Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Doors In: The Fairy Tale World Of George Macdonald By Rolland Hein, Joseph Young

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

No abstract provided.

Death, Hope, And Wholeness In Owen Barfield’S Fairy Tales, Tiffany Brooke Martin

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

This article discusses Owen Barfield's unpublished and published fairy tale writings, and why his works and ideas (e.g., death, hope, and wholeness) are valuable to consider for children and adult readers, though he is not as well known as other Inklings or mythopoeic writers. Some of the fantasy texts include The Silver Trumpet and "The Child and the Giant."

Blowing The Morte: The Rites Of Manhood In William Rayner's Stag Boy, Christophe Van Eecke

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

William Rayner’s young adult novel Stag Boy (1972) is often discussed in surveys of children’s literature as a classic title, but it has received little probing critical attention. This article argues that the novel uses its narrative of a boy’s psychic association with a giant stag as an allegory for the transition from boyhood into manhood. In a detailed close reading of the novel, and following the model of the love chase of medieval romance, it is shown how the author borrows key elements from folklore (the shaming ritual of the stag hunt), myth (Herne the Hunter), and quest romances …

“What Man Am I?” The Hero’S Journey, The Beginning Of Individuation, And Taran Wanderer, Liam Butchart

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

Norman Holland's entreaty to refocus psychoanalysis toward self-knowledge animates this study. Focusing on Lloyd Alexander's Taran Wanderer (part of the Chronicles of Prydain), the novel's location at the crossroads of human psychological development and myth is examined using Jung's concept of individuation and Campbell's Hero's Journey in order to extract an underlying thematic question. The lessons learned from answering this question, in turn, teach us more about ourselves, illustrating the value of psychoanalysis both to the study of mythopoeic literature and to ourselves.

Dobby The Robot: The Science Fiction In Harry Potter, Emily Strand

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

Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke has famously argued that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This paper starts by exploring a few general ways in which science fiction influences Harry Potter, then focuses attention on one key element of science fiction which Potter quite clearly appropriates: the classic trope of the robot or created servant. First, using close textual analysis, the paper traces the robot trope and its accompanying features from its origins in Golem legends and in Shelley's Frankenstein, through classic works of science fiction, including Čapek’s R.U.R., Asimov’s I, Robot, Heinlein’s …

A Sense Of Darker Perspective: How The Marauders Convey Tolkien’S “Impression Of Depth” In Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, Katherine Sas

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

With the full introduction of the Marauders characters (James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew) into the Harry Potter series in The Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling shifted away from the storybook tone of the first two volumes to something darker and widened the scope of her story in depth and breadth. This paper examines how Rowling uses these characters to create what J.R.R. Tolkien called the “impression of depth” in her fictional world. While contrasting Rowling’s specific techniques with Tolkien’s, this paper argues that Rowling scales this literary device down to meet her young hero (and …

Pyramids In America: Rewriting The “Egypt Of The West” In Rick Riordan’S The Kane Chronicles Series, Heather K. Cyr

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

In this paper, I examine the use of well-known American landmarks in Rick Riordan’s The Kane Chronicles (2010-2012), a set of Children’s Fantasy novels that place Ancient Egyptian mythology in the modern world. With reference to the author’s more famous Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (2005-2009), this essay focuses on specific American landscapes in the first novel of the Egyptian mythology-inspired series, The Red Pyramid, arguing that Riordan’s use of Ancient Egyptian-inspired structures reflects the overall ethos of the text. On one level, Riordan’s use of modern American landmarks signals that new stories using old myths have just …

The Talking Beasts As Adam And Eve: Lewis And The Complexity Of "Dominion", Jean E. Graham

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

Although critics have used the Talking Beasts of Narnia along with Genesis as support for human “dominion” over animals, such usage is not altogether warranted. In The Magician’s Nephew, the roles of Adam and Eve are distributed among various characters, including the Talking Beasts. Thus they are not “mere” animals but are the Narnian equivalent of human beings, evolving in an accelerated evolutionary process similar to the normal-speed evolution Lewis describes for the human species in The Problem of Pain.

Doubles At Work: The Three Rovers In J.R.R. Tolkien's Roverandom., Jennifer Marchant

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

In this essay, I explore the protagonist’s two doubles in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Roverandom, concluding that they serve as companions, representations of alternative selves or lives, and catalysts to his spiritual development.

The Child’S Voyage And The Immram Tradition In Lewis, Tolkien, And Pullman, Kris Swank

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

C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Philip Pullman have all written children’s fantasies derived from the medieval Irish immram, or voyage tale, best known from the voyage tales of the Irish figures, Saint Brendan and Mael Duin. William Flint Thrall defined the immram as “a sea-voyage tale in which a hero, accompanied by a few companions, wanders about from island to island, meets Otherworld wonders everywhere, and finally returns to his native land." In Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), Lucy and Edmund Pevensie are joined by their ill-mannered cousin Eustace on a voyage to a number of …

An Unexpected Poet: The Creative Works Of Dr. Robert E. Havard, Sarah B. O'Dell

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

Despite the incredible wealth of Inklings scholarship, little critical attention has been paid to the lesser-known members of the circle, including physician and writer Robert E. Havard (1901—1985). Dr. Havard has been noted as a “skilled and prolific writer” (Glyer 12) who was “well-read and keenly interested in the processes of literature and in theology” (Sayer 151). Yet, Inklings scholarship has long been limited to his appendix to Lewis’s The Problem of Pain and several memoirs on fellow Inklings. When asked regarding his own writing during a 1984 interview with Lyle W. Dorsett, Havard remarked that “I have never written …

The Arch And The Keystone, Verlyn Flieger

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

The growing body of writing both by and about Tolkien insures that not only can we no longer read the unknown book I discovered in 1956, we can't even all read the same book in 2019. We have too many opinions based on too much information from too many sources to come to a consensus. In spite of his fame, in spite of his position at the top of the heap, in spite of The Lord of the Ring's established position as Waterstone's Book of the Century, the world has and probably will continue to have trouble agreeing on …

Phantastes: Annotated Edition By George Macdonald. Edited By John Pennington And Roderick Mcgillis, Tiffany Brooke Martin Phd

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

No abstract provided.

The Faun’S Bookshelf: C.S. Lewis On Why Myth Matters By Charlie Starr, Louis Markos

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

No abstract provided.

Medievalism In A Song Of Ice And Fire And Game Of Thrones By Shiloh Carroll, Joseph Young

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

No abstract provided.

A Rumour Of Adventure: An Inkling Story, By Kees M. Paling. Reviewed By Ryder W. Miller., Ryder M. Miller

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

The Prevalence And Importance Of Ethnic Diversity In Children’S Literature, Rose Schewe

Senior Honors Theses

Despite the complicated past of ethnic censorship, ethnic diversity has a prominent role in children’s literature published in the United States because diversity is accurately representative of the culture in which today’s young readers live. Children’s literature has advanced in terms of ethnic diversity in recent decades, but obstacles that prevent the stories of various minority groups from being told continue to exist. In order for all children to feel properly included in the literary world, children must be given the opportunity to see both people who are different from them as well as people who bear similarities to themselves …

Fictions Of Sexuality, Emelyn Schaeffer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

I conducted a Creative Independent Study Project and wrote two short stories that include themes of women’s sexual desire/pleasure, sexual debuts, masturbation, discoveries, and understandings of one’s sexuality. Because women receive so many messages about keeping their chastity and so few about pursuing the pleasures sex can provide, the opportunities to promote the exploration of women’s sexual desire cannot be missed. To write my stories and answer my research question, I read and watched a variety of both academic and creative materials. I wanted to do this work because these are the stories I needed in high school when I …

The Young Adult Novel Eng 211, Jim Kinnie

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Mythcon 50 - Moving Forward, Looking Back, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

Mythcon 50: Moving Forward, Looking Back

To give its far-flung membership a chance to meet, and to present papers orally with audience response, The Mythopoeic Society has been holding conferences since its early days. These began with a one-day Narnia Conference in 1969, and the first annual Mythopoeic Conference was held at the Claremont Colleges (near Los Angeles) in September, 1970. This year’s conference is the third in a series of golden anniversaries for the Society, celebrating our 50th Mythcon.

Teaching English Language Arts: Implementing A Project-Based Learning Approach, Nashwa Elkoshairi

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Teaching English Language Arts: Implementing a Project-Based Learning Approach

Abstract

This portfolio includes four projects that are woven together to explore topics in teaching literature and composition using a project-based learning pedagogy. The first project, “Literature & Social Cognition: Why Read Fiction?” sets the groundwork for the importance of literature in academia through a brief analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The second project, “Grappling with Consumerism by Tapping into Freud’s Uncanny: Using Coraline for a PBL Approach” explores Coraline through the critical lenses of the uncanny and Marxism to guide students through a variety of texts including …

The Gen Z Zombie: Ya Takes On The Undead, Jason Mccormick

Theses and Dissertations

After the terror attacks of 9/11, zombie stories experienced an unprecedented boom, or for some critics, a renaissance. Fears of mass death, infiltration by the Other, and life before and after the apocalyptic moment were played out through zombie stories. The longevity of the boom also saw the zombie myth move into strange new places including Young Adult novels, resulting in what I refer to as the “Gen Z zombie.”

In his discussion of the sympathetic zombie, Kyle William Bishop mentions YA zombie texts including Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies but groups …

Mythlore: Preserving The Past And Moving Into The Future, Phillip Fitzsimmons, Janet Brennan Croft, Benjamin Dressler

Faculty Articles & Research

We will show you how to find and read or download articles or whole issues of the journal, as well as show other features of the repository. We will demonstrate how authors submit articles and reviews using the Digital Commons platform, and discuss how author’s accounts can be used for corresponding with the editor and receiving usage reports that show the download frequency and world-wide distribution of readers of published articles.

Once Upon A Time On Mango Street, Drake Deornellis

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This paper examines how the use of fairytale allusions in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street critiques and recreates standard constructions of female identity. Narrated by the young main character Esperanza, the novel explores the experiences of a variety of Latina women living on Mango Street. As Esperanza retells these stories, she frequently compares these women to fairytale characters, such as Cinderella and Rapunzel. These fairytales often define women as either “angels” or “monsters”: either they are perfect, or they are evil. Furthermore, this perfection for women is associated with dependence and passivity. As the women in the novel …

Remembering How To Listen: A Theoretical And Pedagogical Approach To Literacy, Adolescence, And Young Adult Literature, Stuart A. Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a substantial and growing body of critical theory on young adult literature (YAL), and there are a multitude of publications dealing with how secondary English/ELA teachers incorporate YAL in their classroom. From a curricular perspective, however, YAL is still most often considered inferior to canonical novels (i.e., “classics” or “great books”); thus, there has been no substantive or concerted movement to include YAL in secondary English/ELA at a curricular level, particularly in grades ten, eleven, and twelve. While the scholarship on YAL is extensive, discussion of YAL is most often devoted to pedagogy or literary theory, as if …

Teaching Issues Of Identity Through Multicultural Young Adult Literature, Emily M. Withers

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Despite changing demographics of high school classrooms, teaching practices and literature remain similar to decades-old practices focusing more on literary devices and symbolism than on topics relevant to the students. Many teachers don’t have the time to find new novels. And when they do find the texts, they are often at a loss for how to properly teach the novels. This thesis is a three-part paper advocating for teaching identity to high school students using a blend of classic literature and contemporary multicultural young adult literature. The first section focuses on personal experiences and research illustrating the need for more …

Redefining Dragon Depicture, Miranda D. Renfro

Augsburg Honors Review

The dragon has been a staple character in myths and stories in all cultures for centuries, and in most cases of Western culture, the dragon is an enemy. However, the typical role of the dragon has recently been undergoing some significant changes, particularly in the area of young adult literature. A trend has arisen in which the dragon no longer carries the connotation of evil or darkness. Instead, the dragon is being written in a number of benevolent roles including mentor and companion to the hero. The characteristics resemble those of Eastern dragons from areas such as China and Japan. …

Orion's Final Song, Chad Chisholm

The Mythic Circle

While there are different stories about the death of Orion, the inspiration for this poem mainly comes from Hesiod’s Astronomia where the huntsman Orion comes to Crete for the wild game and there becomes the beloved of Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt. Orion and Artemis became hunting companions, and the mortal huntsman won the heart of the young immortal. However, their love was short-lived. Because of his zeal for the hunt as well as his boasting, Orion angered Gaia, the primordial goddess of the Earth, who then sent a gigantic scorpion to battle the famous hunter. While …

Pog The Pinder, Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Ghost Dancing Between Worlds, R. L. Boyer

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.