Fantasy Literature

By Oxford University

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Subscribers: 11
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Episodes: 68

Description

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.]

Episode Date
Prequels and Sequels - Theresa Sprecht
Dec 01, 2025
Manga - Minjie Su
Dec 01, 2025
Games (short talk) - Stuart Lee
Dec 01, 2025
Game of Thrones - Carolyne Larrington
Dec 01, 2025
Arresting Strangeness and Fan Fiction (short talk) - Megan Laybourn
Dec 01, 2025
Interview with Samantha Shannon
Dec 01, 2025
Publishing Fantasy Panel - Bloomsbury Publishing Team
Dec 01, 2025
Jinn, Faith, and Oral Folklore (short talk) - Sarah Mughal Rana
Dec 01, 2025
After Tolkien (short talk) - Felix Taylor
Dec 01, 2025
J. R. R. Tolkien - Stuart Lee
Dec 01, 2025
Norse Myths and E. R. Eddison (short talk) - Grace Khuri
Dec 01, 2025
Weird Fiction (short talk) - Felix Taylor
Dec 01, 2025
C. S. Lewis and the Origins of Narnia - Simon Horobin
Dec 01, 2025
The Oxford School of Fantasy (short talk) - Carolyne Larrington
Dec 01, 2025
19thc Fantasy - Morris and Macdonald - Katie Harling Lee
Dec 01, 2025
Fairy Tale and Fantasy - Ros Ballaster
Dec 01, 2025
Modern Re-enchantment and the Medieval Fantastic - Bond West
Dec 01, 2025
Arthurian Literature (short talk) - Gabriel Schenk
Dec 01, 2025
Myths and Legends (short talk) - Carolyne Larrington
Dec 01, 2025
Classics and Fantasy - Beppe Pezzini
Dec 01, 2025
Critical Approaches to Fantasy (short talk) - Stuart Lee
Dec 01, 2025
Introduction to Fantasy - Adam Roberts
Dec 01, 2025
The ‘Key-spring’ of The Lord of the Rings?
Mar 01, 2025
C.S. Lewis’s Influence on The Lord of the Rings
Mar 01, 2025
Medievalism in the Margins: Echoes of Anglo-Saxon England in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings – From Page to Screen
Mar 01, 2025
A Harmless Vice: Tolkien’s Invented Languages
Mar 01, 2025
The authors and styles of 'The Lord of the Rings'
Mar 01, 2025
J. R. R. Tolkien and G. B. Smith: Two Forgotten War Poets?
Mar 01, 2025
Tolkien as Interpreter and Transformer of Culture: The Making of 'The Lord of the Rings' as a Modern Book
Mar 01, 2025
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Making of a Philologist
Dec 11, 2023
Tolkien and Beowulf
Dec 11, 2023
A Heroic History of the Elves: Tolkien’s “lost” Mythology of England?
Dec 11, 2023
Tolkien and the Classics
Dec 11, 2023
Peak Middle-earth: Why Mount Doom is not the climax of 'The Lord of the Rings'
Dec 08, 2023
How to write 'The Lord of the Rings'
Dec 08, 2023
Fantasy Creatures
Sep 29, 2021
A Conversation with Katherine Langrish
Aug 31, 2021
Faith in fantasy literature
Jul 30, 2021
Brian McClellan
Jul 30, 2021
C. S. Lewis and 'The Wind in the Willows'
Jul 29, 2021
A Walk around C. S. Lewis's Oxford
Jul 23, 2021
William Morris and E. R. Eddison Collections at the Bodleian
Jul 23, 2021
Elizabeth Knox
Jul 22, 2021
An Interview with Elizabeth Knox
Jul 13, 2021
A Conversation With R. F. Kuang
Jul 08, 2021
Desiring Dragons: Creative and Critical Responses to the Dragon in Beowulf
Jul 06, 2021
Maria Dahvana Headley on Beowulf
Jun 25, 2021
George MacDonald
Jun 25, 2021
Old Norse in the New World: The Mythology and Politics of Immigration and Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods'
Jun 23, 2021
Discworld - and the Modern University
Jun 22, 2021
Susan Cooper
Jun 22, 2021
Daoxuan and Chinese Fantasy Literature
Jun 18, 2021
Tolkien Archive and Exhibition at Bodleian (Part 2)
Jun 18, 2021
Tolkien Archive and Exhibition at Bodleian (Part 1)
Jun 17, 2021
What is the 'Silmarillion'?
Apr 19, 2021
Verse and Prose in Fantasy Literature
Nov 24, 2020
Guy Gavriel Kay
Nov 24, 2020
What Tolkien learnt from 'Beowulf': Representations of Evil
Jul 16, 2020
Sylvia Townsend Warner
May 26, 2020
Ursula K. Le Guin
May 13, 2020
T. H. White
May 12, 2020
Diana Wynne Jones
May 12, 2020
Why 'Game of Thrones' Matters
May 12, 2020
Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century
May 12, 2020
Interview: Catherine Butler
May 12, 2020
Alan Garner
May 12, 2020
Approaching Fantasy Literature
May 12, 2020
H. P. Lovecraft
May 12, 2020