Three great British fantasists: Lewis Carroll, Mervyn Peake, JRR Tolkien

Far from being simple escapism, or for children, fantasy is often used to confront complex topical issues. We will consider Carroll's Alice books as psychology, Peake's Titus Groan and Gormenghast as satire, and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings as history, asking throughout about the persistent recourse to fantasy evident in much modern writing.

Aims of the course

This course aims to:
1. Clarify understandings of realism and the fantastical as narrative modes;
2. Explore differing reasons for deploying the fantastical; and
3. Locate modern fantasies within modern history.

Content

However derided by critics, fantasy novels remain best-sellers and may be of abiding importance to their readers. Some have become of real significance, commanding lifelong devotion from readers of successive generations. So what can fantasy do that realism can’t?

Dodgson’s Alice books were the first modern fantasy to gain a mass audience, and characters, songs, and incidents have become permanent parts of a common imaginary, appealing to all ages. But as a Christian mathematician, Dodgson confronted topics from evolution to new understandings of the mind, and wove through his fantastical worlds explorations of psychology, reason, and perception.

Peake’s imagination of Gormenghast and its bizarre inhabitants came out of his experiences of colonialisation, education, and the Second World War, and express his traumata and anger. However strange, Gormenghast’s denizens are recognisably British, and the plot pits amoral but energetic Steerpike, rising from abject servitude, against fetishised rulers and fossilised tradition, generating some savage satire.

Tolkien’s legendarium, best-known through The Lord of the Rings, was also in part a product of wartime experience. He survived the Somme to raise a family, only to see two sons serving overseas in the 1940s, the Blitz, and the V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks. Yet unlike other First World War poets and Second World War novelists, Tolkien did not become satirical or ironic, but imagined a world where action might, through Providence, make a difference. Features of both wars stud his landscape and plot, from the carnivorous mud of the Dead Marshes to totalitarian Sauron using slave labour, but history is recreated to better ends than the real world ever managed.

Together these authors make a powerful case for the centrality of fantasy writing to modern literature. Seen in constellation with other fantasists denied the label –Orwell, Golding, Marquez, Rushdie –all emerge not as oddball escapists but as writers tackling head-on the most acute and terrifying issues of their times, and needing the rich space of the fantastical to do so.

Please note that while the screen adaptations of Peake and Tolkien are enjoyable neither is remotely an adequate substitute for reading the novels!

Presentation of the course

Each session will begin with a mini-lecture and PowerPoint presentation, lasting 30–45 mins, and subsequently open to question and answer, and contributions by all.

Class sessions

1. Fantasists and realists: a tale of prejudice and misprision. We begin with questions about what fantasy is, and how it has been mis/understood and mis/labelled.

2 .Charles Dodgson, Lewis Carroll, and Alice: fantasy as psychology. The author of the Alice books is best known by his pseudonym, but things ascribed to ‘Lewis Carroll’ do not always fit the reality of ‘Charles Dodgson’.

3. Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, and the Groans: fantasy as satire. Peake raises questions about how fantasists work, and what sources they raid to what ends.

4. J R R Tolkien’s extraordinary legendarium: fantasy as history. Middle earth was largely conceived in the trenches during WW1, and written during WW2,and it shows.

5. Fantasy as a major modern genre. A plenary session, ranging back over the course and more widely in novels that may not be called fantasies, yet undoubtedly deploy the fantastical.

Learning outcomes

1. An understanding of the debates and prejudices surrounding fantasy literature;
2. An understanding of historical and philosophical issues with which fantasy can engage;
3. An appreciation of fantasy as a literary means rather than merely an entertaining end.

Required reading

Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), in The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition (edited Martin Gardner, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000) ISBN 978-0140289299 (A ‘Deluxe 150th anniversary edition’ with additions and revisions by Mark Burstein was published by Norton in 2015, but is very expensive even as a paperback.)

Peake, Mervyn. Titus Groan (1946) and Gormenghast (1950), in The Gormenghast Trilogy (London and New York: Vintage, 1999) ISBN 978-0099288893

Tolkien, J R R The Lord of the Rings (in 3 volumes, 1954-5; in one vol., with corrected text, London: HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 978-0261103253

Typical week: Monday to Friday

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students. 

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.