Abstract
This paper sketches a “map” of certain patterns in current children’s fantasy. Beginning with literal maps of fantasy worlds, I point out the similarities of the physical layout of a number of invented worlds, suggesting that sameness of geography often indicates a lack of innovation in the ideological or philosophical ideas behind the stories. Where we find a departure from conventional fantasy geography we also find originality in plot and metaphysics, such as in the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, Philip Pullman and Diana Wynne Jones. A change in geography can also signal a new approach to gender roles, as I explore in works by Le Guin and Wynne Jones, over and against fantasies in which female heroes conform to traditionally male models. Finally, I suggest that in Wynne Jones’ and Terry Pratchett’s children’s novels the strict gender roles of fairy tale become an avenue by which the reader questions the conventional destinies of narrative both in literature and in life.
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Notes
Later, in Spindle’s End McKinely (2000), McKinley replaces the sword with the traditionally feminine symbol of the spindle.
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This paper was delivered at Kaleidoscope 8, an international conference on children’s literature in Calgary, AB. It is by way of a progress report on work Michele Landsberg and I are doing on children’s fantasy. After surveying a vast terrain of fantasies, I focussed my discussion on four areas of fantastical exploration and only a few novels, aiming to offer my audience some ideas of questions to ask and patterns to notice as they bring fantasy and children together.
Deirdre F. Baker teaches children’s literature in the English Department at the University of Toronto. She is children’s book reviewer for The Toronto Star, co-author with Ken Setterington of A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books (McClelland and Stewart, 2003), a regular contributor to The Horn Book Magazine, and author of one children’s novel, Seventeen Pearls (Groundwood, 2007). She is currently working on a book on fantasy.
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Baker, D.F. What We Found on Our Journey through Fantasy Land. Child Lit Educ 37, 237–251 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-006-9009-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-006-9009-1