Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Beyond The Story-Book Ending: Literature For Young Children About Parental Estrangement And Loss, Megan Mason Matt

Occasional Paper Series

Analyzes over thirty books for young children on the topics of abandonment, estrangement, divorce and foster care.

Imagination As A Response To Naturalism: C.S. Lewis’S The Chronicles Of Narnia In Light Of The Anscombe Affair, Allison P. Reichenbach

Senior Honors Theses

In this paper I suggest The Chronicles of Narnia were occasioned by Elizabeth Anscombe’s critique of chapter three of Miracles. Instead of a retreat from debate, The Chronicles show that the Supernatural is not something to be contemplated, but instead experienced. In the stories, the children’s dominant naturalism and ignorance of Supernaturalism personally encounter the highest Supernatural being. When transitioning from Miracles to The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis’s writing altered from operating under the Argument from Reason to the experience of imagination in order for the reader to personally experience – not contemplate – Supernaturalism. Fairytale, romance, and …

Music And Words: Connecting The Love Of Music With Language, Eileen P. Kennedy, Raymond Torres- Santos

Publications and Research

Children from different cultures have a natural affinity for rhymes, rhythm and music. Imagine if students were able, from the beginning of their education and experiences with academic writing and literacy, to access their unconscious and original selves from which to create their writing. The study of music can help to access this aware, inventive side that can enhance anyone’s writing. As an early childhood writing teacher and a composition teacher, we draw on our experiences with young children with words and music. We examine the relationship between music and words in an effort to bring the primitive drive of …

Imagining Evil: George Macdonald's The Wise Woman: A Parable (1875), Colin Manlove

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses a neglected and uncharacteristic children's story, The Wise Woman, by the Victorian Scottish novelist and fantasy writer George MacDonald, setting it in the context of MacDonald's own development and of other Victorian children's moral fantasy, concluding that "The Wise Woman is not simply a story of the attempted correction of two children, but a vision of good and evil in the mind and in God’s creation.... In its moral and spiritual complexity, and its picture of divine grace all about us if we will open our hearts, The Wise Woman has a profundity and a lucidity that …

Barrie's Traditional Woman: Wendy's Fatal Flaw, Charlsie G. Johnson

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

The primary goal of this literary critique of J.M. Barrie’s novel Peter and Wendy, with the utilization of a feminist psychoanalytical approach, is to explore issues such as: Neverland’s perpetuation of patriarchal structures under the guise of a false modernity and Wendy’s inability to achieve modernity through the societal expectations that undermine the freedom within Peter’s Neverland, as well as her inherent tendencies to gravitate to the traditional feminine role. The arguments and conversation of this topic is based upon a close reading of the Centennial Edition of The Annotated Peter Pan, Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, and articles …

The Consequences Of Narrative, Kylie Mosbacher

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

The Face Of The Materialist Magician: Lewis, Tolkien, And The Art Of Crossing Perilous Streets, Robert Boenig

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Plenary address, Mythcon 47. Concerns the character of the “Materialist Magician” (Screwtape’s term) in Tolkien and Lewis—the Janus-like figure who looks backward to magic and forward to scientism, without the moral core to reconcile his liminality. Tolkien’s Saruman and Lewis’s Uncle Andrew and Devine are key specimens of this trope, with Merlin standing as a counter-example.

Chesterton's Ballad Of The White Horse: From Conception To Critical Reception, Nicholas Milne

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Follows Chesterton’s development of the idea of using King Alfred and the Battle of Ethandune as the core of a long poem on England and Englishness, and examines how the poem was received by contemporaries, fared in later criticism, and influenced other writers.

Locating Lakeside, Wisconsin: Neil Gaiman's American Gods And The American Small-Town Utopia, Jake La Jeunesse

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Looks at a particular aspect of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods: its evocation of the quintessential American small town of Lakeside, Wisconsin. Lakeside is compared to similar small towns, with their more or less ambiguous undertones of insularity and something not quite right, in Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life,” Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, and Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion.

"It Was Allowed To One": C.S. Lewis On The Practice Of Substitution, Andrew C. Stout

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines the way C.S. Lewis adopted Charles Williams’s ideas about coinherence and substitution in Till We Have Faces and, most poignantly, in A Grief Observed and his letters about his wife Joy Davidman’s cancer, miraculous remission, and eventual death.

Anthony Boucher's Greatest Horror Story, Joe R. Christopher

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Show how Anthony Boucher’s short story “Review Copy,” part horror and part fantasy, draws on mythology associated with both black and white blood magic.

Literary Dependence In The Fiction Of C.S. Lewis: Two Case Studies, Thomas Schmidt

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Source-hunters on C.S. Lewis must deal with what James Como called his “alchemical imagination”—his tendency to act like medieval writers who “were in the business not of inventing new material but of transforming existing material.” Schmidt tabulates parallels in Lewis’s writing to two particular sources: David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus, which Lewis acknowledged as a major influence, and V.A. Thisted’s Letters From Hell, which he claimed to his friend Arthur Greeves he couldn’t get through and gave away after trying to read only once.

The Disabled Hero: Being And Ethics In Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings, Todd A. Comer

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Explores the imagery and implications of the wounded body in Peter Jackson’s films of The Lord of the Rings, and applies principles of disability theory to several characters but in particular to Frodo.

Notes And Letters, Nancy A. Bunting

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Replies to John Rosegrant’s response (in Mythlore #128) to her article on Tolkien’s traumatic family history in Mythlore #127.

Reviews, Alana Joli Abbott, Sharon L. Bolding, David Bratman, Rebekah Choat, Janet Brennan Croft, Jason Fisher, Mike Foster, Melody Green, Crystal Hurd, Cody Jarman, Daniel Lüthi, Tiffany Brooke Martin, Paul R. Rovang, Kris Swank, Dennis Wilson Wise

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. Jamie Williamson. Reviewed by David Bratman.

Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings. Diana Pavlac Glyer, Illustrated by James A. Owen.. Reviewed by Tiffany Brooke Martin.

The Inklings Coloring Book. James A. Owen. Reviewed by Alana Joli Abbott.

High Towers and Strong Places: A Political History of Middle-earth. Timothy R. Furnish. Illustrated by Anke Eißmann. Maps and diagrams by Aaron Siddall. Reviewed by Mike Foster.

Romance of the Grail: The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth. Joseph Campbell. Edited and introduced by …

Reframing The Archive: Vietnamese Refugee Narratives In The Post-9/11 Period, Mai-Linh Hong

Faculty Journal Articles

This article considers how recent narratives about Vietnamese refugees engage with the Vietnam War’s visual archive, particularly iconic photographs from the war and ensuing “boat people” crisis, and contribute to present-day discourses on American militarism and immigration. The article focuses on two texts, a National Public Radio special series about a US naval ship (2010) and Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out & Back Again (2011), which recounts a Vietnamese child’s refugee passage. By refiguring famous photojournalistic images from the war, the radio series advances a familiar rescue-and-gratitude narrative in which the US military operates as a care apparatus, exemplifying a cultural …

"What's The Use Of Trying To Read Shakespeare?": Modes Of Memory In Virginia Woolf's Fiction And Essays, Sara Remedios Bloom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation maps the relationship between Virginia Woolf’s fiction and essays, and William Shakespeare’s person and plays. I argue that Woolf’s writing is intended as an interactive practice of cultural memory, challenging her readers to become responders and to engage critically with the canon. I further argue that Woolf offers herself as inheritor of a literary practice that actively seeks to shape the values and social ideology of the time. The introduction defines three modes of memory operating in Woolf’s work: memory as opiate; memory as political instrument; and memory as dialectic. The first chapter shows the cultural memory of …

Mythcon 47 - Faces Of Mythology: Ancient, Medieval, And Modern, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

Inspired by the 60th anniversary of C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces and The Last Battle, this year's theme focuses on the mythology that has shaped and "given faces" to so many of our beloved characters, ranging from the myths of the Ancient Greeks to the legends of the Middle Ages and even to the modern mythology of the American Southwest. Similarly, this mythological influence is also evident in the works of many of our favorite mythopoeic authors, from J.R.R. Tolkien to J.K. Rowling, from Ursula K. Le Guin to Alan Garner, and many, many more.

"Your Reclamation”: The Gothic Child And Moral Restoration In Charles Dickens’S A Christmas Carol, Ashten Roberts

Master's Theses

Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843), an example of Victorian Gothic literature, portrays spirits escorting Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey through time in order to transform him from a miser to a benefactor. Dickens’s text has received much critical attention, and while most critics agree that the novella includes various elements of the gothic, few draw attention to the possibility of the child characters as gothic elements. I argue that Carol’s child characters can be read in terms of what Margarita Georgieva calls “the gothic child.” According to Georgieva, the gothic child can be an adult’s memory from childhood …

Guide To The Graphic, Scrapbook, And Secondary Source Materials In The Milner Library Lois Lenski Collection, Eric Willey, Sean Tippey, Nicole Wolski, Jessica Lavoy, Alexis Foran

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This guide provides newspaper style captions and descriptive terms from the Thesaurus of Graphic Materials for illustrations, photos, and scrapbooks in the Milner Library, Illinois State University, Lois Lenski Collection, circa 1850-1977 and citations for secondary source materials which were not directly created by Lenski or contain brief excerpts from Lenski's work. In addition, there is a spreadsheet (csv) file which contains the raw data used to compile this guide.

Decolonizing The Ya North: Environmental Injustice In Sherri L. Smith’S Orleans, Micah-Jade M. Coleman

Master's Theses

Young Adult (YA) dystopias, in recent years, have imagined a future world fueled by the overuse and misuse of technology, the advancement of science for human gain, as well as societies ruled by governments that govern based on their own self-interests and economic gain. Such novels have opened the door for discussion about how the present-day actions of societies can impact the future of the environment; yet many only focus their attention on societies in the North— regions considered “developed” by the western world. In her YA novel, Orleans (2014), Sherri L. Smith focuses attention on the aftermath of Hurricane …

Fanfiction Communities And Plagiarism: An Academic Inquiry, Claudia I. Hicks

Honors Theses

Fanfiction communities give would-be authors a place to practice their craft. This study focused on how fanfiction community members defined and policed plagiarism. The aim of this study was to conduct qualitative analysis of plagiarism cases in online fanfiction communities. The data sources were analyzed using Grounded Theory. Analysis found that fanfiction communities use certain protocols to police plagiarism except when it violates their highest value, popularity. This study contributes to our understanding of plagiarism in a digital age.

The Finest Jest, William H. Wandless

The Mythic Circle

*Begin Transmission* The scientist in me could not help but admire the elegance of your plan. It was simple, logical, pitiless. If everything went smoothly, only one of us would die.

The Great Hall Of Ahkurst, Lee Clark Zumpe

The Mythic Circle

Tarak limped along the long corridor, muttering to himself beneath the flickering florescents. The subterranean passage stretched out before and behind him, a serpentine artery curving gently beneath the surface of the planet.

After The Black Chrysalis, Marly Youmans

The Mythic Circle

Cracked. Cracked open—praise To that, for that, praise That the black, feathery lint Was washed clean from my face, That the black, feathery lint Came off in wisps and shreds And crinkled threads Like thrums from a loom, Like lines of false poetry, Like cat fur in the mouth On waking.

Solitude / Sin, Chelsi Robichaud

The Mythic Circle

Reduced to a great nothingness, a lack of a lack, I wonder where my friends have gone. But surely it matters not in this loathsome sea. ///// I have sinned. Though the masses say it is no crime, I know of the dirt that covers me.

Poem For The Lost Library Of La Mancha, Gania Barlow

The Mythic Circle

After the books are burned there is a hush and then a flutter of ashy syllables out into the world

Creüsa, Gania Barlow

The Mythic Circle

If Aeneas doesn’t see Creüsa dead or dying, alive or living, what is she?

Mythic Circle #38, Gwenyth E. Hood

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.