Fantasy Literature

A short introduction to the writer Guy Gavriel Kay. An introduction to the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay, examining his development as a writer from his early high fantasy roots to his later more historically-inspired novels. The talk discusses the dominant themes in Kay’s work, from his reflections on the retrospective construction of history to his enduring fascination with the power of art. Dr Katherine Marie Olley is the VH Galbraith Junior Research Fellow in Medieval Studies at St Hilda’s College, Oxford where she is currently researching childbirth in Old Norse literature and society. She studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge (BA Hons, MPhil) and received her doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2019 for her dissertation on kinship in Old Norse myth and legend.

Monsters and evil in Tolkien Smaug the Golden, Sauron the Terrible, the Balrog of Moria... These are some of J. R. R. Tolkien's most remarkable antagonists, and few of us would disagree that, without them, his novels would not be the same. But what is the secret of their success as monstrous antagonists? Discover the answer in this twenty-minute podcast. Rafael J. Pascual is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at CLASP: A Consolidated Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, an EU-funded project based at the Oxford Faculty of English Language and Literature. He is also a Junior Research Fellow at New College and a Lecturer in Early Medieval English Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Granada (2014), with a dissertation on the dating and textual criticism of 'Beowulf', on the strength of which he gained a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University.

Carolyne Larrington introduces the writing of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Carolyne Larrington introduces the writing of Sylvia Townsend Warner whose first novel 'Lolly Willowes' (1926) is a feminist fantasy classic, and whose last collection of short stories, 'Kingdoms of Elphin' (1977) makes play with European fairy traditions. Townsend Warner has recently been rediscovered as one of the most important English women fantasy writers of the twentieth century.

A brief introduction to the writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Caroline Batten offers a basic introduction to author Ursula K. Le Guin's life, work, and lasting impact on the genres of fantasy and science fiction. This ten-minute lecture is based on a talk given at 'Here Be Dragons': The Oxford Fantasy Literature Summer School in 2018. Caroline Batten is a doctoral researcher in Old English and Old Norse literature at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral thesis is the first stylometric analysis of the Old English metrical charms, and her scholarship more broadly examines gender and sexuality in Old English and Old Norse texts in relation to magic and the supernatural, understandings of disease and the body, and performative speech. She earned her M.Phil from the University of Oxford and her B.A. from Swarthmore College, and currently teaches medieval English literature at Worcester College and St. John’s College, Oxford.

A brief introduction to the writer T. H. White. This short lecture introduces T.H.White, focusing on his Arthurian epic 'The Once and Future King' and its relation to Sir Thomas Malory’s 'Le Morte Darthur'. Gabriel Schenk completed his DPhil at Pembroke College in 2014. His thesis analyses depictions of King Arthur, focusing on a period spanning the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries when the figure of Arthur became increasingly protean and multifaceted. He lectures online at Signum University, teaching courses on cultural histories, Arthuriana, and the works of the Inklings. He has also taught small groups and individuals in Uganda, Poland, Turkey, and across the UK. He is one of the founders and organisers of the Pembroke Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature – an annual lecture that promotes the study of fantasy, science-fiction, and other types of speculative fiction – and works for the literary estates of Owen Barfield and P.H. Newby.

A brief introduction to the writer Diana Wynne Jones. This short lecture outlines Diana Wynne Jones’s early life, her major works, and a core element of her writing: the combination of different images and sources to create new, joyful stories. Gabriel Schenk completed his DPhil at Pembroke College in 2014. His thesis analyses depictions of King Arthur, focusing on a period spanning the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries when the figure of Arthur became increasingly protean and multifaceted. He lectures online at Signum University, teaching courses on cultural histories, Arthuriana, and the works of the Inklings. He has also taught small groups and individuals in Uganda, Poland, Turkey, and across the UK. He is one of the founders and organisers of the Pembroke Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature – an annual lecture that promotes the study of fantasy, science-fiction, and other types of speculative fiction – and works for the literary estates of Owen Barfield and P.H. Newby.

'Game of Thrones' and storytelling. In 'Why Game of Thrones Matters', Carolyne Larrington discusses some reasons for the popularity of the HBO series, explores some of its principal themes and considers ways in which it both is – and isn't – like other epic fantasies. Carolyne Larrington teaches medieval English literature at St John's College, Oxford. She is the author of 'Winter is Coming: the Medieval World of Game of Thrones' (Bloomsbury, 2015) and her new book on the show, 'All Men Must Die' is forthcoming from Bloomsbury later this year.

A guest lecture by Dr Maria Cecire (Bard College) discussing children's fantasy literature. Maria Sachiko Cecire introduces the idea of an Oxford School of children’s fantasy literature, describing how J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis pushed back against "modern" cultural changes in the first half of the 20th-century through both the fiction they wrote while medievalists at the University of Oxford and as the architects of a new English curriculum that inspired future fantasy writers including Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones, and Philip Pullman. Cecire addresses the after-effects of this legacy, with an emphasis on the colonialist fantasies of white male heroism that circulated in the genre well after the end of empire and 21st-century responses by authors (such as Junot Díaz) whose fiction reclaims enchantment for audiences often excluded by mainstream fantasy. This lecture has been adapted from material published by the University of Minnesota Press in Cecire's book 'Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century' (available at: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/re-enchanted). Maria Sachiko Cecire is Associate Professor of Literature and Director of the Center for Experimental Humanities at Bard College (USA). She is the author of 'Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century' (University of Minnesota Press, 2019), and co-editor of 'Space and Place in Children’s Literature, 1789-Present' (Routledge, 2015) with Hannah Field, Kavita Mudan Finn, and Malini Roy.

An Interview with Dr Catherine Butler, author of the book 'Four British Fantasists'. An interview with Dr Catherine Butler (Cardiff University) by Will Brockbank (Oxford). Dr Butler has contributed much to fantasy literature studies, most notably her book 'Four British Fantasists'. The interview looks at the definition of fantasy, the 'Oxford School', the relationship between children's writing and fantasy covering a range of writers - J. R. R. Tolkien, Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, and Philip Pullman. Will Brockbank is a DPhil candidate in Old English and Old Norse language and literature at Jesus College, Oxford. He fondly remembers childhood bedtime readings of 'The Hobbit' with his dad. Little did he expect back then that he would later do his MPhil in Medieval English at Pembroke College, where Tolkien was Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 to 1945. When he is not grappling with 'Beowulf' and the 'Poetic Edda', Will is usually dreaming of the islands of the North Atlantic.

A brief introduction to the British fantasy writer, Alan Garner. This short lecture offers an overview of the fantasy writer Alan Garner's early fiction, from 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' to 'Red Shift', and traces several of Garner's mythological sources and the central themes of his work. Felix Taylor is a DPhil candidate in English at St Hugh's College. His thesis explores the influence of Welsh mythology and folklore in twentieth-century British fiction.