Nature and the Numinous in Mythopoeic Fantasy Literature

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7864-9465-1
Verlag: McFarland

Buch, Englisch, 212 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 315 g

Reihe: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

This book makes connections between mythopoeic fantasy - works which engage the numinous - and the critical apparatuses of ecocriticism and posthumanism. Drawing from the ideas of Rudolf Otto in The Idea of the Holy, mythopoeic fantasy is a means of subverting normative modes of perception to both encounter the numinous and to challenge the perceptions of the natural world. Beginning with S.T. Coleridge’s theories of the imagination as embodied in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the book moves on to explore standard mythopoeic fantasists such as George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Taking a step outside these mythopoeic fantasists, who are particularly influenced by Christianity, the concluding chapters discuss Algernon Blackwood and Ursula Le Guin, two authors whose work evokes the numinous without a specifically Christian worldview.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brawley, Chris

Palumbo, Donald E.

Sullivan, Iii C. W.

Über Autor(innen)

Christopher Straw Brawley is a professor of Religion, Humanities and English at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He lives in Greenville.

C.W. Sullivan III is Distinguished Professor of arts and sciences at East Carolina University and a full member of the Welsh Academy. He is the author of numerous books and the on-line journal Celtic Cultural Studies.