Didacticism plays a key role in fantasy horror literature for children, striving to teach some sort of lesson. These lessons are, at least in good fiction, not told by heavy-handed exposition, but instead shown through literary tools. In this paper, I will analyze Maurice Sendak's Outside Over There, Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls to show how monsters function as one of these tools.
The monsters in these three stories are malicious external threats, yet symbolize the internal struggles of selfishness, dependence, and guilt respectively, and in defeating these monsters through the support of adult influence, each protagonist gains insight that reflects the didactic lessons of the stories. These stories are horrific not because they feature monsters, but because they deal with issues that violate fundamental values in the symbolic childhood of Western culture. Monsters, terrifying yet vulnerable, make the horror bearable.
History
Journal
The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature
ISSN
1551-5680
Volume
21
Issue
1
Publisher
La Trobe University
Section Title
Emerging Voices
Author Biography
David Beagley is Lecturer in Children's Literature and Literacy at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, Victoria, Australia, where he teaches units in Genres, History, Australian and Post-colonial children's literature, and in Fiction for Young Adults.
He has previously taught English, Literature, History and Drama in secondary schools, and has been a school and university librarian. He is interested in the history of traditional "boys' adventure" stories, especially those involving aircraft.
Date Created
2018-11-08
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Data source
OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/954
