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Fantasy, Colonialism, and the Middle Landscape
Get PDFWeaving together Anglo-American folklore, the Indian captivity narrative genre, and science fiction and fantasy with Midwest settings, Attebery explores the lasting influence of the pastoral chronotope of the “middle landscape” and its entanglement with colonialism and empire. Scholar Guest of Honor Address, Mythcon 53
Hamlet in Narnia: The Prince and the Poem in Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia
Get PDFC.S. Lewis is little-known for his Shakespeare scholarship except perhaps for his lecture “Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem” for the British Academy (1942). This essay begins by discussing Lewis’s approach to the play and his desire to reenchant his audience with the play he had loved as a child, before character-criticism got in the way. It then explores how Lewis takes the Prince and the aspects he found most affective in Hamlet out of the play and explores them, imaginatively, in another world: recasting them “for children” in Narnia. The essay considers Hamlet in The Silver Chair in which Rilian is literally compared to the Prince, the Hamlet-like trajectory of Prince Caspian, and finally, in The Last Battle, the recreation of another world characterized by its pervasive atmosphere of death in which characters and readers alike are called to consider “being dead”
Tolkien the Playwright: Manuscript Revisions and Faërian Dramas in The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
No full textTolkien is not usually considered a playwright, even though his verse drama, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son,” is a unique example of the genre. It is Tolkien’s only published play and historical fiction, as well as a unique poetic - dramatic genre, a modern alliterative verse play, which Tolkien developed over many years in numerous drafts, now held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and the Brotherton Library in Leeds. These manuscript drafts allow us to trace Tolkien’s stage directions, which reveal that he imagined this to be a play for presentation on stage. This essay examines Tolkien’s statements on and experiences of drama, and traces the revisions in the manuscripts, in Tolkien’s personal recording of the play, and considers possible revisions in the BBC Radio broadcast, with the aim of demonstrating different modes of dramatic presentation, including faërian dramas affecting characters and audiences alike
\u3ci\u3eReading Tolkien in Chinese: Religion, Fantasy, and Translation\u3c/i\u3e, by Eric Reinders
Get PDFVol. 34, No. 6 - Whole No. 183
Get PDFMythprint is the monthly 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 and written discussion groups
Vol. 34, No. 12 - Whole No. 189
Get PDFMythprint is the monthly 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 and written discussion groups
Vol. 36, No. 1 - Whole No. 202
Get PDFMythprint is the monthly 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 and written discussion groups
Vol. 36, No. 11 - Whole No. 212
Get PDFMythprint is the monthly 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 and written discussion groups
Keynote with Taylor Driggers - Cruising Faërie: Further Notes on Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature
No full textIn Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature (2022), I argue that fantasy affords sexually marginalized people the ability to re-vision Christian theology in queer ways, thanks to its fixation on strange bodies, its longing for other worlds, and the ways in which both of these may reflect back on theological narratives of incarnation and salvation. Yet this project raises further questions that remain unresolved: namely, how might the framework of Christian theology constrain, as well as illuminate, queer imaginaries? If fantasy allows us to envision livable lives for ourselves as unruly bodies, just what forms of relating may those lives entail? Fantasy may, as Jes Battis (2007) has argued, serve as a magical conduit for channeling melancholic desires into action in our world, but what drives the desire for religious belonging? What other desires—sexual, national, racial—might be bound up with it, and what sort of spell are we casting from it?
In this talk, I build on José Esteban Muñoz’s (2009) notion of ‘cruising utopia’ to reaffirm that, rather than merely representing or validating existing LGBTQ+ identities, fantasy’s worldmaking impulse can help us map the conditions for queer ways of life yet to be realized. Yet, following precedents set by George MacDonald and J.R.R. Tolkien, I also deviate from Muñoz’s utopian vision to posit fantasy as an ambivalent third space where queer desires can be both celebrated and interrogated. In this analysis, both fantasy and queerness are profoundly formed by dominant, primary-world cultures even as they attempt to look beyond them. With reference to fantasy works by Chaz Brenchley, Laurie J. Marks, Samuel R. Delany, and others, I suggest that fantasy can map relations between religious devotion, queer desire, and sexually dissident lives that complicate the liberatory frame presented in Queering Faith while continuing to affirm the act of imagining otherwise as the beginning—though crucially far from the end—of queer resistance to a hostile world
The Gay Bat of Gotham: Depictions of Common Queer Stereotypes and Tropes in the DC Comics Character Batwoman
Get PDFExpansive superhero comic book universes can be thought of as collective, accretional works of Mythopoeia, generating modern mythologies of fantastical characters while also drawing inspiration from ancient myths of the primary world. The DC Comics’ character Batwoman was initially introduced in 1956 as a love interest of Batman/Bruce Wayne, in part to combat scandalous allegations of Batman’s homosexual tendencies towards his young male sidekick Robin. In 2006, writers Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, and Mark Waid reinvented the Batwoman character for modern audiences as the alter ego of ‘Kate Kane,’ Bruce Wayne’s cousin, who was a lesbian of Jewish descent. Queering the character was a significant move for the publisher; Batwoman was considered the highest profile gay superhero in the DC Comics stable, and even became the temporary lead character in the company’s namesake title, Detective Comics.
This paper aims to explore the depiction of the ‘Kate Kane’ version of the Batwoman character across multiple comic book series and storylines, particularly as it relates to common queer storytelling tropes and stereotypes. Primary examples will include the character’s US military history, including being expelled from the United States Military Activity over allegations of homosexual conduct, as well as complex and often fraught relationships with faith, family, and romantic partners