Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy
Idealization, Identity, Ideology
Buch in deiner Nähe kaufen
Beschreibung
This book examines the creative uses of “Celtic” myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children’s fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of “Celticity.” The term “Celtic” itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.
Runner-up of the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award 2017
Winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth & Fantasy Studies 2019
This book examines the creative uses of “Celtic” myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children’s fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of “Celticity.” The term “Celtic” itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.
Offers fresh perspectives on Celtic studies by considering recent critical discussion of the term "Celtic" Covers a range of material, spanning classic children’s books to contemporary fantasy authors such as Kate Thompson and Catherine Fisher Examines in depth the appropriation and adaptation of Celtic myth and folklore
Autor*in
Dimitra Fimi
Themen in »Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy«
fantasy literature Celtic literature regional literature medieval literature Irish mythology Welsh mythology pagan mythology fictional mythology cultural heritage hero narrative literary authenticity interpretation of mythology intrusion fantasy national identity cultural identity
Stimmen zu »Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy«
“It is a welcome study because it brings together a significant number of twentieth-century books for older children and adolescents so that patterns of usage of the pre-modern Celtic-language source texts become clear. … Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy is a well-researched and informative analysis, highly readable … and a solid contribution to the study of the uses and misuses of myth in fantasy.” (Jessica Hemming, Folklore, Vol. 130 (4), 2019)
()
“Like the characters with whom it deals, this book walks between worlds, in this case those of medieval Irish and Welsh literature, of modern romantic Celticists, and of fiction produced for young adults. It does so with a remarkable knowledge of each, producing a host of new insights.” (Ronald Hutton, Professor of History, University of Bristol, UK)
()