Fantasy in 20th Century Children’s Literature

Most critics agree that nipperrens books is a diverse paradoxical atomic number 18a of study combination different literary genres. Like the concept of babyishness, childrens publications is a brotherly and cultural concept that evolves over while. Since the fourteenth speed of light, childrens literature has gone by different literary items each defined by its proclaim divisions and genres. Many childrens novels, much(prenominal) as J. M. Barries slit and Wendy, and C. S. Lewiss The Lion, the transport, and the military press were published in the twentieth century and became classics. These books were mark with an increased diversity of literary genres such as mystery and fancy literature. vision literature has been a dominant literary genre in twentieth century childrens literature, particularly in Barries and Lewiss novels. In general, as a genre, phantasy literature integrates imaginative ele handsts that sacking a track from authoritativeity into a vica rious man.Fantasy literature in the twentieth century, namely in Barries barb and Wendy and Lewiss The Lion, the Witch and the Wadrobe serves to help children develop vast desire, and done visual sensation it allows children to under(a)stand and influencetle d receive real- beingness mixer issues. Doubtless, closely people would be able to name many a(prenominal) of the features of partiality literature. Richard Mathews in his book Fantasy The Liberation of Imagination describes delusion as a straightforward literary genre that may be best thought of as a fiction that elicits wonder through elements of the transmundane or impossible (Matthews 2).Fantasy literature assumes the thrust upence of superhuman elements inside the frame buy the outlying(prenominal)m of a plastered text. These supernatural elements croupe exist in many locations through show up the text they may be bury in, or leak into the apparent real world setting, the case of the son character Pe ter Pan and his female monarch Tinker Bell in Barries Peter and Wendy. Supernatural elements may excessively appear in a unessential world where characters are drawn into a world with such unreal elements. Narnia in Lewiss The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is an example of such setting.The fictional realm of Narnia contains various mythical creatures, and magical occurrences. Narnian inhabitants such as Tumnus and the purity Witch are themselves supernatural creatures with unusual traits often seen in European mythology and preceding British fairy tales. Fantasy literature push aside be categorized into ii main sub-genres high semblance, which consists of a distinct enti blaspheme fictional alternative world, and low fantasy, characterized by being set in the real or primary world with the inclusion of supernatural elements. In almost all cases, supernatural elements shift events a demeanor from reality.The inessential world operates according to its own rules and alte red laws of reality, different in many ways from those in the primary world. Fantasy and supernatural occurrences in the alternate world are depicted as being natural in spite of appearance its boundaries. This feature is important in keeping the secondary world internally consistent. To maintain this inner uniformity, fantasy in this modified world mustiness be realistic. Improbable fantastical events must appear probable inside the framework of rules and laws in the secondary world.As Aristotle puts it, you can have a text that is improbable with reality as long as it is consistent. As long as the improbable is consistent, then fantasy is realistic. verisimilar fantasy in the imaginative world is hence an essential obligatory for Fantasy literature. The secondary imaginative world and the fantastical events that contain at heart play an important role in shaping the way Fantasy literature elicits a child ratifier response. Perhaps one of the most recognized characteristics of Fantasy literature is its appeal to imaging.Fantasy stretches the imagination, enforces creative idea and encourages dreams. Through the aim of the supernatural elements in the secondary world, children travel on a journey fueled by imagination and inventive creation. The way Fantasy literature is received by children audience has a assume effect on the ideas and responses it elicits on them. The act of reading fantasy requires the use of the imagination. In this sense, a big deal of interplay between the writer and reviewer is present. Because the role of imagination is so important, children refs have much to contri thoe as they read fantasy.In general, the writer provides the setting, characters, plot and other elements, but the children readers hit their imagination to whatever the text allows. It is when children enter this secondary world, engaging with its characters and events that they make up part of the story. They feel a sense of pride when characters rise to broad(a) and a sense of disappointment when the characters fail. Their sense of self and identity is fully shared with the characters as they live the experiences of the fantasy story. Take Barries Neverland for example, a world without esponsibilities, filled with unlimited possibilities seemingly all wishes of children take true. Neverland is a space where restrictive parents are absent, school is unheard of, and playtime is only when interrupted by self-imagined meals (Barrie 113). At first glance, the rarified smudge to be as a child. Children readily associate with Neverland, this utopian world where everything is do possible stimulates their imagination. They imagine how seawaters are inhabited with mermaids, the endless fights with pirates, and the magic of fairy filling up woods (Barrie 116). Children create their own Neverland using their own imagination.An interesting point to note is that even the story characters themselves in Peter and Wendy imagined their own N everland. For Michael and John, Neverland was a dream, the extraordinary world they dreamed about when they were drowsy and the place where they desired to live in real life. Johns Neverland for instance, had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it at which John was shooting, time Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it (Barrie 74). Barries story itself reflects a prime example of uncorrupted imagination through the childs interactions with the text.Barrie carefully explains that the Neverlands are located inside the childrens minds, and although every Neverland is ever more or less an island, each one provide be uniquely individual. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis creates Narnia and supernatural Narnian creatures to provoke wonder and imagination in the minds of children. Narnia offers children a separate world where they escape to allowing them to paint their own images of this far secondary world. Lewis gain creates heroines, who are gifted in imagination and who readily accept Narnia, the fantasy world, as a valid reality. angiotensin converting enzyme of the heroines, Lucy, goes into an enormous wardrobe and suddenly finds herself in this imaginary number world, Narnia. Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well (Lewis 9). She later meets Mr. Tumnus, a Faun who asks her how she came to Narnia. Lucy, so puzzled, asks him Narnia? Whats that? (Lewis 11). Right from the start, Lewis engages children in this imaginative world. By showing Lucys vast imagination and acceptance of Narnia, children readers extend their imagination accordingly, and view this secondary world as a valid reality.The heroines explore the new worlds of Narnia without hesitation. In Lewiss book, the Pevensie siblings go through the Wardrobe to leave the primary world and enter into the secondary world, Narnia. The Wardrobe in the story functions as a portal between the two worlds. After reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, every child is left imagining the surge of wardrobes. This common and tangible object that most children had in their rooms during the time Lewis wrote his book opened a gateway of wonder, imagination and curiosity for the secondary world.It is very interesting how Lewis takes ordinary familiar ingredients and transforms it in a sure way which fascinates children and stretches their imagination. Imagination is very important in allowing the child answer real world issues. Fantasy literature, through the imagination elicited within its context plays a central role in promoting the idea of a capable wise child. Adults like to view children as innocent, unable to labour surround real life situations. Warner in Little Angels, Little Monsters refers to Kiplings unforgettable vivid Mowgli, and J. M Barries Peter Pan, the boy who would neer modernise. Both examples reveal the depth of adult investment in a utopian childhood image (Warner 134). Heywo od, in Some Themes in the ethnic History of Childhood, refers to the ideal innocent child incapable of solving real world problems, as part of the nineteenth and twentieth century British culture (Heywood 34). Certainly, many other authors of the twentieth century including Barrie and Lewis tried to give the image of the innocent powerless child, unable to comprehend universal situations.This ideal image of childhood is seen in Barries Peter Pan, as the boy who is suspended in a state of perpetual childhood, refusing to grow up (Cuthew 43). This eternal childhood is supported by Neverland, the secondary world where such attitude is cherished. Although this idea of innocent child is deeply coordinated in the works of Barrie and Lewis, but without doubt, fantasy in both of Barries and Lewiss texts serves to promote a whole different role of the child. The secondary world, Narnia, provides a setting where children deal with issues universal to humankind and ones specifically associa ted with childhood and adolescence.Both Lewiss and Barries child protagonists are organizationd with numerous epic challenges, journey and battles in the imaginary world. By using fantasy, and placing this battle in a secondary fantasy world, childrens actions and decisions are condition adult proportions and importance, whilst the safety remains in the known world to which they leave behind return. As Zipes states, by using fantasy, the child understands universal situations in a complex, adult-life manner (Zipes 178). Warner believes adults see it as their task to socialize children and teach them how to work on real life issues (Warner 139).In some cases even, children outsmart adults (Warner 137). Warner further mentions Novalis who stresses on the importance of fantasy literature in creating an intimate confederation between children and a wonderful, free-floating world of imagination (Warner 135). Novalis insists that the observable, active fantasy-life displayed by childr ens books gives children rise to power to a world of wisdom. For him, through myth and fairy tale, a child is seen as a good deal cleverer and wiser than an adult. Spielbergs children characters in E. T and Back to the Future fiction films are prime examples of such children. Twentieth century fantasy literature particular to childrens authors such as Barrie and Lewis, enforces imagination to deal with universal social issues. The fantasy world contained within Barries and Lewiss texts allows children to rely on an imaginary world that will offer them order and meaning. In both Peter and Wendy and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the child protagonists, Peter Pan and the Pevensie children are sent on a fantasy adventure and they encounter various challenges.Through their experiences, these child characters drive children to rely on their own imagination and creativity to solve problems around them. In bother novels, child protagonists are virtual role models for the child read er and so their actions and the way they deal with real life issues carry great relevance to the child reader. By allowing children make their own decisions, children are condition agency and added responsibility. Children learn to use their own imagination and gain sixth sense on how things should operate without adult rules hanging over their heads.In Barries book, the story character, Peter and Wendy go on a journey to Neverland, a world where restrictive parents are absent. Peter and Wendy face different challenges. Wendy mothers the unconnected Boys Peter has various encounters with Hook. In both cases, these two child figures are left without adult guidance. Despite the lack of parental rule, these children characters manage to face difficulties and apply their insight to solve problems that come across in Neverland. Lewiss The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe reflects another important example of childrens king to comprehend certain moral and social issues without adult gu idance.In Lewiss book, Edmund, the third oldest Pevensie child learns the importance of honesty and trust, and the severity of lying. When he is stipulation Turkish delight the first time, he directly falls under the White Witchs trap and agrees to bring back his siblings to her. all in all he wants is to shovel down as much Turkish hex as he could, and the more he ate the more he wanted to eat (Lewis 38). Upon Edmunds betrayal to his siblings, Lucy notices the change of Edmund, because Edmunds face is rosy-cheeked and strange (Lewis 42) and he looks awful (Lewis 44).This quotation indicates that a treacherous soulfulness has a different appearance. Without explicitly saying to the child, you should not lie, fantasy and fairy tales allow children to see the bonuses and consequences of virtues followed and disobeyed. Through fantasy, children are also allowed to come to their own consensus of the binaries of good and shame, right and wrong without having parents guide them thro ugh the good culture process. Fantasy gives children the freedom to create their own set of morality through stories, characters and imaginative places.Take Lewiss treatment of the concepts of good and nefariousness in Narnia. The Pevensie children are set on an adventure taking them into the fantasy world that is equipped with ideal tools for exploring good and bad. In this fantasy world, the children protagonists are offered many chances to use their own judgment in differentiating right from wrong. Lewis uses this secondary world to allow children see extremes of good and evil. On one hand, Lewis shows the White Witch, the evil queen of Narnia. She seems to abuse her evil powers and carries a wand that can turn creatures into stones.On the other hand, Lewis shows Aslan, the king and God of Narnia. Aslan is a alarming lion who sacrifices his life so that the Witch will spare Edmund. not only does Lewis place his setting in a fantasy world, but he also takes advantage of fant astic creatures to stimulate the child readers sense of dread and imagination. These extreme Narnian characters offer two opposition extreme measures of good and evil for which children can compare to. By facial expression at real world issues, the child is able to deal with situations of good and evil the same way they were played out in the imaginary world.The child is better able to understand his or her position in the world in relation to those around. Allowing the child to judge the good and evil can arguably be seen as means of socialization, a way of opening the childs eyes to their surrounding society. Through eliciting imagination in children, twentieth century Fantasy literature has also highlighted social values of its period. Even in fantasy when authors write adventures taking place in a secondary world, it is quite difficult to escape certain institutions and values which make our society function.Twentieth century Fantasy literature carried many adult social message s to children. As Henry Jenkins mentions in entering Childhood Innocence and Other Modern Myths, childrens social learning is shaped both by adult desires and childhood fantasies (Jenkins 25). Warner further adds on the topic by saying that in society there is a deep involvement of adults in shaping children. As members of a running(a) society, how we treat children really tests who were are and fundamentally conveys who we hope to be (Warner, 137). British writers made comments on society and British life through childrens fantasy books.For example, Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe mentions the castor family in Narnia. The Beaver family can be seen to function on the stereotypical model of a twentieth century British family. In one example, Mr. Beaver rushes out in the cold with Peter to provide food for the family, meanwhile the girls were constituent Mrs Beaver to fill the kettle and cut the bread (Lewis 69). It can be argued that through Narnia, Lewis reflects t he British life in the twentieth century where men spend long hours working away form home whereas mothers protection the home from the corruptions of the outside world (Jenkins, 7).It is now agreed that twentieth century Fantasy literature is vital in the childs learning of imagination. Although childrens minds are less developed than adults, their ability to imagine is far greater. Fantasy stories not only allow children to imagine other worlds, they let children create those worlds. Barrie and Lewis wrote for children in a sense that they used simpler language and fantastical settings. These authors tried to fully engage children readers with texts.But, not for a moment did they lower the childs ability to comprehend greater universal and social problems such as the arguments between siblings, the struggle to fight temptation and make the right decision, the importance of imagination in providing children with self-guidance and the ability of evaluating good and evil in societ y. Twentieth century British authors such as Barrie and Lewis also used Fantasy literature to comment on social issues of that period and reflect certain values of society. In twentieth century childrens literature, fantasy is not used to deceive but to enlighten.