Celtic Myth & YA Fantasy

Young adult fantasy as a genre is a mixed bag of greatness and garbage. It includes beloved authors like Lewis, MacDonald, and Tolkien, controversial stories like those of J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and Suzanne Collins, and pulpy moral vacuums from the likes of Sarah J. Maas, Ally Condie, and Kiera Cass, with every scale in between. As fantasy, however, all these works have something in common: classical inspiration. Theseus and the minotaur stand behind the Hunger Games; the Faerie Queene haunts the wilds of Patricia McKillip, Holly Black, and Diana Wynne-Jones; Shakespeare and Tristan and Dracula are all taken for granted in the Twilight series; Harry Potter and Ashtown Burials are both brimming with allusions to Greek and medieval stories. This course provides students with a moral and technical guide to some recent YA authors by introducing a theme using a classical work (magic/fairyland, fate, star-crossed lovers, the anti-hero, dystopia, animal allegory) and illustrating inferior and superior treatments of that theme in related YA titles. The first semester focuses largely on Greek influences, and the second on Celtic/British, though there is some overlap. First semester is not a prerequisite for the second.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Understand the important themes of each classical work
2. Discuss how well each YA title integrated/used the pertinent themes
3. Provide intelligent commentary on the moral/technical failings or achievements of each YA title

Texts:

• Selections from the Irish Ulster Cycle and Lebor Gabala Erenn (handout)
• The Hounds of the Morrigan, by Pat O'Shea
• Beowulf, trans. by Frederick Rebsamen
• Sky in the Deep, by Adrienne Young
• Boys of Blur, by N. D. Wilson
• Selections from The Mabinogion, trans, by Lady Charlotte Guest (handout)
• The Owl Service, by Alan Garner
• The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander
• Tristan and Iseult (online version)
• Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare (online version)
• Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer
• The Ballad of Tam Lin/The Ballad of Thomas the Rhymer (handout)
• Winter Rose, by Patricia McKillip
• Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones
• The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper