Fantasy writing, like literature in general, provides a powerful vehicle for challenging the status quo. Via symbolism, imagery and supernaturalism, fantasy constructs secondary-world narratives that both mirror and critique the political paradigms...
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Fantasy writing, like literature in general, provides a powerful vehicle for challenging the status quo. Via symbolism, imagery and supernaturalism, fantasy constructs secondary-world narratives that both mirror and critique the political paradigms of our own world. This critical work explores the role of the portal in fantasy, investigating the ways in which magical nexus points and movement between worlds are used to illustrate real-world power dynamics, especially those impacting women and children. Through an examination of high and low fantasy, fairy tales, children's literature, the Goth
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Cover; Acknowledgments; Table of Contents; Preface; Introduction; Part I: Women and Other Magical Creatures; One: Who "Wears the Pants" in Faërie? The Woman Question in William Morris' The Wood Beyond the World; Two: "For I am but a girl"; Part II: Charms, Places, and Little Girls; Three: E. Nesbit and the Magic Word; Four: Lost Boys to Men; Part III: Haunted Houses and the Hidden Self; Five: Confronting Chaos at the In-Between; Six: The Society Insider/Outsider and the Sympathetic Supernatural in Fantastic Tales by Edith Wharton and Oscar Wilde; Part IV: Haunting History
Seven: One World to Rule Them AllEight: Harry Potter and the Ultimate In-Between; Nine: Portals Between Then and Now; Chapter Notes; Bibliography; Index
