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[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]
So I'm Doctor Katie, haltingly, and I am currently a British Academy Postdoctoral fellow at the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh.

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I just started there, so previously I was teaching in the literature department at Edinburgh University,

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uncovering that during that time I was covering a module on the making of modern fantasy, hence why I've ended up here today.

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The more that I ask or delve into that question of is there a fantasy genre?

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It gets harder and harder to define, really, but I do find that having genres as a starting point is really useful.

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You know, you don't want them to box off things or be limiting, but it can be useful to think about a genre of fantasy and how that can shape it.

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So for me, fantasy generally, it involves some sort of imaginative world.

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There'll be some hint of maybe magic or something, maybe not quite explained, but I'm quite loose with that term.

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So. Today.

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Are we talking about William Morris and George McDonald, which, uh,

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I do think they were quite influential in those early days of fantasy before it was called fantasy in the way we understand it.

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Um, but and of course, as always, talking.

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But I do also think Ursula Gwyn needs more mention, um, at times, uh, that the Earthsea trilogy that is no longer trilogy.

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Absolutely important to read, I think.

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So I just recently read The Pride of the Orange Tree in preparation for coming along to summer school, which I very much enjoyed.

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Um, another author that I think doesn't get enough time at the moment is Rachel Hartman.

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So she her first book in this kind of blue series was Serafina.

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Um, she I've just found out she has a new book coming out as part of that series is very exciting this year.

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But, uh, I'd say if you like The Priory of the Orange Tree, then you probably like Rachel Holman's books,

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too, because she, again is blending a world with dragons, and then also with kind of a,

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um, a religion system that has Catholic ish links in terms of concepts of saints,

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but then also questioning that religious situation and the myths that are used and told for those stories.

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It's really interesting looking at a lot of the subgenres with fantasy.

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Um, I do think, uh, cosy fantasy actually has an interesting future.

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It's been really fun to see how independent authors are kind of showing the publishing industry that

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people might just be very happy reading a mostly happy little book with a little bit of peril,

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but not too much peril. Um, and finding that cosiness there.

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Um, but also sometimes dealing with quite difficult concepts of inclusion.

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So for example, there's the House by the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Clune,

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which in some ways is cosy fantasy, but also dealing with difficult questions about inclusion.

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And there's also legends and lattes, um, which is a really fun one about an orc that just wants to retire and open a coffee shop, I mean, delightful.

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The other thing I say with the future fantasy, or do you think it's really interesting to see diversity coming in there?

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So, I mean, just reading the part of the Orange Tree and the different, um, cultural traditions that she draws on.

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Um, but yeah. So I think that's a really exciting future. Partly it comes from some of the texts I was teaching this year.

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Um, I'm today I'm using William Morris, and George McDonald is quite useful bridging examples.

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So the 19th century is often seen as kind of the early birth of fantasy literature.

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Um, so and then at that 19th century period, there was lots of different traditions kind of coming together.

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It's a mix of genres is happening, a mix of disciplines and interests.

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William Morris was very much a polymath interested in anything, to be honest.

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He gets hands on. Um, and in some ways I relate to that in my own research.

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I have jumped from Old Norse literature to contemporary novels with music to looking at Quaker silence and 20th century novels.

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And so today's talk, I'm bringing in my Old Norse interest in terms of, um, saying Morris's use of almost texts to create his own fantasy,

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but I'm also bringing in more kind of newer work I'm doing in the world of religion and literature to talk about George MacDonald,

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who for him, fantasy literature was completely tied to, um, the imagination.

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But then that in turn led you to understanding God or, um, in a more kind of complex way.

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So I think there's a really interesting elements there to think about religion and fantasy literature.

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So it's interesting because you do get a secular approach to religion and a lot of fantasy.

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Um, if we think about Philip Pullman's Dark Materials, he's quite critical of the church as an institution.

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And there's often a theme of kind of a myth busting situation.

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Um, you even get that in part of The Orange Tree by Shannon.

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Um, where the sense of you have a society's religion, which is based on some sort of myth,

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but then you realise the truth of the myth doesn't quite align to this religious belief.

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So you do get that secular side, which is very interesting.

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And it's good in terms of always we we should be questioning where these stories are coming from.

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Um, but there's also a contrasting side where you do if we think about the works of MacDonald and then C.S. Lewis and,

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um, Tolkien as well, for them, they're all religious authors.

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So for them,

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the fantasy literature and writing it and imagining these worlds was a way to try and understand more deeply their own faith and religion.

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So that's kind of another strand to it. So you can use these religion as a cultural tradition to then understand worldbuilding and fantasy literature,

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but you can also use the imaginative side of fantasy literature to then explore really,

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actually quite complex concepts about God, about good and evil, and how you defeat evil from a religious or Christian perspective, for example.

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Um, C.S. Lewis even wrote, um, he's more known for lion, the witch and the wardrobe,

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but the he did write a space trilogy, which is more fantasy often.

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Um, so, for example, in parallel, he's reimagining the Garden of Eden.

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So the Adam and Eve before the fall for a second time and trying to figure out how

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could it be talked about and understood and how could it work out in a different way?

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So I think there's lots of different strands we could look at.