasy genre, particularly in terms of expanding narrative possibilities for heroines. My fourth chapter, "Convention Undone: UnLunDun's Unchosen Heroine and Narrative (Re)Vision," examines China Miéville's UnLunDun (2007) as a deliberate response to a tradition of fantasy writing, lampooning, in particular, the portal-quest fantasy. Revealing narrative adherence to traditional patterns as false and hollow, and those who trust them uncritically as foolishly naïve, Miéville reminds readers of the importance of innovation, of critical interaction with narrative tradition, and the unfinished nature of both narrative and identity. In a tour-de-force of a self-and-genre-conscious metafictionality, Miéville explores the pit-falls of expectation and the potential which comes from the creation of an alternative narrative--and with it, an alternative heroine in Deeba, whose journey works both with and against the perspective traditions of 'The Book' (a talking tome whose authority proves less than accurate). Ultimately, I argue that Deeba's quest and her transformation into a celebrated, unchosen heroine reveals the degree to which success lies in making the old useful again, and the narrative she reshapes is a vivid illustration of both what it means to revise or reimagine and the necessity of such a critical process. In a world of fragments and the discarded, this book speaks to the genre at large, asking what might be constructed from the inherited baggage of traditional understandings, and what can be done in spite of their limitations and previously established identities or functions. Commonly engaged in the construction of questioning, questing stories, the writers I study have crafted pioneering, uncertain heroines who act out a self-conscious awareness that presses against the genre's limits. As these writers must struggle with the loaded material they wish to weave into new story shapes, so, too, do their fictional creations meditate upon the way in which their journey or character diverges from the expected. These are heroines in the making, heroines whose identities are not fixed easily in text but who must constitute it through an engagement with texts both familiar and new. As books which are also about books, as stories which take story as explicit subject matter, these works feature textual negotiation as a necessary critical process at the level of plot. Moreover, in presenting such metafictions as a critical, questioning comparison to a traditional norm, generic expectation, or narrative inheritance experienced as limited or confining, these works also shed light on the possibility of alternative plots and call special attention to the kinds of artistic and ideological negotiations necessary for such stories to be told in our own realistic worlds as well as in our fantasies. Thus, my dissertation highlights the importance of a writer's impulse to reflect and revise the tradition in which they participate and underscores the creative and critical potential of furthering dialogue between texts and conventions. As my readings demonstrate, the fascination fantasy holds as an enduring art form may well be contingent upon the genre's potential for self-conscious interplay and its protean capacity to refigure narration as a meaningful form of discourse.

Through a reading of the heroic, female bodies available in Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books (1983–2011) and Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles (2012–2015), this thesis demonstrates how mythopoeic YA fantasy contests the dominant, hegemonic narratives of female adolescence. Owing to the system of binary oppositions structuring this space, the adolescent girl is offered— through the heavily stylised and always-edited images of popular and media culture—a very narrow and limited means of becoming self, one insisting on a discourse of self-through-appearance at the expense of the body’s fleshiness. Demonstrating a creationary or world-building mind-set, this vein of speculative fiction offers a sub or counter-cultural space in which alternative frameworks of living and being an adolescent female body are possible. Through the sometimes-fantastical transformations of the body in Pierce and Meyer’s fantasy, this thesis engages liminality, focusing on the adolescent (between child/adult), the body (between self/other), and young adult literature (YAL) (between children’s/adult literature). Drawing from a variety of fields: YAL and feminist theory, studies of myth and folklore as well as popular culture and cultural anthropology, this thesis speaks to and from the places between oppositions, and does so in order to refuse the individuality and isolation required by hegemonic models, while also offering a re-mapping of the body’s curves and contours, one that takes “lumps,” “bumps,” and “scars” into account. To counter the dominant framework of adolescence, this thesis concludes by offering, through a metaphor of “the Pack,” a model of interdependency and relation. Formed by repetition and connection, this model frustrates the economy of opposition, while also taking into account the body’s raised and irregular surfaces and demonstrating how individuals may be “scored into uniqueness” through relationality.

Atualmente, a literatura juvenil é direcionada para o entretenimento e lazer do leitor, com personagens marcantes e histórias que despertam a imaginação por meio dos recursos da fantasia. Obras juvenis de sucesso e popularidade entre os jovens nos mostram que a leitura pode ser prazerosa quando não é obrigatória. Considerando o interesse dos jovens leitores em literatura de fantasia e entretenimento, com base nos estudos de pesquisadores dessa área e em nossa experiência em sala de aula, onde vimos que relacionar alguns temas científicos com a fantasia tornava a aula mais atrativa e compreensível para os alunos, decidimos explorar as possibilidades de aplicação das obras dessa vertente no ensino de Ciências. Selecionamos quatro séries juvenis para explorarmos suas potencialidades no ensino, são elas: Lucky Starr de Isaac Asimov, Artemis Fowl de Eoin Colfer, Como treinar seu dragão de Cressida Cowell e Percy Jackson e os Olimpianos de Rick Riordan. Estas séries possuem o enredo baseado em recursos da fantasia. O percurso gerativo do sentido da semiótica greimasiana, nos auxiliou como referencial de análise na verificação de como a ciência é representada nos livros de fantasia. De maneira geral, vimos que a ciência está presente nas séries de forma implícita, através da tecnologia e seres imaginários como fadas, deuses e dragões. Por ser mais recente e conhecido entre o público, selecionamos o livro O Ladrão de Raios, primeiro livro da série Percy Jackson e os Olimpianos, para o desenvolvimento de atividades e aplicação. As atividades foram aplicadas em uma escola municipal de São Paulo SP, dentro de um projeto de clube de leitura denominado LUCIA (Leituras Universais e Ciência Investigativa para Adolescentes), organizado pelo grupo de pesquisa no qual este trabalho faz parte. O público alvo foi formado por alunos do 8º e do 9º ano do ensino fundamental, com participação dos professores da escola e alunos de graduação da EACH-USP, que atuaram como monitores. Aplicamos duas atividades com uma hora e meia de duração cada, e nossos objetivos foram de verificar se os alunos perceberiam como a ciência estaria representada no livro O Ladrão de Raios, por meio da leitura de trechos da obra, discussão, elaboração de desenhos e questionários, que indicassem a compreensão dos alunos sobre a relação entre a ciência e a mitologia grega presente no livro. Como resultado, depreende-se que a obra escolhida foi viável para a discussão de temas científicos implícitos na história. Além do mais, acreditamos que a literatura juvenil, mais precisamente as obras lidas e admiradas pelos alunos, podem ser utilizadas em sala de aula, permitindo que a ciência seja divulgada, explorada e questionada por meio da fantasia.
Currently, juvenile literature is intended for entertainment and leisure of the reader, with remarkable characters and stories that awaken the imagination through fantasy resources. Juvenile works of success and popularity among young people show us that reading can be enjoyable when it is not mandatory. Taking into account the interest of young readers into fantasy and entertainment literature, based on the studies of researchers in this field and in our experience in the classroom, where we saw that relating some scientific issues with fantasy make the lessons more attractive and understandable for students we decided to explore the possibilities of application in teaching science. We have selected four juvenile series to explore their potential in teaching, they are: Lucky Starr by Isaac Asimov, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell and Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan. These series have the plot based on fantasy resources. The generative trajectory of the greimasian semiotics helped us as an analytical reference in the verification of how science is represented in fantasy books. Overall, we have seen that science is implicitly present in series, through technology and imaginary beings such as fairies, gods and dragons. Because it is more recent and known among the public, we have selected the book The Lightning Thief, the first book of Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, for development activities and application. The activities were implemented in a public school of São Paulo-SP, in a book club project called LUCIA (Portuguese acronym for Universal Readings and Investigative Science for Teenagers), organized by the research group in which this work is part. The target audience consisted of students from the 8th and 9th grade of elementary school, with participation of school teachers and undergraduates of the EACH-USP, who acted as monitors. We applied two activities with an hour and a half each, and our goals were to assess whether the students would realize how science would be represented in the book The Lightning Thief, by reading the book excerpts, discussion, preparation of drawings and questionnaires, to indicate the students\' understanding of the relationship between science and Greek mythology in this book. As a result, it seems that the chosen literary work was feasible to discuss scientific issues implicit in the story. Moreover, we believe that juvenile literature, specifically the books that are read and admired by students, can be used in the classroom, allowing science to be disseminated, exploited and questioned through fantasy.

This thesis contains four stories of fantasy and science fiction. Four story lengths are represented: the short short ("Dragon Lovers"), the shorter short story ("Homecoming"), the longer short story ("Shadow Mistress"), and the novel ("Sword of Albruch," excerpted here).

This thesis names the Oxford School of children’s fantasy literature as arising from the educational milieu of the University of Oxford’s English School during the mid-twentieth century. It argues that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis lay the foundations for the children’s fantasy genre by introducing an English curriculum at Oxford in 1931 (first examined 1933) that required extensive study in medieval literature, and by modelling the use of medieval source material in their own popular children’s fantasy works. The Oxford School’s creative use of its sources produces medieval ‘afterlives,’ lending the Middle Ages new relevance in popular culture. This research directly compares medieval literature to children’s fantasy works by Tolkien, Lewis, and four other Oxford-educated children’s fantasy authors in order to reveal the genre’s debt to actual medieval texts and to the Oxford English syllabus in particular. The four authors are Susan Cooper, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Diana Wynne Jones, and Philip Pullman. This thesis situates the tendencies of medievalised children’s fantasy in relation to Lewis and Tolkien’s personal and scholarly convictions about the patriotic, moral, and aesthetic qualities of medieval literature and folklore. Building on the theories of Michel de Certeau, this thesis demonstrates how Oxford School fantasy produces new mythologies for England and argues that, as children’s literature, these works have an implicit didactic function that echoes that of the English School curriculum. This thesis traces the attempts of some Oxford School authors to navigate or explode generic conventions by drawing upon new source material, and contends that the structures and hierarchies that underpin the genre reassert themselves even in texts that set out to refute them. It suggests that such returns to the norm can produce pleasure and invite diverse reading, growing out of the intertextual associations of each new rewriting.

Sixteen-year-old Drea Grimm’s mother walked out of their family home at midnight seven years ago. All she left behind were notebooks full of made up stories and a family that Drea, being the oldest, was now in charge of. One day, Drea finds a mysterious letter with her name on it written in her mother’s handwriting and everything she thought was true is destroyed. With the help of her partner on a school project, Ian, Drea uses her mom’s stories and clues from her last moments to heal her family and maybe bring her mother home. But there is someone who wants Drea and they will do anything to draw her closer to the truth, and in turn, closer to supernatural danger.

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.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 322-334). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the teaching of critical literacy through fantasy literature. This research explores the possibility of a union between a pedagogy of empowerment and a literature of the fantastic, a union which will help improve our lives and democratize our world while validating a literature, often seen as primarily escapist, as worthy of literary study in secondary schools. The research is significant due to the paucity of scholarly research into the teaching of critical literacy through teachers’ use of fantasy literature. The research methodology involved a qualitative analysis of three case studies, each of which entailed 1) teacher interviews, 2) classroom observations, 3) student interviews, and 4) analysis of written work produced by students. Student work was assessed against a rubric that examined the degree to which critical literacy skills were manifest. Each case was bounded by the teaching of fantasy texts which the students discussed and analyzed. Although some students are not predisposed toward fantasy literature and can be distanced by some of the elements inherent in such texts, the research findings suggest that dismissing the genre of fantasy literature as escapist and superficial ignores the potential for motivating students and discounts the richness and depth of many fantasy texts. Fantasy literature can be a rich, complex source for analysis and is an appropriate vehicle to teach critical literacy skills.

Orientador: Cláudia Fernanda de Campos Mauro
Banca: Aparecido Donizete Rossi
Banca: Karin Volobuef
Banca: Andrea Peterle Figueiredo Santurbano
Banca: Marisa Martins Gama-Khalil
Resumo: Esta tese tem como objetivo principal demonstrar que o protagonista do livro O deserto dos Tártaros (1940), de Dino Buzzati, está inscrito como um dos heróis representantes do limiar entre o modernismo e o contemporâneo. Giovanni Drogo é o herói que, no momento seguinte em que veste seu uniforme de oficial, experimenta um vazio existencial que o faz, em resposta, replicar: "Que coisa sem sentido!". Tomado desse sentimento, muitas vezes a inércia será a única resposta possível deste protagonista frente aos requerimentos cotidianos. A partir dessa premissa, articulando teoria literária, filosofia e contexto, arvoramo-nos em identificar as razões que fundam a heroicidade de Drogo. Após o prefácio, segue-se o capitulo de introdução, no qual tecemos algumas considerações acerca da figura do herói, procurando evidenciar como, nos séculos XVIII e XIX, esse conceito passa por perceptível modificação, graças à ascensão e sedimentação do romance, tal como hoje o conhecemos. Entremeiam a introdução e o capítulo final, três capítulos centrais que formam, em conjunto, a demonstração da tese defendida: de que as razões de Drogo respondem, necessariamente, a uma nova forma de se relacionar e conhecer o mundo. Resignação, recusa e renúncia associam-se em cada um destes capítulos, os quais se iniciam sempre a partir de uma cena fundamental, seguida de sua avaliação. Chegamos ao capítulo final com a possibilidade de identificar, não apenas a posição de Drogo como herói - atendendo, como um pró... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)
Abstract: This thesis has as the main objective to show that the protagonist of the book The Tartar Steppe (1940), by Dino Buzzati, is registered as one of the representative heroes of the barrier between modernism and what would be considered contemporary. Giovanni Drogo is the hero that, right after he puts on his officer's uniform, experiments an existential emptiness that makes him, in response, state: "What a nonsense!". Taken by this feeling, often the inertia will be the only possible answer this protagonist will offer while facing daily requests. Starting from this premise, articulating literary theory, philosophy and context, we stand up to identify the reasons that establish the heroism of Drogo. After the preface, the introduction chapter follows, at which we develop some considerations about the image of the hero, trying to demonstrate how, during the 18th and 19th centuries, this concept goes through a noticeable modification, thanks to the ascension and sedimentation of the novel, as we know it today. Between the introduction and the final chapter are three main chapters that shape, together, the demonstration of the defended thesis: that the reasons of Drogo respond, necessarily, to a new way to connect and to discover the world. Resignation, refusal and renouncement connect to each of these chapters, which start always from a fundamental scene, followed by its examination. We reached the final chapter with the possibility of identifying not just the position o... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
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Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.
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2031-01-02