Primary Texts
Note: These are ordered by author then by year of publication rather than by title to show the order of the series.
McKinley, Robin. The Blue Sword. New York: Ace Books, 1982.
———. The Hero and the Crown. New York: Ace Books, 1984.
Nix, Garth. Sabriel. New York: Harper Trophy, 1995.
———. Lirael, Daughter of the Clayr. New York: Harper Trophy, 2001.
———. Abhorsen. New York: Harper Eos, 2003.
Pierce, Tamora. Alanna: The First Adventure. New York: Random House, 1983.
———. In the Hand of the Goddess. New York: Random House, 1984.
———. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man. New York: Random House, 1986.
———. Lioness Rampant. New York: Random House, 1988.
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995.
———. The Subtle Knife. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997.
———. The Amber Spyglass. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.
Critical Texts
Aisenberg, Nadya. Ordinary Heroines: Transforming the Male Myth. New York: Continuum, 1994.
Attebery, Brian. “Fantasy as Mode, Genre, Formula.” Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 293-309.
Benson, Larry D. and John Leyerle, ed. Chivalric Literature: Essays on relations between literature and life in the later middle ages. Studies in Medieval Culture, XIV. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications of Western Michigan University, 1980.
Bergmann, Frank. “The Roots of Tolkien’s Tree: The Influence of George MacDonald and German Romanticism upon Tolkien’s Essay ‘On Fairy-Stories’.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Comparative Study of Literature and Ideas 10.2 (1977): 5-14
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. [1949] Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Chabon, Michael. “Dust & Dæmons.” Navigating the Golden Compass: Religion, Science, and Dæmonology in His Dark Materials. Ed. Glenn Yeffeth. Dallas, Texas: Benbella Books, 2005.
Eliot, T. S. “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” Authorship: From Plato to the Postmodern, A Reader. Ed. Seán Burke. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. 73-80.
Frye, Northrop. “The Archetypes of Literature.” Criticism: Major Statements. Ed. Charles Kaplan and William Anderson. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. 500-514.
———. The Educated Imagination. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1964.
———. Myth and Metaphor: Selected Essays, 1974-1988. Ed. Robert D. Denham. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990.
Gates, Pamela S., Susan B. Steffel and Francis J. Molson. Fantasy Literature for Children and Young Adults. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Hart, Steven. “Galactic Gasbag.” 10 April 2002. Salon.com. 16 April 2007. <http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/feature/2002/04/10/lucas/print.html>
Jameson, Frederic. “Magical Narratives: On the Dialectical Use of Genre Criticism.” (1981) Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 180-221.
Le Guin, Ursula K. Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. New York: Grove Press, 1989.
———. “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie.” (1973) Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 144-155.
———. The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction. New York: Putnam, 1979.
Lupack, Barbara Tepa, Ed. Adapting the Arthurian Legends for Children: Essays on Arthurian Juvenilia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Manganaro, Marc. Myth, Rhetoric, and the Voice of Authority: A Critique of Frazer, Eliot, Frye, & Campbell. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.
Manlove, Colin. “Introduction to Modern Fantasy.” (1975) Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 156-166.
Marchant, Jennifer. “ ‘An Advocate, a Defender, an Intimate’: Kristeva’s Imaginary Father in Fictional Girl-Animal Relationships.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 30.1 (2005): 3-15.
May, Jill P. Children’s Literature and Critical Theory: Reading and Writing for Understanding. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
McKinley, Robin. “Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech.” 1985. 12 March 2007 <http://www.robinmckinley.com/Essays/Newbery1985.html>.
Moloney, Daniel P. “Show Me, Don’t Tell Me: Pullman’s Imperfectly Christian Story (and How He Lost His Way).” Navigating the Golden Compass: Religion, Science, and Dæmonology in His Dark Materials. Ed. by Glenn Yeffeth. Dallas, Texas: Benbella Books, 2005.
Molson, Francis J. “Ethical Fantasy for Children.” In The Aesthetics of Fantasy Literature and Art. Ed. Roger C. Schlobin. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982. 82-104.
Noble, Kathleen. The Sound of the Silver Horn: Reclaiming the Heroism in Contemporary Women’s Lives. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1994.
Olsen, Lance. “Nameless Things and Thingless Names.” Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 274-292.
Sandner, David, Ed. Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004.
Sidney, Sir Philip. An Apology for Poetry (or The Defence of Poesy). Ed. R. W. Maslen and Geoffrey Shepherd. Third Edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.
Thompson, Raymond H. “Modern Fantasy and Medieval Romance: A Comparative Study.” The Aesthetics of Fantasy Literature and Art. Ed. Roger C. Schlobin. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982. 211-225.
Tolkien, J. R. R. “On Fairy-Stories.” The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. Ed. Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984. 109-161.
Tomashevsky, Boris. “Thematics.” Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays. Trans. and Ed. Lee T. Lemon and Marion J. Reis. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1965. 61-95.
Van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.
Williams, Raymond. “Structures of Feeling.” Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Wolfe, Gary. “The Encounter with Fantasy.” Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 222-235.
Yolen, Jane. “Fabling to the Near Night.” Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader. Ed. David Sandner. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 326-333.
Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan. [1911] London: Penguin Books, 1967.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. [1865] New York: Books of Wonder, 1992.
Chrétien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Trans. William W. Kibler. London: Penguin Books, 1991.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. David Scott Kastan. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2005.