The Dawning of Twilight: The Rise of the Female Protagonist

By Dann Michalski

Explore the journey of the female protagonist in fantasy literature through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first in The Dawning of Twilight: The Rise of the Female Protagonist. A comparative stufy of four landmark fantasy novels, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Golden Compass, and Twilight, the trait

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dann Michalski
• Release date: Oct 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781087985022

Book preview

Contents

Chapter I: Genesis

Chapter II: Scholarship

Chapter III: Continuity

Chapter IV: Variance

Chapter V: Conclusion

Bibliography

CHAPTER I

Genesis

The little girl gave a cry of amazement and looked about her, her eyes growing bigger at the wonderful sights she saw.

–The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Since Alice first followed the White Rabbit young women have become a hallmark of fantasy literature. What was one small slip of a step for Alice became a giant leap for a genre. Fantasy literature, long held as children’s literature, has produced an endless number of young heroines; Alice, Wendy Darling, Dorothy Gale, Eowyn, Lucy Pevensie, Lyra Belacqua, Hermione Granger, Bella Swan, etc. A long and proud linage of heroines has been established over the last two centuries within the fantasy genre.

Fantasy literature has played a unique role in embracing and advancing young women as protagonist characters. While young female characters have often been limited in traditional literature, they could be action heroes and great leaders in fantasy novels. Since by nature fantasy literature breaks from realism, its female characters were liberated in ways that those from other literary genres could not be. By not limiting itself to the conventional social norms of society, fantasy provided a fertile atmosphere in which the female protagonist could blossom.

Like every other form of literature, fantasy has not remained static and unchanged. Present day fantasy literature is not the same as it was the day Alice or Dorothy embarked on their adventures. Fantasy literature itself has had its own journey, one fraught with wonders, perils, and self-discovery. And like all journeys worth taking, it’s been a rewarding and renewing experience that has led to a fuller and richer genre. However, the journey has not ended and fantasy literature remains in a state of development. And, so too has the female protagonist.

The evolutionary process has worked its way with the fantasy genre, as it has with numerous other art forms. The norms and culture of the fantasy literature that produced Dorothy Gale is not the same as the one that produced Hermione Granger. Literature has a long tradition of reflecting the culture in which it is written, and as that culture has changed so too has the literature. Each generation has renewed the genre and crafted its protagonists for evolving audiences.

To trace the evolution of the female protagonist through the entirety of fantasy literature would be a task too ambitious in scope to ever do the subject justice. However, it would be beneficial to examine some specific female protagonists in depth from different periods of fantasy literature. By examining some specific characters from different literary works in detail, similarities and differences can be discerned that, when seen over time, will reveal a progressive change in the female protagonist archetype. Patterns in characters will reveal the norms within the genre as well as the changes that have occurred.

While no single literary work can encompass the whole of a genre, the significant and cornerstone works are revealing of the norms and atmosphere of the genre for the time. Given this, restricting this study of characters to those from fantasy novel sagas that have had significant cultural influence within literature would be the most productive way to illustrate a period’s female protagonist.

In order to show the most significant changes that have occurred in the female protagonist, this study will endeavor to cover the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Of specific interest will be the first half of the twentieth century and the turn of the twenty-first century. By studying these two periods the evolution of a hundred years of literature can be seen, as well as how two different generations contributed to the fantasy genre.

In the interests of efficiency, two characters from each of the aforementioned literary periods will be examined. For the first half of the twentieth century, L. Frank Baum’s children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which inspired a 40 book series, and C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which started a seven book series, are two of the most highly regarded fantasy works of the era. Thus, the female protagonists of these two novels, Dorothy Gale and Lucy and Susan Pevensie (though technically two character, they share the same protagonist journey), serve as fine example characters for their time period. The study of these characters will reveal the traits and characteristics of the protagonist for this era in fantasy literature.

The second period of this study, the turn of the twenty-first century, has seen several fantasy series of note. Two of the most accomplished works include Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, which began an epic trilogy, and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, which bloomed into a four book saga. The female protagonists of these two novels, Lyra Belacqua and Bella Swan, depict a protagonist for a new age. Separated by nearly a half a century or more, these characters have evolved significantly from their early twentieth century counterparts.

These novels, The Wonderful