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Terry Pratchett's writing celebrates the possibilities opened up by inventiveness and imagination. It constructs an ethical stance that values informed and self-aware choices, knowledge of the world in which one makes those choices, the importance of play and humor in crafting a compassionate worldview, and acts of continuous self-examination and creation. This collection of essays uses inventiveness and creation as a thematic core to combine normally disparate themes, such as science fiction studies, the effect of collaborative writing and shared authorship, steampunk aesthetics, productive modes of "ownership," intertextuality, neomedievalism and colonialism, adaptations into other media, linguistics and rhetorics, and coming of age as an act of free will.
This collection compiles essays by medievalist scholars that examine the variety of ways authors have fictionalized the medieval period while meeting the challenge of creating engaging literature. More significantly, this project seeks to explore the importance of authenticity in these works of medievalism. The works discussed represent a variety of genres, including historical, young adult, Arthurian detective fiction, paranormal romance and fantasy, as well as adaptations of Beowulf and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Opening the collection are three essays by author-scholars who share their processes of creating an authentic medieval world appealing to a wide audience. The remaining seven essays by medievalist scholars examine a variety of medievalist texts, addressing the extent to which their authors adhere to the facts of the period, while at times necessarily filling in historical gaps in the process of creating these works. Each of the essays addresses the concept of authenticity in fiction about the Middle Ages; together, they become a lively conversation about authenticity in narratives of various genres.
This book highlights the multi-dimensionality of the work of British fantasy writer and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett. Taking into account content, political commentary, and literary technique, it explores the impact of Pratchett's work on fantasy writing and genre conventions.With chapters on gender, multiculturalism, secularism, education, and relativism, Section One focuses on different characters’ situatedness within Pratchett’s novels and what this may tell us about the direction of his social, religious and political criticism. Section Two discusses the aesthetic form that this criticism takes, and analyses the post- and meta-modern aspects of Pratchett’s writing, his use of humour, and genre adaptations and deconstructions. This is the ideal collection for any literary and cultural studies scholar, researcher or student interested in fantasy and popular culture in general, and in Terry Pratchett in particular.
Since the publication of the first James Blish novelizations of Star Trek episodes in 1967, close to 900 tie-in novels, anthologies, and omnibus editions have been published. Star Trek tie-in novels have had a significant influence on Western popular culture. The works of beloved science fiction authors have shaped the way fans understand Star Trek and its universe, and many stand as near equal builders of the Star Trek franchise, next to Gene Roddenberry, his producers, and the many creators of the later series. With such a vast and varied body of work, tie-in books form a rich and deep cultural phenomenon, the history and content of which are worthy of concerted study. Despite the enduring...
First comprehensive investigation of the major significance of female sinners turned saints in medieval literature.
This monograph contends that attending to Pratchett’s work could help to save our world. It draws attention to the astonishing capacity of Pratchett’s novels to inspire and argues that Pratchett’s fantasy novels directly address many of the most significant challenges people in the world face: the explosion of weapons technology; the myriad issues involved in the envelopment of human life by corporatized information technology; the destructive human inattention to, and interactions with, the Earth and its life forms; and the problem of devalued labor. Paradoxically, it is Pratchett’s choice of fantasy that lets him address the reality of major issues that humanity and the rest of life confront now. Pratchett’s novels show us how to better understand and confront the problems the world is contending with. The book will interest both scholars and fans.
The thirteenth book in Little Book Series II is A Little Bronze Book of Cautionary Tales by NY Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry. Be careful what you wish for. Be careful with what you want. Presented here are four of Jonathan's personal favorite creepy and disturbing tales. In “Ink” a private investigator has the faces of murder victims tattooed onto his skin so he can relive the moments of their deaths. In “Fat Girl With a Knife” a bullied teenager gets delicious revenge. “Jingo and the Hammerman” is a bitter little tale of friendship and optimism set after the zombie apocalypse. “Son of the Devil” is the unsettling story of vengeance and dark justice in the Old West.
From images of Saint Bartholomew holding his skin in his arms, to scenes of execution in Havelok the Dane, to laws that prescribed it as a punishment for treason, this volume explores the idea and the reality of skin removal - flaying - in the Middle Ages. It interrogates the connection between reality and imagination in depictions of literal skin removal, rather than figurative or theoretical interpretations of flaying, and offers a multilayered view of medieval and early modern perceptions of flaying and its representations in European culture.
This edited volume rethinks Masculinity Studies by breaking away from the notion of the perpetual crisis of masculinity. It argues that not enough has been done to distinguish patriarchy from masculinity and proposes to detox masculinity by offering a collection of positive representations of men in fictional and non-fictional texts. The editors show how ideas of hegemonic and toxic masculinity have been too fixed on the exploration of dominance and subservience, and too little on the men (and the male characters in fiction) who behave following other ethical, personal and socially accepted patterns. Bringing together research from different periods and genres, this collection provides broad, multidisciplinary insights into alternative representations of masculinity.
Why do we love wizards? Where do these magical figures come from? Thinking Queerly traces the wizard from medieval Arthurian literature to contemporary YA adaptations. By exploring the link between Merlin and Harry Potter, or Morgan le Fay and Sabrina, readers will see how the wizard offers spaces of hope and transformation for young readers. In particular, this book examines how wizards think differently, and how this difference can resonate with both LGBTQ and neurodivergent readers, who’ve been told they don’t fit in.