Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACTThe Victorian period, often heralded as the golden age of children‘s literature, saw both a break and a continuation with the traditions of the fairy tale genre, with many authors choosing this platform to question and subvert social and literary expectations (Honic, Breaking the Angelic Image 1; Zipes, Art of Subversion 97). George MacDonald (1824-1905), a prolific Scottish theologian, whose unspoken sermons, essays, novels, fantasies and children‘s fairy tales deliberately engage with such issues as gender, mortality, class, poverty and morality, was one such author (Ellison 92). This thesis critically examines how the Victorian writer George MacDonald portrays the notion of a ‗self‘ in terms of fixed ‗character‘ and mutable physical appearance in his fairy tales for children. Chapter One provides a foundation for this study by studying MacDonald‘s literary and religious context, particularly important for this former preacher banned from his pulpit (Reis, 24). Chapter Two explores a series of examples of the interaction between characters and their physical bodies. This begins with examining portrayals of characters synonymous with their bodies, before contrasting this with characters whose bodies appear differently than their inner selves. Chapter Two finishes by observing those characters whose physical forms alter throughout the course of the tale. As these different character-body interactions are observed, a marked separation between character and body emerges. In Chapter Three, the implications of this separation between character and body are explored. By writing such separations between the character and their body, MacDonald creates a space where further questions can be asked about our understanding of issues such as identity and mortality. Chapter Three begins with an analysis of the observations made in the first chapter, posing that MacDonald crafted characters consisting of an inner self and a physical body. This was then further explored through images of recognition in the tales, finding that characters are expected to recognize one another despite complete physical alterations; the inner self is able to know and be known. Chapter Three concludes by studying mortality in the tales, particularly MacDonald‘s portrayals of the possibility of life after death. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Viktoriaanseperiode, wat gereeld voorgehou word as die goue era vir kinderliteratuur, het beide breuke en kontinuïteit gehad met die tradisies van die genre van sprokiesverhale. Menigte skrywers het sprokiesverhale gekies as ‘n middel waardeur hulle sosiale en literêre verwagtinge kon bevraagteken en omseil (Honic, Breaking the Angelic Image 1; Zipes, Art of Subversion 97). George MacDonald (1824—1905) — 'n prolifieke Skotse teoloog, wie se onuitgesproke preke, opstelle, novelle, fantasieë en kindersprokies doelgerig kwessies soos geslag, moraliteit, klas en armoede getakel het — was een só 'n skrywer (Ellison 92). Hierdie tesis ondersoek krities hoe die Viktoriaanse skrywer George MacDonald die idee van ‗self‘ uitgebeeld het in terme van 'n vaste "karakter" en veranderbare fisiese voorkoms in sy sprokiesverhale vir kinders. Hoofstuk Een verskaf 'n fondasie vir hierdie studie deur MacDonald se literêre- en geloofskonteks te bestudeer. Hierdie is besonders belangrik, omdat hierdie gewese predikant voorheen van die kansel verban was (Reis, 24). Hoofstuk Twee ondersoek 'n reeks voorbeelde van die interaksie tussen karakters en hul fisiese gestaltes. Dit begin met 'n ondersoek van uitbeeldings waarin karakters sinoniem met hul voorkoms is. Daarna word 'n kontras getrek met karakters wie se uiterlike voorkoms verskillend is van wie hulle innerlik is. Hoofstuk Twee sluit af deur merking te maak van karakters wie se fisiese voorkoms verander deur die verloop van die verhaal. Soos hierdie verskillende interaksies tussen karakter en voorkoms ondersoek word, word 'n merkbare verdeling tussen karakter en voorkoms ontbloot. In Hoofstuk Drie word die implikasies van hierdie verdeling tussen karakter en voorkoms ondersoek. Deur so 'n verdeling tussen karakter en voorkoms uit te beeld, skep MacDonald 'n ruimte waarbinne verdere vrae gevra kan word oor hoe ons kwessies soos identiteit en moraliteit verstaan. Hoofstuk Drie begin met 'n analise van die opmerkings wat in die eerste hoofstuk gemaak is, waarin gestel word dat MacDonald sy karakters ontwerp het om te bestaan uit 'n innerlike self en 'n fisiese voorkoms. Hierdie word dan verder ondersoek deur te kyk na voorbeelde van gewaarwording in die verhale, waar daar gevind is dat daar van die karakters verwag word om mekaar te herken ten spyte van gehele fisiese veranderinge; die innerlike self kan ken en geken word. Hoofstuk Drie sluit af deur die moraliteit van die stories te bestudeer, veral MacDonald se uitbeelding van die moontlikheid van lewe na die dood.

Though known for his fantastical writings George MacDonald is often considered to be a typical Victorian teacher of religious and moral seriousness. Approaches to MacDonald’s works normally seek to find his ‘message’ by expositing the moral, social, pedagogical, psychological or theological ‘content’ of his work. This study recasts MacDonald in the light of his shorter fairytales for the ‘childlike’ and argues that these seemingly small and insignificant works are a golden key to his artistic enterprise. This is not because of any particular ‘message’ that they carry but because of their peculiarly light mode of generating meaning and the relation of this lightness to theology. Whilst it is frequently disparaged, levity actually has strong parallels with the theological atmosphere of Christianity. Light modalities such as folly, ecstasy, play, vanity, carnival and Sabbath demonstrate that the Christian faith has greater affinities with lightness and whimsicality than its solemn defenders sometimes admit. MacDonald’s fairytales draw upon this surprising harmony between levity and faith to create environments in which readers can playfully reflect upon the nature of ultimate reality and begin to find their own place within that reality. By helping to remove the mask of ‘seriousness’ presented by things in the everyday world, fairytales engender a kind of ‘divine carelessness’ and help people to let go of the weighty cares and fears that keep them tightly bound to worldly things.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Mary Ellis Gibson; submitted to the Dept. of English. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 5, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-207).

Scholars and storytellers alike have deemed George MacDonald a great mythopoeic writer, an exemplar of the art. Examination of this accolade by those who first applied it to him proves it profoundly theological: for them a mythopoeic tale was a relational medium through which transformation might occur, transcending boundaries of time and space. The implications challenge much contemporary critical study of MacDonald, for they demand that his literary life and his theological life cannot be divorced if either is to be adequately assessed. Yet they prove consistent with the critical methodology MacDonald himself models and promotes. Utilizing MacDonald’s relational methodology evinces his intentional facilitating of Mythopoesis. It also reveals how oversights have impeded critical readings both of MacDonald’s writing and of his character. It evokes a redressing of MacDonald’s relationship with his Scottish cultural, theological, and familial environment – of how his writing is a response that rises out of these, rather than, as has so often been asserted, a mere reaction against them. Consequently it becomes evident that key relationships, both literary and personal, have been neglected in MacDonald scholarship – relationships that confirm MacDonald’s convictions and inform his writing, and the examination of which restores his identity as a literature scholar. Of particular relational import in this reassessment is A.J. Scott, a Scottish visionary intentionally chosen by MacDonald to mentor him in a holistic Weltanschauung. Little has been written on Scott, yet not only was he MacDonald’s prime influence in adulthood, but he forged the literary vocation that became MacDonald’s own. Previously unexamined personal and textual engagement with John Ruskin enables entirely new readings of standard MacDonald texts, as does the textual engagement with Matthew Arnold and F.D. Maurice. These close readings, informed by the established context, demonstrate MacDonald’s emergence, practice, and intent as a mythopoeic writer.

In this study, I expand the scope of the scholarship that Walter Ong and others have done in orality-literacy relations to examine the often uneasy juxtaposition of the oral and written traditions in the literature of the Victorian pulpit. I begin by examining the intersections of the oral and written traditions found in both the theory and the practice of Victorian preaching. I discuss the prominent place of the sermon within both the print and oral cultures of Victorian Britain; argue that the sermon's status as both oration and essay places it in the genre of "oral literature"; and analyze the debate over the extent to which writing should be employed in the preparation and delivery of sermons.

The relationship between the Bible and literature is long-standing and has received increasing attention in recent years. This project investigates the interface between the Bible and literature by focusing on the genre of “parable”. The influence of the Bible on Western literature is considerable, and yet in the case of George MacDonald’s writing it is often overlooked. The “parabolic” is a helpful way to focus our discussion as it is an important genre both in Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God and more subtly in MacDonald’s fantasy and fairytale writing. It is remarkable that approximately a third of Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God comes in the form of parabolic speech. Rather than serving as a nice illustrative story to a theological point made elsewhere, the actual form of parabolic speech is crucial for the message it seeks to convey. Form and content work together in Jesus’ parables in a unique way to break open the reality depicted in parable. This thesis attempts to investigate a specifically biblical view of “parable” for understanding certain aspects of MacDonald’s fantasy literature. MacDonald developed a decidedly theological understanding of story as having the capacity to refresh the revelatory nature of Scripture. It is by the imagination that a poet is able to find new forms to recast and recover old and forgotten truths. By designating the poet as a finder rather than a maker, MacDonald resists Coleridge’s idealist inclinations to elevate the poet to a creator. His employment of story and more particularly the “parabolic” is then not only an aesthetic but also a theological choice. MacDonald’s last fantasy romance, Lilith, will serve as our test case to demonstrate this. Considering the “parabolic” in Lilith sheds significant light on the meaning of Lilith and offers up a decisive answer to the important question of whether MacDonald moves in his fantasy and fairytales from a decidedly Christian perspective to a more polyvalent view of reality. This argument shall be further substantiated by bringing to the light the important influence of Novalis on Lilith.