So I'm doing one of my favorite things this year, which is mentoring an honors thesis on a topic I'd be focusing on if I were starting over as an undergrad doing an honors thesis right about now. No, it's not science fiction, comics, or video games, but fantasy. The student is interested in the ranges of the rules and functions of magic in fantasy, figuring that it may not be that dissimilar to the rules and functions of (new) technology in science fiction. The larger project is to make a case for the scholarly study of fantasy.
Not only does this give me a chance to introduce her to some of my favorite writers--Steven Brust, Neil Gaiman, Guy Gavriel Kay, Charles de Lint, and Sherri Tepper--as well as others I respect but don't like as much yet should be crucial to her project--Piers Anthony, Lloyd Alexander, Ursula Le Guin, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and of course J.R.R. Tolkien. But, most important, I get to read some George R.R. Martin and Irene Radford--not to mention finally finish the last three books of the Harry Potter series! What's more, this is work, or should I say guilt-free pleasure?
So, keeping the former part of the last sentence in mind, is anyone out there aware of good scholarly studies of fantasy? Lucie Armitt's Fantasy Fiction: An Introduction is our entry point, but she's a bit too hung up on the fantastic and the possibilities of Lit-ah-rary fantasy, for my taste at least.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Trying to Make "White-Blindness" a Thing (Again)
I originally wrote this piece on "white-blindness" back in the mid-1990s when I was a grad student—and it shows—but it's stra...
CitizenSE Greatest Hits
-
It's really just an update on Scott Eric Kaufman's blogwide strike action and a link to my contribution to Cliopatria's Jamest...
-
Anyone who's read more than a couple posts here knows I love to quote passages from the works I'm writing on. So you'll be as s...
-
Scott Eric Kaufman has been organizing and participating in The Valve 's ongoing book event on Amanda Claybaugh's The Novel of Purpo...
-
So finally I have a chance to share one of the Morrison-Hawthorne ideas I'm most excited about, and which, more than 10 years since it f...
-
Well, as predicted, I missed last Saturday. Today I hope to have time to get into some passages from The Scarlet Letter that I overlooked ...
-
Quick questions to my remaining readers: are you aware of the Guccifer 2.0 story? have you been trying to follow it? have you been able...
-
I'm happy to join Sandra Lewis, Idalia Torres, Dan Smith, and Anne Fearman in running for leadership positions on the Fredonia UUP Chapt...
-
Given my interest in fairy tales and fairy tale re-visions , Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird was at the top of my summer reading list. ...
-
It's just a number: 155 . Or rather, more than 345 to go. My latest crazy idea is that anyone reading this non-post click on the link a...
-
So the other day on the ride back from school/day care, with both girls in car seats in the back, out of the blue onechan tries to teach imo...
No comments:
Post a Comment