Death and Fantasy

William Gray, Professor of Literary History and Hermeneutics at the University of Chichester, UK. He studied literature, philosophy and theology at the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Princeton, and has published widely in these areas. His publications include Fantasy, Myth and the Measure of Truth: Tales of Pullman, Lewis, Tolkien, MacDonald and Hoffmann (Palgrave,2008), Robert Louis Stevenson (Palgrave, 2004), and C.S. Lewis (Northcote, 1998).

“Death and Fantasy is a concise and welcome gathering of work by William Gray on notable authors of fantasy: Philip Pullman, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and Robert Louis Stevenson. In nine astute and insightful chapters the volume analyses texts ranging from Macdonald’s Phantastes to Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and from Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Examining the ways in which death is both dealt with and used in these fantasies, Gray reveals fascinating interconnections between their authors.”Dr Adrienne Gavin, Reader in English Literature, Canterbury Christ Church University“This book makes a scholarly and very readable contribution to matters of current critical debate in the area of children’s fantasy. It displays how much children’s literature criticism has to gain from scholars who bring to it a background of knowledge of other disciplines. Supported throughout by useful close reading, Gray’s arguments are well-maintained and display knowledge of a very wide range of psychoanalytic, philosophical and theological sources, all brought to bear in a relevant and convincing manner. Perhaps the most interesting sections are those where Gray displays the affinities between George MacDonald and Philip Pullman. The suggestion that Pullman’s creative achievement depends on a misreading of C.S.Lewis, just as Lewis’s did on a misreading of MacDonald, is a particularly fertile area for further critical investigation. The book has much to offer to scholars and students alike.”Dr Pat Pinsent, Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Children’s Literature, Roehampton University"...this is a valuable book for scholars interested in the relationship of one generation of fantasy writers with the next. ...this study is wonderfully fluent in style, and the comparative theology is magnificent"Stacie L. Hanes, Journal of the Fantastic Arts, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2010"Reflecting a multi-layered and sophisticated reading of these masters of fantasy, Gray draws on psychoanalysis, spirituality, and philosophy to support his arguments. Furthermore, he produces a work richly layered with references to other important scholars and theorists.Gray's collection od essays offers a refreshing, fascinating perspective on important writers of children's fantasy in terms of their dialogue on death and spirituality. Much has been written about Lewis and Pullman, for example, but Gray provides a different perspective on how they engage with the concept of death. Additionally, framing the authors in relationship with one another activates an even more interesting exploration of these timeless classics of children's literature."Catherine Posey, The Pennsylvania State University in IRSCL, December 2010