Swallowed by the white goddess : exploring patriarchal conditioning and the feminine myth in some cross-worlds fantasies for children
Date
1995
Authors
McGrath, Jennifer Marlene
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Abstract
This thesis examines patriarchal conditioning and the construction of the feminine myth in some "cross-worlds" fantasies--a subgenre of children's fantasy in which children from the twentieth century are pulled into an alternate world, which usually resembles ancient Britain or Ireland. In these novels, there is a recurring image of a goddess-figure, who appears either as an elusive, ethereal presence or, more often, as a destructive and terrifying force. This goddess figure tends to correspond most closely with the White Goddess described by Robert Graves. In many cross-worlds fantasies, this very patriarchal construction of the Goddess is superimposed upon the female protagonist, marginalizing and dehumanizing her.
This thesis explores the effect of such patriarchal and mythological conditioning on the presentation of the feminine in cross-worlds fantasies through close readings of four novels. Chapter One considers the definition and fragmentation of the feminine in Alan Garner's The Owl Service. Chapter Two examines the image of the Terrible Goddess and the Devouring Mother in The Marrow of the World by Ruth Nichols, and Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. Chapter Three considers Margaret Mahy's Thee Changeover as a feminist reconfigurat1on of the feminine myth.
Progressing through these novels, from the intensely patriarchal image of the White Goddess in The owl Service, to the celebration of feminine strength and sensibilities in The Changeover, we can see a gradual shift in the attitude toward, and the presentation of, the feminine, a shift which would seem to reflect the changing consciousness of our culture. In The Owl Service--the earliest novel and the only one of the four written by a man--we find a very oppressive image of the White Goddess supernatural, subhuman, mindless, voiceless and destructive. The Marrow of the World presents us with a goddess-figure who is similarly destructive and frightening, but one who is also self-conscious and intelligent Nevertheless, she remains essentially a stock character, subhuman, with little personality or depth. Although Fire and Hemlock is less patriarchal than the previous two novels, the goddess-figure is still presented as a singularly negative presence. Cold, calculating, beautiful, and fatally seductive, she is the Devouring Mother aspect of the White Goddess. Mahy's The Changeover, written in a distinctly feminist vein, does not feature the White Goddess as a separate character or villain, but as the latent dark side of every person, male and female. The supernatural feminine, as it appears in this book, corresponds more closely to the benevolent other Goddess and Creatress described by "New Age " thinkers. Unlike the female protagonists of the other novels, Laura does not lose her autonomy, or her sense of self, to the White Goddess. Mahy's novel demonstrates that, although the myth of the White Goddess is not without imaginative or literary value, it is important to become conscious of our own mythological conditioning We can then transcend myth, reinterpreting, reimagining, and even rewriting it so that it becomes more meaningful and satisfying to everyone, regardless of sex.