What We Found on Our Journey through Fantasy Land

This paper sketches a “map” of certain patterns in current children’s fantasy. Beginning with literal maps of fantasy worlds, I point out the similarities of the physical layout of a number of invented worlds, suggesting that sameness of geography often indicates a lack of innovation in the ideological or philosophical ideas behind the stories. Where we find a departure from conventional fantasy geography we also find originality in plot and metaphysics, such as in the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, Philip Pullman and Diana Wynne Jones. A change in geography can also signal a new approach to gender roles, as I explore in works by Le Guin and Wynne Jones, over and against fantasies in which female heroes conform to traditionally male models. Finally, I suggest that in Wynne Jones’ and Terry Pratchett’s children’s novels the strict gender roles of fairy tale become an avenue by which the reader questions the conventional destinies of narrative both in literature and in life.