FANTASY, MORALITY AND IDEOLOGY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF C. S. LEWIS' THE CHRONICLES OFNARNIA AND PHILIP PULLMAN'S HIS DARK MATERIALS by LUCY MARIE CUTHEW A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of Master of Philosophy University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis begins with an introduction to children's literature, looking at its history in order to contextualise the texts under examination, and the specific arguments surrounding the study of children's books. It then looks closely at the complicated issue of ideology, specifically with regards to children's literature as a concept at the centre of any discussion of books for children. The discussion then investigates the nature of fantasy writing and the ways in which alternative worlds are used in The Chronicles of Narnia and His Dark Materials. C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman use alternative world to very different ends, one to escape the present world and the other to deal with issues which concern the contemporary world. However regardless of Lewis' attempts to escape the present, his books still reflect his attitudes towards contemporaneity and in this sense are not escapist. It then looks at the morality expressed in each of their works and the various expectations and responsibilities of children's authors. Lastly it looks at four key areas of Lewis' ideology which Pullman addresses and challenges in the His Dark Materials trilogy. Conclusions about the message conveyed in each authors' work follow. I dedicate this, and always intended to dedicate this, to a person who said: 'Dedication's are a bit naff, I mean you don't buy a top and see in the label all the names of all the people who helped to make it possible...' ... You have no idea how impossible this would have been without you, but I shan't write your name. With many thanks to my supervisor Murray Knowles who encouraged me to undertake this research and whose advice and help throughout have been invaluable. Finally, thanks to my parents, family and many friends who have so kindly talked about this subject on countless occasions with interest, enthusiasm and encouragement; two of whom in particular cannot go unmentioned: Natalie Gardner and Rosalind Watts. Lastly I owe many thanks to Thomas Walker for his support, patience and proof-reading skills. Contents Chapter One 1 Introduction to Authors Chapter Two 4 History of Children's Literature Chapter Three 11 Children's Literature: An Introduction Chapter Four 22 Ideology: The Power of Children's Literature Chapter Five 29 Fantasy Literature Chapter Six 43 Fantasy: A Method of Approaching the Contemporary World? Chapter Seven 64 Morality: Enemies, Choice and Violence Chapter Eight 80 Purpose: His Dark Materials as a Response to Narnia Chapter Nine Conclusion: A More Positive Message? 94 Suggestions for Further Study 102 Bibliography 104 A Note on Abbreviations This thesis is concerned with the primary texts which constitute C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles ofNarnia and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Throughout the thesis references are shown in author, date, page number format, however where quotations are taken from the primary texts the title of the texts are abbreviated for ease of reading. The editions of The Chronicles ofNarnia which have been used were all published in the same year making the standard author/date format confusing. The Chronicles ofNarnia consist of the following seven books, in chronological reading order, and have been abbreviated thus: The Magician's Nephew (1955) MN The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) LWW The Horse and His Boy ( 1954) HHB Prince Caspian (1951) PC The Voyage of the Dawntreader (1955) VDT The Silver Chair (1953) SC The Last Battle (1956) LB His Dark Materials consists of the following three books and have been abbreviated thus: The Northern Lights (US - The Golden Compass) (1995) NL The Subtle Knife (1998) SK The Amber Spyglass (2000) AS Where either term 'The Chronicles ofNarnia' or 'His Dark Materials' is used, the whole collection of above-named works is being referred to. Chapter One Introduction to Authors C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman are both controversial figures in the modern literary world. The children's literature of both men has been fiercely debated from both sides of the Atlantic. Since the publication of the first book of His Dark Materials in 1995, media and audience responses have been divided. These responses have been extreme and almost unreasonable: searching the web for Philip Pullman's books turns up astounding numbers of sites both praising and damning his fiction. His Dark Materials are largely either viewed as immoral, loathsome, irreligious, irresponsible propaganda; or praised as the flawless perfection of a 21 st century visionary. His Dark Materials was only fully published six years ago and there is still little in the way of literary criticism on his books. There are many book reviews and, since the stage production, many theatre reviews which are helpful, however a student of Pullman's work will, at present, be limited to a small number of critical approaches which deal with His Dark Materials. There are a few lengthy works which take a literary approach to Pullman's work but Children's Literature in Education has published several excellent articles taking a critical approach to his children's literature. Nick Tucker's Darkness Visible: Inside the World ofPhillip Pullman (2003) deals solely with Pullman, though not from a critical perspective, providing helpful background information. However there is an ever increasing body of work approaching Pullman's literature. Millicent Lenz with Carol Scott edited an excellent collection of essays on Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials Illuminated (2005), comprising of fourteen essays taking various approaches to Pullman's trilogy. In the same way that His Dark Materials has divided audiences, provoking extreme responses, Lewis' children's Narnia books also tend to divide audiences, in particular because of their religious message. Chad Walsh (1979) defends any criticism of Lewis by ignoring the flaws of his writing and instead focusing on the Christian message in them. David Holbrook, on the other hand, has famously criticised The Chronicles of Narnia for their violence, racism, sexism and classism. Both Pullman and Lewis concern themselves with religion in their works of fiction and it is possibly this dynamic which has given rise to these unreasonable responses. Peter Hunt notes that defences of Holbrook's criticism on Lewis have been unconstructive and irrational: As might be expected, there has been a good deal of heated reaction to this attack - but it seems to be based largely upon the naive religious premise that to speak against Lewis is to speak against religion and the imagination. (Hunt, 1994, 36) Where religion is concerned in any capacity, there is generally passionate and divided opinion and the effect that this has had on responses to both of their works is unfortunate: Lewis and Pullman have been compared too often as a Christian and as an atheist. Lewis, Narnia, it has been assumed by many Christian readers, is a good piece of moral writing for children, given Lewis' status as a Christian writer. In turn the works of an atheist writer, it has been assumed by some extremists, can have no moral value. There are plenty of web sites and news articles claiming that Pullman's work is immoral, and in Christian journal World, Cheany compares Lewis and Pullman saying that in contrast to Lewis, Pullman has 'no moral criteria', (Cheany, 2001). Such unfounded opinions are not helpful on either side of the argument and do not reveal the depths of each of these authors children's literature. It must be acknowledged here that despite recent criticism tending to condemn Lewis' children's books, they are persistently popular amongst children; so much so that The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has recently been made into a successful film by Disney/Walden Media, (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2005). The first book of The Chronicles of Narnia was published in 1950 and as a collection they have never been out of print. 'Children have, it seems, found them consistently bright.' (Hunt, 1994, 135) This is difficult because any adult who reads The Chronicles of Narnia cannot deny that the messages conveyed in them are cause for concern. The question of whether a child reader perceives the often racist or sexist tendencies of the texts must remain unknown, but there are deeper and more worrying assumptions in the text than those of class, race and gender which will be discussed here in detail. The next chapter will look at the history of children's literature in order to situate Lewis and Pullman in the literary tradition to which they most accurately, though not exclusively, belong. Chapter three will then look at the criticism of children's literature and the particular difficulties and specialities which concern this literature for a young readership. A closer look at the complex issue of ideology will then be taken in chapter four as an important concept in this thesis and in a discussion of children's literature.