Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

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

No abstract provided.

Divine Surgeons At Work: The Presence And Purpose Of The Dream Vision In Till We Have Faces, Erin K. Wagner

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

Studies the metamorphosis of Orual, the main character of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, under the “divine surgery” of the dream-visions sent by the gods.

Tolkien's Faërian Drama: Origins And Valedictions, Janet Brennan Croft

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

Attempts to define the characteristics of faërian drama through the way it changes the lives of dreamers such as Scrooge, the Pearl poet and Sir Gawain, and Smith of Wootton Major.

"They Have Quarreled With The Trees": Perverted Perceptions Of "Progress" In The Fiction Series Of C.S. Lewis, Deborah Klein

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

Uses the tools of eco-criticism to read Lewis’s attitudes towards nature, hierarchy, and the changes wrought by technological progress in the Narnia books and the Cosmic Trilogy.

Pillaging Middle-Earth: Self-Plagiarism In Smith Of Wootton Major, Josh B. Long

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

Examines the fraught concept of “self-plagiarism” in Tolkien’s works. Self-plagiarism or self-borrowing is something more than just repeating themes and motifs throughout one’s literary career, and Long details examples of scenes, dialogue, character traits, and so on echoing from one work to another, with particular attention to The Lord of the Rings and Smith of Wootton Major.

Reviews, Sharon L. Bolding, Janet Brennan Croft, Kazia Estrada, Mike Foster, Bonnie Gaarden, Jon Garrad, Melody Green, Perry Neil Harrison, T. S. Miller, Holly Ordway, Christopher Tuthill, Joe R. Christopher

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

George MacDonald: Divine Carelessness and Fairytale Levity. Daniel Gabelman. Reviewed by Bonnie Gaarden.

The Gender Dance: Ironic Subversion in C.S. Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy. Monika B. Hilder. Preface by Matthew Dickerson. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: In a Modern English Version with a Critical Introduction. John Gardner. Reviewed by Perry Neil Harrison.

Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal. Joseph Campbell. Reviewed by Christopher Tuthill.

The Riddles of the Hobbit. Adam Roberts. Reviewed by Jon Garrad.

The Modern Literary Werewolf: A Critical Study of the Mutable Motif. Brent A. Stypczynski. Reviewed by Sharon L. …

Wimps, Dorks, And Reluctant Readers: Redefining Literacy In Multimodal Middle Grade Diary Books, Rachel Lee Rickard

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Since the release of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the multimodal, middle-grade diary book has gained popularity. The series features “handwritten,” journal entries and drawings and has elicited many imitators, the most prominent of which is Rachel Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries. While the diary form is not new to children’s literature, these series reinvent the established conventions through drawings and supplementary online environments. Both series are routinely identified as for reluctant readers; however, their diversity of form actually leads to complex reader engagement. My purpose is to refute the idea that the books are useful only …

Brave New Forms: Adaptation, Remediation, And Intertextuality In The Multimodal World Of Hugo Cabret, Chelsea Marie Bromley

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Digital technologies have changed the way readers approach, experience, and respond to texts. In our hyper-mediated culture, images and texts converge and disseminate across multiple media platforms, changing once-passive readers and spectators into active agents in the intellectual and creative process of interpretation. This thesis examines the multimodal world of Hugo Cabret—the hybrid graphic novel, the film adaptation, and the novel’s official website—in an effort to better understand how intertextuality, convergence culture, and remediation play with media forms, represent an ideological shift toward participatory culture, and rework older, traditional media in the creation of new media and new media users. …

Subteen, Preteen, Tween: Preadolescent Literature Inside And Out, Bethany Fort

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the inside and outside of preadolescent literature, a subgenre that has been widely neglected by literary scholars, educators, and book publishers. In Chapter 2, I analyze the themes within The Giver by Lois Lowry and use the developmental stage of preadolescence to define a subgenre of preadolescence, which has distinct characteristics that separate it from the other subgenres of children’s literature. In Chapter 3, I focus on the outside of preadolescent literature, using the results of bookseller and author surveys and research on the history of the tween retail market to uncover the subtle messages being …

"Every Child In Our World Will Know His Name!": Malcolm Gladwell's Theories As An Explanation For The Cultural Phenomenon Of Harry Potter, Alicia Morgan

Masters Theses

When Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone hit stores in the United States in 1998, children and adults alike went wild. Not only had Rowling's first book made huge waves in the UK, but Americans were talking about the struggling, single-parent who had penned a children's classic before the book even reached American stores. American audiences accepted Rowling's first novel with open arms, making it one of the first children's books to reach and occupy The New York Times best-seller list for so long. While certain marketing techniques and the rise of the Internet did contribute to Harry Potter's initial …

Pen Pal, By Francesca Forrest. Reviewed By Susan Dorman., Susan Dorman

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.

Let’S Hear It For The Girls: Resilient And Remarkable Women In Today’S Ya Literature, Pauline Skowron Schmidt

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Letters To Make-Believe: An Afterschool Survival Kit, Jessica Maginity 14

Honor Scholar Theses

None

Creating Socialization And Empathy Through Athletics In Chris Crutcher’S Fiction, Joseph P. Korwin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis aims to highlight the ways participation in athletics promote greater physical, psychological, and social health for adolescents in Chris Crutcher’s fiction. In his novels, Ironman and Whale Talk, published in 1995 and 2001 respectively, Crutcher uses athletically minded protagonists and the teams which form around them to display the benefits of being involved in athletics, especially team sports. In Ironman, a mandatory high school anger management group embodies all the aspects of team support and camaraderie in their attempt to assist Bo in achieving his athletic goals. Crutcher’s Whale Talk depicts the ways that official team …

Heroes And Kings, By Charles Williams. Reviewed By Ryder Miller., Ryder 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.

Shannon Hitchcock: A New Voice In Historical Fiction, Kaavonia Hinton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

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.

Fairy Elements In British Literary Writings In The Decade Following The Cottingley Fair Photographs Episode, Douglas A. Anderson

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

Scholar Guest of Honor, Mythcon 2013. Explores the effects of the Cottingly fairy fraud on British literary fantasy. Authors discussed include Gerald Bullett, Walter de la Mare, Lord Dunsany, Bea Howe, Kenneth Ingram, Margaret Irwin, Daphne Miller, Hope Mirrlees, and Bernard Sleigh. Anderson also offers some speculations on the effects of the controversy on Tolkien’s early development as a writer.

How Trees Behave-Or Do They?, Verlyn Flieger

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

Flieger takes as her departure point a passage on tree-spirits in one of the manuscripts for “On Fairy-stories,” and considers the development of Tolkien’s ideas about more-or-less enspirited trees throughout his oeuvre. Begins with the earliest appearance of Old Man Willow in the Tom Bombadil poems, progressing through his maturation as an idea in The Lord of the Rings. Pays special attention to Treebeard and the Huorns, and ends with the birch tree in Smith of Wootton Major.

Listening As Heroic Action In L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Cara-Joy Steem

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

Examines the theme and spiritual functions of listening in the third Murry family novel, A Swiftly Tilting Planet: as participation in an interconnected universe, as embracing humility, as a witness to cosmic community, and as a sacrificial act. Connects these ideas to her larger theological and interpersonal themes.

Theological Reticence And Moral Radiance: Notes On Tolkien, Levinas, And Inuit Cosmology, Catherine Madsen

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

Madsen pulls together three exceedingly disparate elements—the theology of loss and obligation of the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas; the way the Inuit peoples of the Arctic regions relate to the hardships and challenges of their physical and spiritual worlds; and incidents of self-sacrifice in Tolkien—into a challenging and rewarding whole.

Reviews, Damien Bador, Gregory Bassham, Joe R. Christopher, Janet Brennan Croft, Hugh H. Davis, Melody Green, Holly Ordway, Robert T. Tally Jr

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

The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings. Abigail E. Ruane and Patrick James. Reviewed by Robert T. Tally Jr

Moments of Grace and Spiritual Warfare in The Lord of the Rings. Anne Marie Gazzolo. Reviewed by Damien Bador.

The Wizard of Oz as American Myth: A Critical Study of Six Versions of the Story, 1900-2007. Alissa Burger. Reviewed by Hugh H. Davis.

Plain to the Inward Eye: Selected Essays on C.S. Lewis. Don W. King. Reviewed by Holly Ordway.

Tolkien's Poetry. Ed. Julian Eilmann and Allan Turner. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher.

The …

J.R.R. Tolkien, Fanfiction, And "The Freedom Of The Reader", Megan B. Abrahamson

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

Student paper award, Mythcon 2013. Abrahamson makes a particularly convincing case for the validity of fanfiction by applying Tolkien’s own statements about the “dominion of the author,” the “Cauldron of Story,” and subcreation to the issue. Discusses Tolkien’s experiences with early fanwork and his own use of sources as an author.

Tolkien's Devices: The Heraldy Of Middle-Earth, Jamie Mcgregor

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

Studies a set of images Tolkien deploys with great skill to represent essential thematic elements of the opposition between forces of the Alliance and the Enemy. These include the organic and natural symbols of Gondor, Rohan, Dol Amroth as opposed to the Eye of Mordor and White Hand of Isengard. McGregor’s observations on Saruman’s choice of imagery are particularly valuable in showing how Tolkien revealed the wizard’s attempts to play both sides even at the symbolic level.

The Hobbit And The Father Christmas Letters, Kris Swank

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

Traces the mutual influences of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the letters he wrote to his children in the person of Father Christmas. Similar themes in Roverandom and The Book of Lost Tales are also discussed. She tracks the development of several motifs that appear throughout, like irascible wizards, playful elves, invented languages, impudent bears, and fireworks.

Troy And The Rings: Tolkien And The Medieval Myth Of England, Michael Livingston

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

Asserts that, far from abandoning his early grounding in the classics upon discovering Northern mythology and languages, Greek and Roman motifs remained an important element of Tolkien’s “soup” and he used them in many ways in The Lord of the Rings. Livingston pays particular attention to themes, characters, incidents, and Mediterranean history that have roots in The Iliad. Family structure is one place where we can see convincing parallels, with Boromir as an asterisk-Hector and Faramir as an asterisk-Paris, rewriting the deficiencies in their source-characters as Gondor is the history of Troy re-written.

Contributors, Gwenyth E. Hood

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

And Of Our Mother, David Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Mythcon 44 - Green And Growing: The Land And Its Inhabitants In Fantasy, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

How does mythopoeic literature address the relationship between the land and its inhabitants, between the wild and the cultivated? What are their respective moral values, their dangers, and delights? Tangled forests, majestic trees, the ordered fields, the carefully tended gardens; or untamed, wild beauty: each offers a different kind of bounty to those who would live off the land. What role do advocates and protectors of the land play in fantasy literature, particularly as personified in characters such as Yavanna, Radagast, Sam Gamgee, and, of course, Tom Bombadil?

Friday, Shane Clack

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.