View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by St Andrews Research Repository A SWIPE AT THE DRAGON OF THE COMMONPLACE: A RE-EVALUATION OF GEORGE MACDONALD'S FICTION Ginger Stelle A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2011 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1974 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence A SWIPE AT THE DRAGON OF THE COMMONPLACE: A RE-EVALUATION OF GEORGE MACDONALD’S FICTION Ginger Stelle Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. of the University of St. Andrews 27 May 2011 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, Ginger Stelle, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September, 2008 and as a candidate for the degree of Ph.D in September, 2009; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2008 and 2011. Date 27 May 2011 signature of candidate............................................................. 2. Supervisor’s declaration: I, Christopher MacLachlan, hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date 27 May 2011 signature of supervisor ………................................................. 3. Permission for electronic publication: (to be signed by both candidate and supervisor) In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: (ii) Access to all of printed copy but embargo of all of electronic publication of thesis for a period of five years on the following grounds: Publication would preclude future publication. Date 27 May 2011 signature of candidate ……............................ signature of supervisor ……….............................. A supporting statement for a request for an embargo must be included with the submission of the draft copy of the thesis. Where part of a thesis is to be embargoed, please specify the part and the reasons. ABSTRACT This thesis offers a re-evaluation of the fiction of George MacDonald (1824-1905), both fantasy and non-fantasy. The general trend in MacDonald studies is to focus primarily on his works of fantasy, either ignoring the rest (which includes non-fantasy fiction, sermons, poetry, and criticism) or using them to illuminate the fantasies. The overall critical consensus is that these works, particularly MacDonald‘s non-fantasy fiction, possess little inherent value. Though many critics acknowledge similarities between MacDonald‘s fantasy fiction and his non-fantasy fiction, MacDonald has been the victim of a critical double standard that treats fantasy and realism as completely irreconcilable, and allows certain features to be acceptable, even desirable, in one form that are completely unacceptable in the other. The thesis begins by looking at MacDonald‘s writings about the imagination and about literature, from which a clear theory of literature emerges, one with strong opinions about the function and purpose of literature, as well as about what makes good literature. By re-examining MacDonald‘s fiction, its plots, characterization and narration, in the light of his own theories, the reasons underlying the artistic choices made throughout his fiction take on a more deliberate and calculated appearance. Furthermore, by placing MacDonald in his proper context, and looking at the diversity of generic options available to the Victorian writer, the critical double standard underlying much MacDonald scholarship, based on a strict fantasy/realism separation, crumbles. What emerges from this analysis is a different MacDonald—a careful craftsman who consciously and skillfully uses the tools of his trade to produce a unique and specific reading experience. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people without whose help and support this thesis would not have been completed. First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Christopher MacLachlan, for his guidance, encouragement, and support. His wisdom and knowledge helped to point me in directions I would not otherwise have thought of. I would also like to thank Dr. Emma Sutton, my secondary supervisor, who served as primary during my first term and got me started in the right direction. I wish to thank my friends, who made working on a thesis a less painful process by helping to break it up with tea breaks, movie viewings, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In particular, I‘d like to thank my housemates Katherine Cooper and Beth Tapscott for always being there with a word of encouragement or a plate of cookies when things got rough. I‘d also like to thank Faith Acker, Claire McLoughlin, and Jennie Parkinson for all the laughter and good times. Also, thanks need to go to the ladies of the Monday Morning Bible Study group, whose prayer and support contributed greatly to my ability to do this. I am thankful for my family back home, particularly my parents and step-parents, who have encouraged me and supported me throughout this process. I also wish to thank my great-niece Leila, whose stubborn refusal to stay a baby until I came home has pushed me to finish sooner rather than later. Finally, I would like to thank Karen Reeder, my high school English teacher, for handing me that first George MacDonald book and beginning my life-long love affair, and I would like to thank George MacDonald himself for producing so many books that have touched my life in deep and profound ways. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter One: MacDonald and the Imagination 17 Chapter Two: Fantasy and Realism 51 Chapter Three: Plot Elements in MacDonald‘s Fiction 86 Chapter Four: MacDonald and Characterization 129 Chapter Five: MacDonald‘s Storytelling Techniques 178 Conclusion 217 Works Cited 235 Works Consulted 251 1 Introduction In his 1987 biography of George MacDonald, William Raeper wrote ―To say that George MacDonald is an unjustly neglected writer has become almost a cliché. Nevertheless it is surprising how slow critics have been to document his life and assess his works‖ (George MacDonald 11). In 1987, Raeper was absolutely correct. It was already a cliché to complain about academic neglect of MacDonald, and it was surprising how slowly critics were turning to him. Even more surprising, however, is that more than twenty years later, the situation really has not changed very much. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, MacDonald is still seen as a niche writer, seriously studied by a handful of critics and ignored by everyone else. His reputation as a writer of fantasy continues to grow, and his fantasy works—Phantastes (1858), At the Back of the North Wind (1871), The Princess and the Goblin (1872), The Wise Woman (1875), The Princess and Curdie (1882), Lilith (1896), and assorted shorter fairy tales—still continue to attract significant critical attention. However, as it is equally cliché to point out, fantasy is only one small part of MacDonald‘s oeuvre. In the Johannesen reprints of MacDonald‘s complete works,1 the fantasies comprise only six-and-a-half of the forty-four volume total.2 This is approximately 15% of MacDonald‘s work. The remaining 85% consists of poetry, sermons, literary criticism, and a large number of non-fantasy novels,3 which are divided between Scottish and English settings. Yet, the 15% of MacDonald‘s work generates the vast, vast majority of criticism. Despite repeated critical calls for a wider reassessment of MacDonald‘s work, the rest of 1 In current MacDonald scholarship, these are the most widely accepted versions to use. This is attested to by the Style Guide of North Wind: The Journal of the George MacDonald Society, which requests submission using these editions. 2 The Wise Woman: A Double Story (1875) shares a volume with The History of Gutta Percha Willie: The Working Genius (1873), which is generally classified as a non-fantasy work. 3 Traditionally, critics refer to these works as ―realist‖ or ―realistic.‖ However, as will be discussed more in subsequent chapters, many of these texts draw on traditions other than the realist, and calling them ―realist‖ has led to misclassification and misunderstanding. Nor can they simply be called ―the novels‖ because MacDonald‘s primary fantasies also qualify as novels. While it would be preferable to have a classification for these works that is not based in a negative (what they are not), no single term exists which satisfactorily accounts for the wide range of generic elements comprising MacDonald‘s work.