A wrinkle in fantasy:
the female heroism of Meg Murry, from A wrinkle in time
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7726.2023.1.44635Keywords:
Female heroism, Fantasy, Female writing., Madeleine L’Engle, A wrinkle in time.Abstract
In this text, we welcome and analyze the thought-provoking novel A wrinkle in time (1962), by the north American writer Madeleine L’Engle, whose plot explores abundant connections between the scientific, the magical and the spiritual being classified as children’s scientific fantasy. In this first work of a quintet, the narrative revolves around a teenage girl who is dealing with self-esteem and acceptance issues, and who, along with her younger brother, Charles Wallace, and the oldest boy at school, Calvin O’ Keef, sets out to rescue a father figure on an adventure through space and time across the universe. Our analytical intente is to understand the protagonist in her personal journey and how she can reflect and refract other female characters from previous literary works. In a path that aims to reveal potential intertextual connections with other works of fantastic literature, we analyze the protagonism within the fantasy genre, particularly the feminine as a main character in the figure of Meg, heroine of the chosen narrative, seeking to point out its resonances and dissonances regarding the expectations of a narrative role molded in its origin by the male figure, but which has strong and significant female presences over time. For that, we bring among our theoretical basis, authors who deal with the heroine figure, such as Terri Frontgia (1991), Valerie Frankel (2010), and Maureen Murdock (1990), as well as scholars who deal with gender issues and the symbolic implications within the narrative, namely Farah Mendlesohn (2008), Brian Attebery (2004), Betty Kay Seibt (1988) and Elizabeth Dowling and W. George Scarlett (2006).
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