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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Turning Heartache Into Hope: How Fantasy Reveals Spiritual Truth About Sin, Suffering, And Redemption, Sophia Raffaelle Bricker
Turning Heartache Into Hope: How Fantasy Reveals Spiritual Truth About Sin, Suffering, And Redemption, Sophia Raffaelle Bricker
Masters Theses
This paper examines the problem of evil and suffering through the literary genre of fantasy. Seminal texts written by Christians in this genre present the problem of sin and death through themes and representative characters but also tempers the reality of suffering with the presence of Christ figures, who bring redemption to the characters and story world through an act of sacrifice. Following the examples of these seminal fantasies and building on my personal experience of loss, I approach the problem of sin and suffering in excerpts from my novel in progress, The Mountain Pass Keeper, by presenting an older …
Alanda Macmaster & The Realm Of The Faes, Allana Lynn Walker
Alanda Macmaster & The Realm Of The Faes, Allana Lynn Walker
Masters Theses
Though there are exceptions to this rule, today’s bestselling Young Adult (YA) fantasy novels tend to be riddled with gratuitous sex and violence—material far too mature for developing minds. While this kind of content is hardly new to adult fiction, it has, over the last few years, crept steadily and insidiously into books for younger readers. Reading today’s fiction, one would think these were essential elements of a good story. The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of The Rings clearly prove otherwise. Through The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien demonstrated …
Beyond All Worlds: George Macdonald, The Pre-Tolkienians, And The Forgotten Possibilities Of Fantasy, Ethan Patrick Stevens
Beyond All Worlds: George Macdonald, The Pre-Tolkienians, And The Forgotten Possibilities Of Fantasy, Ethan Patrick Stevens
Masters Theses
The history of modern fantasy has been powerfully shaped by the worldbuilding paradigm so successfully executed in J.R.R. Tolkien's 1954-55 trilogy The Lord of the Rings. However, there were nearly a hundred and fifty years of creative work between the birth of fantasy as a genre and Tolkien’s publication of The Lord of the Rings. By examining the pre-Tolkienian fantasists, we find that Tolkien's way of exhaustive consistency was not, and is not, the only way to write fantasy. Phantastes (1858), the first novel by the influential Victorian fantasist George MacDonald, defies contemporary worldbuilding standards almost constantly in …
David Lindsay's A Voyage To Arcturus: An Anti-Fantasy, Bryan Wysopal
David Lindsay's A Voyage To Arcturus: An Anti-Fantasy, Bryan Wysopal
Masters Theses
This is a study of David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) in which I argue that the novel is an anti-fantasy, that is, a fantasy that negates certain tropes common to the genre as part of the author’s wider intentions for writing. I contextualize Lindsay by comparing him to several authors of his time who also worked in the mode of fantasy, then explain how the generic traits of the novel are handled unconventionally to promote Lindsay’s personal philosophy. I explore Lindsay’s treatment of the basic generic traits of the hero and his quest, the imaginary world, and …