Critical Perspectives on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

Steven Barfield is joint editor of Critical Engagements, the journal of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies, and a member of the editorial board for the on-line journal, Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London. Katharine Cox is a Professor in English at Bournemouth University where she is head of the Department of Humanities and Law.

“Certainly one of the most comprehensive collections of essays on my work…I’m most grateful.”—Philip Pullman; “Adds to the discussion with pieces like Cox’s essay on cultural aspects of dust and Dust, Jobling’s humble suggestions of unintentional Buddhist leanings, and Baker’s account of Apocryphal influence on the narrative. This reviewer greatly enjoyed seeing discussions of physical staging in the book’s final section.”—Mythlore; “Uniquely valuable contribution…adds something entirely new to the appreciation of dramatizing Pullman’s work…gives a British perspective on a contemporary masterpiece of British literature.”—Children’s Literature Association Quarterly

• Table of ContentsIntroductionKATHARINE COX      I. ADVERSARIES AND INFLUENCES1. Recasting John Milton’s Paradise Lost: Intertextuality, Storytelling and MusicRACHEL FALCONER      2. “When I Grow Up I Want to Be…”: Conceptualization of the Hero Within the Works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Philip PullmanPHIL CARDEW      3. Constructions of the Child, Authority and Authorship: The Reception of C.S Lewis and Philip PullmanELISABETH ELDRIDGE      4. “Dark Materials to Create More Worlds”: Considering His Dark Materialsas Science FictionSTEVEN BARFIELD      II. TRADITIONS AND LEGACIES5. Revitalizing the Old Machines of a Neo-Victorian London: Reading the Cultural Transformations of Steampunk and VictorianaSTEVEN BARFIELD and MARTYN COLEBROOK      6. Revisiting the Colonial: Victorian Orphans and Postcolonial PerspectivesLAURA PETERS      7. Exploring and Challenging the Lapsarian World of Young Adult Literature: Femininity, Shame, the Gyptians, andSocial ClassNICOLA ALLEN      8. “Imagine Dust with a Capital Letter”: Interpreting the Social and Cultural Contexts for Philip Pullman’s Transformation of DustKATHARINE COX      III. RELIGION, SEXUALITY AND GENDER9. The Man Who Walked with God: Phillip Pullman’s Metatron, the Biblical Enoch, and the ApocryphaJOHN HAYDN BAKER      10. The Republic of Heaven: East, West and Eclecticism in Pullman’s Religious VisionJ’ANNINE JOBLING      11. “Walking into Mortal Sin”: Lyra, the Fall, and SexualityTOMMY HALSDORF      12. Becoming Human: Desire and the Gendered SubjectSARAH GAMBLE      13. After the Fall: Queer HeterotopiasSALLY R. MUNT      IV. DRAMATIZING HIS DARK MATERIALS14. Staging the Impossible: Severance and Separation in the National Theatre’s AdaptationPATRICK DUGGAN      15. Staging and Performing His Dark Materials: From the National Theatre Productions to Subsequent ProductionsKARIAN SCHUITEMA      Bibliography      About the Contributors      Index