Graham Stott explores agency in Ursula K. Le Guin's Tombs of Atuan as something requiring not simply self-confidence, but collaboration and trust as well. He sees Le Guin's decision to shift her narrative away from the magic of the Archipelago and Roke Island as a way of forcing Tenar, her young woman protagonist, to make her own choices, to find subjectivity on her own terms and her own ground.
Both those new to and familiar with the world of Earthsea will relish Stott's argument that trust and choice, but not magic, are essential to Tenar's growth into knowledge of herself.
Journal
The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's LiteratureISSN
1551-5680Volume
10Issue
3Publisher
La Trobe UniversitySection Title
Alice's AcademyAuthor Biography
G. St. John Stott has a Ph.D. from Brigham Young University, and taught American Literature in Tunisia and Palestine for thirteeen years. For the past decade, however, Graham has been publishing as an independent scholar, and is currently working for a joint-venture bank in Saudi Arabia.Date Created
2008-12-09Rights Statement
Essays and articles published in The Looking Glass may be reproduced for non-profit use by any educational or public institution; letters to the editor and on-site comments made by our readers may not be used without the expressed permission of that individual. Any commercial use of this journal, in whole or in part, by any means, is prohibited. Authors of accepted articles assign to The Looking Glass the right to publish and distribute their text electronically and to archive and make it permanently available electronically. They retain the copyright and, 90 days after initial publication, may republish it in any form they wish as long as The Looking Glass is acknowledged as the original source.Data source
OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/73
