Lewis & Clark Library Newsletter October 2016
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From Master to Brother: Shifting the Balance of Authority in Ursula K. Le Guin's Farthest Shore and Tehanu
From Master to Brother: Shifting the Balance of Authority in Ursula K. Le Guin's Farthest Shore and Tehanu Len Hatfield Children's Literature, Volume 21, 1993 , pp. 43-65 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/chl.0.0516 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/chl/summary/v021/21.hatfield.html Access provided by Virginia Polytechnic Inst. __ACCESS_STATEMENT__ St.University __ACCESS_STATEMENT__ (Viva) (7 Feb 2014 09:28 GMT) From Master to Brother: Shifting the Balance of Authority in Ursula K. Le Guin's Farthest Shore and Tehanu Len Hatfield In literature as in "real life," women, children, and animals are the obscure matter upon which Civilization erects itself, phallologically. That they are Other is (vide Lacan et al.) the foundation of language, the Father Tongue. By climbing up into his head and shutting out every voice but his own, "Civilized Man" has gone deaf. He can't hear the wolf calling him brother—not Master, but brother. He can't hear the earth calling him child—not Father, but son. He hears only his own words making up the world. He can't hear the animals, they have nothing to say. Children babble, and have to be taught how to climb up into their heads and shut the doors of perception. No use teaching woman at all, they talk all the time, of course, but never say anything. This is the myth of Civilization, embodied in monotheisms which assign soul to Man alone. [Le Guin, Buffalo Gab 9-10] In recent years Ursula K. -
Gender Politics in Earthsea
Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses : Honours Theses 2004 Visions must be re-visioned : Gender politics in Earthsea Audrey Barton Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons Part of the Fiction Commons, and the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons Recommended Citation Barton, A. (2004). Visions must be re-visioned : Gender politics in Earthsea. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ theses_hons/1001 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/1001 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. -
Science Fiction Book Club Interview with Author Julie Phillips June 2019 Julie Phillips Is an American Biographer and Book Criti
Science Fiction Book Club Interview with author Julie Phillips June 2019 Julie Phillips is an American biographer and book critic living in Amsterdam. She is currently working on a book on writing and mothering, “The Baby on the Fire Escape”, as welI as a biography of Ursula K. Le Guin. She is the author of “James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon,” which received several honors including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Hugo and Locus Awards, and the Washington State Book Award. Martin Dudley: Any update on the Tiptree Le Guin Russ letters collection mentioned last year? No, sorry. My co-editor and I are being slow. Martin Dudley: I read "On the Last Afternoon" yesterday (Tiptree/Sheldon) and it is littered with phrases that look like quotations (e.g. O rich and sounding voices of the air—I come! I come!—), but I could only track one down as being a line by Jeffers, the poet. Was this a deliberate choice - to create phrases that seem to come from literature, but are not actually. Or am I mistaken and they are quite obscure actual quotations? Probably actual quotations. Try playing around with an internet search. The “rich and sounding voices” is from Lionel Johnson’s “Mystic and Cavalier,” a depressing poem that made a big impression on Alli when she first read it. https://www.bartleby.com/103/54.html She knew it because it was in the Untermeyer overview of British and American poetry that she took with her to boot camp. When I was working on the book I had a midcentury Untermeyer that had belonged to my great-aunt. -
Full Screen View
THE QUEST FOR SELFHOOD IN URSULA LE GUIN'S WIZARD OF EARTHSEA AND THE FARTHEST SHORE by Jerry K. Durbeej A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida December 2000 THE QUEST FOR SELFHOOD IN URSULA LE GUIN'S THE WIZARD OF EARTHSEA AND THE FARTHEST SHORE By Jerry K. Durbeej This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Robert Collins, Department ofEnglish. It was submitted to the faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMJTTEE: ~£i c.r02~ Chairman, Thesis Advisor /ff/IUZ~ Chairperson, Department ofEnglish Vice Provost Date ii ABSTRACT Author: Jerry K. Durbeej Title: The Quest for Selfhood in Ursula Le Guin's The Wizard ofEarthsea and The Farthest Shore Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Robert Collins Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2000 In A Wizard ofEarthsea and The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. Le Guin presents the theme of selfhood, of maturity, and of identity through the character heroes of Ged and Arren. Ofthese two, Ged experiences the quest for selfhood on two levels: first, from boy to manhood, and then from manhood to the awareness of death. Both novels deal with the struggle to create, which is primarily a struggle with self, with one's own powers, and with the need to control these powers and their consequences. -
The Search for Self in Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea
===================================================================== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 19:5 May 2019 India’s Higher Education Authority UGC Approved List of Journals Serial Number 49042 ==================================================================== The Search for Self in Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea P. Rini Melina Dr. C. Shanmugasundaram Ph. D Research Scholar Research supervisor Department of English Assistant Professor Annamalai University Department of English Annamalai Nagar 608 002 Annamalai University [email protected] Annamalai Nagar 608 002 [email protected] Abstract Ursula K. Le Guin was an American author. she was best known for her works of speculative fiction, including the science fiction works sets in the Hainish Universe and the fantasy series of Earth Sea. She began writing full time in the 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with A Wizard of Earth Sea (1968). For the latter volume Le Guin won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, becoming the first woman to do so. This research paper deals with the self-identity in the maturation of fantasy super-hero Ged, or sparrow hawk, the title character. Over the course of the novel, he learns the true meaning of Wizardry its limits as well as its capabilities. One of the main attractions of the novel, in addition to Ged himself, the fantasy and the adventure, is Le Guin’s skill at showing the friendships that make Ged’s success and mistakes seem so important. Keywords: Ursula K. Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea, Self-Identity, Imaginative, Trickster, Wizard, Magic, Witch In the Wizard of Earthsea, Ged's voyage to selfhood is chiefly a battle to find and name the strange shade which persistently pursues him. -
The Other Ursula Le Guin History and Time in the Orsinian Tales
The Other Ursula Le Guin History and Time in the Orsinian Tales Anastasia Pease Senior Lecturer in English Union College rsula Kroeber le guin, who died in January at the age of 88, was a prolific American writer, winner of Hugo and Nebula awards, and was named the first female UScience Fiction Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2003. She was at the forefront of the gradual recognition of science fiction and fantasy as serious literature, worthy of careful study and scrupulous critical attention. Le Guin was the first writer to send a boy wizard to school in 1 Le Guin has addressed this issue in an essay called “Despising her deeply imaginative Earthsea series, published decades before Harry Genres,” which may be found as a Potter. And her many other works, such as The Left Hand of Darkness free e-book extra in HarperCollins and The Dispossessed, are now classics of speculative fiction. Populated PerfectBound version of The Birthday of the World. by unforgettable characters and set on alien planets, they help readers explore our own world—its gender dynamics, social psychology, and even economics. As a result, these books have increasingly been studied, written about, taught at the college level, and examined critically. Yet one part of her body of work, the so-called mainstream stories, set in an imaginary country called Orsinia, have received relatively little critical attention. Part of the reason is that these early 2 This is a term from Le Guin’s creations are eclipsed by her later, more famous, works. -
The Underground and the Labyrinth in Ursula K. Le Guin's
L L L Page 1 of 8 Original Research LLL i t e r a t o r Womanspace: The underground and the labyrinth in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea narratives Authors: Ursula K. Le Guin’s renowned Earthsea cycle, spanning 20 years and five texts, is often 1 Lynette Douglas acknowledged to be a textual space for the creative exploration and interrogation of gender. Deirdre Byrne1 The two spaces in the title – ‘earth’ and ‘sea’ – are held in equilibrium, both by the author’s Affiliations: craft and by magic. Unfortunately, though, few critics have explored how these spaces 1Department of English function in the narrative. In this article, we explore the representation of underground Studies, University of South spaces and labyrinths as meaningful landscapes in the Earthsea cycle. These spaces are found Africa, South Africa throughout Le Guin’s Earthsea fiction, but are foregrounded in four narratives: ‘The finder’ Correspondence to: and ‘The bones of the earth’ (Tales from Earthsea), The tombs of Atuan and The other wind. Le Lynette Douglas Guin’s writing consistently identifies the earth as feminine, in keeping with the archetype of ‘Mother Earth’, and we find that subterranean spaces and labyrinths are depicted as sites Email: [email protected] of power and empowerment for women. Nevertheless, we argue that Le Guin’s affinity for gender equity and balance prevents these tropes from becoming another tired revisioning of Postal address: an easy equation of earthy forces and ‘the feminine’. Rather, for Le Guin, the underground PO Box 392, Tshwane 0003, and the labyrinth are sites of union between masculine and feminine elements and characters, South Africa through the empowerment of the feminine. -
UNI 24.1 Cadden
Speaking to Both Children and Genre: Le Guin’s Ethics of Audience Cadden, Michael. The Lion and the Unicorn, Volume 24, Number 1, January 2000, pp. 128-142 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/uni/summary/v024/24.1cadden.html Access Provided by Washington University @ St. Louis at 01/23/12 6:14PM GMT 128 Mike Cadden Speaking to Both Children and Genre: Le Guin’s Ethics of Audience Mike Cadden There are precisely as many genres as we need, genres whose conceptual shape is precisely determined by that need. (Adena Rosmarin) Writers who claim that they write only for themselves deny that the influence of either genre or a readership guides the writing. These writers argue by implication that they neither communicate with readers nor observe generic traditions; they simply write to themselves. They are self- proclaimed literary isolationists. Jill Paton Walsh (“The Writers in the Writer” 4), Katherine Paterson (47, 50), P. L. Travers (63), Mollie Hunter (12), and Michael Steig (Bottner 4) all directly point to themselves as at least partial audience in their commentaries on writing for children, but they don’t go so far as to claim that they don’t write for children. Arthur Ransome made “the reiterated denial that he wrote for children” (Wall 30), but he ultimately “made a distinction between writing for children and writing to children” (30), claiming the latter occupation for himself. Peter Hollindale believes that Ransome is less interested in child readers than he is childhood (“Signs” 31), which Hollindale considers a feature of the genre of children’s literature. -
A Taoist Study of Magic in the Earthsea Cycle
religions Article A Taoist Study of Magic in The Earthsea Cycle Yini Huang and Hongbin Dai * College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula. K. Le Guin is a fantasy work in Western literature that shines with ostentatiously idiosyncratic sparks of Taoist philosophies. Resorting to Taoism (also translated as Daoism) and its representative work Tao Te Ching, this article aims at exploring the Earthsea magic, a ubiquitous motif in fantasy, with Taoist thoughts and theories including the law of relativity, harmonious dialectics, and equilibrium. This article reconstructs the magical Earthsea world within a Taoist framework and reveals the Taoist connotations of magic. Finally, this article concludes that, radically distinct from its traditional image, magic in Earthsea serves to heal the physical, mental, and spiritual wound of separation; set up harmony of the opposites in binaries; and preserve the delicate equilibrium insusceptible to the ravages of time. Magic in The Earthsea Cycle works miracles in a Taoist manner. Keywords: The Earthsea Cycle; Taoism; Ursula K. Le Guin; magic; harmonious dialectics 1. Introduction Deriving “from the Greek term magoi” but remaining as a fluid construct (Gilbert et al. 2016), magic and magical practices, which permeated the worldly life of men dating back Citation: Huang, Yini, and Hongbin to ancient Greece and Rome, readily accessible to be “employed for the most mundane Dai. 2021. A Taoist Study of Magic in ends” (Bailey 2007, p. 10), have seemingly been the subjects of the perpetual infatuation of The Earthsea Cycle. -
New Writing on the Works of Ursula K. Le Guin
PARADOXA, NO. 21, 2008 Boldly to Re-Venture: New Writing on the Works of Ursula K. Le Guin Sylvia A. Kelso James Cook University, Townsville, North Queensland, Australia Introducing a critical volume on Ursula K. Le Guin in 2008 is a task that, to outrageously misappropriate a famous Australian poem, well might make the boldest hold “his” breath. Given the current accumulation of journal articles, essay collections, and full-length books on Le Guin’s work, bold indeed must be the soul who dares assume the usual omniscient, omnipotent editorial voice, implying that he or she has not only read all the original texts, but all the secondary work, and now knows better enough to pontificate upon it all. It hardly seems necessary to supply the obligatory career sketch with an author like Le Guin: especially since said author is currently garnering starred reviews for Lavinia, a return to the historical novel, last seen from her with Malafrena (1979), which, we usually assume, grew out of the Orsinian tales composed in her oldest imagined country of all. Nevertheless, between There and Here intervenes a writing span of more than half a century, if we include those early unpublished inventions, not only studded with notable works, but in my view, growing stronger as it goes. The nearest parallel I can find is W. B. Yeats, whose fruitful span is also astonishing, and whose work “improves,” from the melopoeia of the “Celtic Twilight” and classics like “The Sally Gardens,” to the bareboned landmarks of final poems like “Under Ben Bulben.” Nor is it difficult to apply to Le Guin, as is so often done with Yeats, the adjective “great.” It’s personally heartening to me, a late starter in publication, that over ten years of that writing span lie before Cele Goldsmith published “April in Paris” in 1962. -
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin Calendar of Events September & October 2016 Help us launch this year’s Big Read with a Fantastic Kickoff! NEA Big Read Kickoff with Big Brothers & Big Sisters Thursday, September 1 from 5:30-7:30 PM Lobby and Large Meeting Room, Lewis & Clark Library Helena Branch Join the Library and Big Brothers Big Sisters in launching NEA Big Read this year! With a light dinner, make-a-map, and games we’ll celebrate the theme of awesome mentors both in A Wizard of Earthsea and in real life. Donations of board games are encouraged. 1 All of September and October: Big Read Bingo with great prizes, make n’ take crafts, make BIG READ posters, bookmark making & exhibit PLUS: Helena Knitting Group Wednesdays from 1-3 PM September 7-October 26 Small Meeting Room, Lewis & Clark Library Helena Branch Join in for conversation and weave your own fiber arts spells! Patterns for crochet and knit fantasy-based ideas will be available. Bring your own supplies and experience is needed. Bonus Round at Tuesday Trivia at Miller’s Crossing Every Tuesday in October from 7:30-9:30 PM Miller’s Crossing Bar & Grill Test your knowledge about "A Wizard of Earthsea" at Trivia at Miller's. Books provided in September, the rounds start in October at Miller’s. Game Night Tuesdays (except September 13) from 6-8 PM Large Meeting Room, Lewis & Clark Library Helena Branch Play fantasy card games, learn about Dungeons & Dragons, enjoy classic board and card games with friends and family. -
The Interview
The Interview Ursula K. Le Guin is a titan among science fiction and fantasy writers, and one of the few to be equally comfortable with, and adept at, both genres – as evinced by her Earthsea (fantasy) and Hainish (SF) series. Her books are, without exception, evocative, powerful studies of the human condition, every word displaying her deep understanding of what makes mankind tick. She’s one of our favourites, okay? By Guy Haley URSULA K. LE GUIN here are authors who entertain without enlightening, there are authors who enlighten without entertaining, and there T are authors who do both. Twisting these two goals of literature into perfect lines of prose is not easy, but then most of us are not Ursula K. Le Guin. Her remarkable attention to detail makes the places described in her books live and breathe in a way that few other authors can manage. Furthermore, her characters are amongst the most believable in the genre. She has a URSULA fundamental understanding of the human soul that allows K. LE GUIN her creations to almost walk from the page. Her portrayal FACT FILE of the differences between men and women is unsurpassed, Born: 1929, Berkeley, California to the extent that A Wizard of Earthsea is one of the best Where is she to be found? coming-of-age tales for men ever written. Her writing is She has lived in rainy old Portland, Oregon for almost 50 years. often placed in the box marked ‘feminist’, but her works are What does she write? Her work tends towards examinations of the human egalitarian, not angry polemics, and tend to see the good condition, through the redemption and bad in both sexes.