Fantasy Literature
Fantasy Literature has emerged as one of the most important genres over the past few decades and now enjoys extraordinary levels of popularity. The impact of Tolkien’s Middle-earth works and the serialisation of George Martin’s ‘Game of Thrones’ books has moved these and their contemporaries into mainstream culture. As the popularity grows so does interest in the roots of fantasy, the main writers and themes, and how to approach these texts.
Oxford is a natural home to fantasy literature with those who worked or studied here having written so many famous and influential texts (e.g. Lewis Carroll (C. L. Dodgson), C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones, Alan Garner, and Philip Pullman to name but a few) – leading to the notion of an ‘Oxford School of Fantasy’. These lectures, short talks, and interviews seek to take listeners into these works and these writers and beyond.
All material released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ .
[Artwork by Minjie Su.]
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Previous Episodes
- C.S. Lewis’s Influence on The Lord of the Rings 01.03.2025
- Medievalism in the Margins: Echoes of Anglo-Saxon England in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings – From Page to Screen 01.03.2025
- A Harmless Vice: Tolkien’s Invented Languages 01.03.2025
- The authors and styles of 'The Lord of the Rings' 01.03.2025
- J. R. R. Tolkien and G. B. Smith: Two Forgotten War Poets? 01.03.2025
- Tolkien as Interpreter and Transformer of Culture: The Making of 'The Lord of the Rings' as a Modern Book 01.03.2025
- J.R.R. Tolkien: The Making of a Philologist 11.12.2023
- Tolkien and Beowulf 11.12.2023
- A Heroic History of the Elves: Tolkien’s “lost” Mythology of England? 11.12.2023
- Tolkien and the Classics 11.12.2023
- Peak Middle-earth: Why Mount Doom is not the climax of 'The Lord of the Rings' 08.12.2023
- How to write 'The Lord of the Rings' 08.12.2023
- Fantasy Creatures 29.09.2021
- A Conversation with Katherine Langrish 31.08.2021
- Faith in fantasy literature 30.07.2021
- Brian McClellan 30.07.2021
- C. S. Lewis and 'The Wind in the Willows' 29.07.2021
- A Walk around C. S. Lewis's Oxford 23.07.2021
- William Morris and E. R. Eddison Collections at the Bodleian 23.07.2021
- Elizabeth Knox 22.07.2021
