The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education IMAGINING A DIFFERENT WORLD: TRANSFORMING AND RE-VISIONING IN CHILDREN’S FANTASY NOVELS A Thesis in Curriculum and Instruction by Hsin-Chun Jamie Tsai © 2004 Hsin-Chun Jamie Tsai Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2004 The thesis of Hsin-Chun Jamie Tsai was reviewed and approved* by the following: Daniel D. Hade Associate Professor of Education Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto Assistant Professor of Education Steven Herb Head of Education and Behavioral Sciences Library Reiko Tachibana Associate Professor of Literature Patrick Shannon Professor of Education Coordinator of Graduate Programs in Curriculum and Instruction *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This study explored the function of fantasy literature and importance of stories. Fantasy was viewed as a means of bridging the visible and the invisible, while narrative as a means of making sense of lives. Reading fantasy through the lens of sociological imagination was considered as a social project which provided readers a way of inquiring social reality. Stepping in and out the separated world in fantasy novels, readers were invited to connect ourselves as subjects and characters with the society as settings in both the created and our own stories. We are offered opportunities to imagine beyond our limitations and discover possibilities for re-reading, re-telling, and re-interpreting our personal narrative. The study examined two novels by Lois Lowry, The Giver and Gathering Blue, to reveal how this method of reading helps readers to activate our sociological imagination. It also analyzed two other novels from Earthsea series by Ursula Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan and Tehanu; through reflecting on my life story along with the analysis, it was demonstrated that how we as readers can take a further step to operate our capacity for sociological imagination to re-interpret our personal narrative. The finding of this study indicates that by experiencing the unfamiliar provided by fantasy literature through the lens of sociological imagination, readers could discover things we did not expect to uncover. This research transformed from a metaphor of journey as a beginning standpoint to one of weaving and composing. As a result, it leads me, as the researcher of this iv study, to recommend that this method of reading provides readers, both children and adults, with a good approach to extend our world of wonder. I would also invite educators to show this rich ground of metaphors offered by fantasy novels to guide children to imagine more possibilities for their own personal reality. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................................................vii Chapter 1 Stories in Lives .............................................................................1 Begin from Adventures.............................................................................2 Fantasy as a Critique to Reality ...............................................................4 Statement of the Problem: A Social Project .............................................7 Not just Hero Tales............................................................................8 Creation of Meaning ..........................................................................10 Transformation and Revision.............................................................12 Significance of the Project: Different Voices ............................................13 Definition ..................................................................................................14 Research Questions.................................................................................15 A Brief Example .......................................................................................16 Overview of Remaining Chapters.............................................................17 Chapter 2 Fantasy as a Means of Bridging the Visible and the Invisible, Narrative as a Means of Making Sense of Lives ......................................20 Power of Imagination: Research on Fantasy Literature ...........................22 Taking Fantasy Seriously ..................................................................22 The Rich Ground for Metaphor in the Separated World.....................26 Importance of Stories: Personal Narrative and Imagination .....................32 To Begin the Story: Personal Narrative .............................................33 To Communicate: Stories Becoming Meaningful...............................38 Conflict: Who Is the Narrator? ...........................................................43 Shaping Lives and Retelling: Imagination..........................................51 Chapter 3 Fantasists as Sociologists.............................................................55 Transformation: Sociological Imagination as Reading Lens.....................56 Cultural Production and Personal Troubles .......................................58 Imagining beyond Limits and Transforming .......................................64 Reading Fantasy as a Social Project.................................................66 Revision: Feminism as Reading Lens ......................................................71 The Researcher’s Voice ....................................................................73 Feminism as a Critique of Sociological Theories ...............................74 Revision Personal Narrative in Reading Fantasy ..............................77 Turning.....................................................................................................80 Chapter 4 Lens of Sociological Imagination: The Giver and Gathering Blue..........................................................................................................81 vi Summary of the Two Novels ....................................................................82 The Giver...........................................................................................82 Gathering Blue...................................................................................83 Reading through the Lens of Sociological Imagination ............................85 How and What Knowledge Is Gained? ..............................................85 What Is to Be Seen?..........................................................................89 What Has Empowered the Social Structure?.....................................94 Employing the Sociological Imagination ............................................97 Becoming an Amateur Sociologist.....................................................100 Turning.....................................................................................................101 Chapter 5 Lens of Feminism: The Tombs of Atuan and Tehanu and Revision a Personal Narrative..................................................................102 Voices in Three Columns .........................................................................103 Coming Out of the Labyrinth: The Tombs of Atuan, the Two Stories .......105 Part One: The Eaten One ..................................................................105 Part Two: The Light ...........................................................................115 Part Three: The True Name...............................................................132 The Stories Never End ......................................................................151 Transition .................................................................................................153 Composing the Heart of the Swan: Tehanu, the Two Stories Continued ..........................................................................................155 Thread One: Listening to the Silence.................................................155 Thread Two: Being Powerless...........................................................170 Thread Three: Making from the Unmaking ........................................205 Turning.....................................................................................................222 Chapter 6 Imagining a Different World: Educational Implication and Conclusion ...............................................................................................223 Ways of Looking.......................................................................................224 Exploring the Two Research Questions.............................................224 Connecting Stories with Life ..............................................................226 Transforming Research .....................................................................228 Possibilities: Harry Potter series and Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials......................................................................................230 Conclusion ...............................................................................................233 From a Journey to a Composition......................................................233 Extending Children’s World of Wonder ..............................................235 Bibliography....................................................................................................237 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has been quite an experience conducting this project. I have been extremely fortunate in receiving very special and generous support, academically, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally