The Lion, the Witch & the Evangelicals: Interview with Maria Sachiko Cecire (Ep 2)
S5E2: Interview with Maria Sachiko Cecire
Link to her biography and faculty page here.
Buy her incredibly detailed, thoughtful, academic book Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century
Questions to consider when reading books like The Chronicles of Narnia:
What are these stories, what are they doing, and how did they become so ingrained in American culture? How do these stories both aliant people and enchant them at the same time? How do we re-evaluate classics? How can we get better at interrogating what are classics?
Cecire on experiencing “the moment” when she realized she didn’t see herself represented in fantasy stories: “I looked in the mirror and it hit me like a ton of bricks: I would never be a blonde-haired blue-eyed fairy tale princess and that those stories were just not about me.”
Tolkein and Lewis were anti-modernists, and they were able to overhaul the English curriculum at Oxford to focus on the middle ages--choices that had ripple effects for generations.
Second wave of the oxford school of children’s literature includes people like Susan Cooper (Dark is Rising) Diana Wynn Jones (Howl’s Moving Castle), Phillip Pullman (His Dark Materials), Kevin Crossly Holland (Arthur Trilogy)--and influenced people like J.K. Rowling.
Thanks to Lewis and his curriculum developed at Oxford we have seen a major push in Children’s Fantasy Writing-- all about Arthurian Legends, Medieval texts,and reworking them for the 20th writing. These books are serious about the magic, but incredibly Northern Euro-centric.
Peoples of Africa descending from Ham. (28:00) -- this comes directly from Christianity
“I am an academic so I think visiting, rereading, and thinking about books in general is a good thing . . . Remember that humans are complicated and our artistic productions are complicated.” (30:38)
You can identify pleasures or desires in your life that you would not like to carry forward.
Cecire references authors Nnedi Okorafor and the Binti series, N.K. Jemisin and Saladin Ahmend Throne of the crescent moon as different narratives to contrast with Lewis/The Horse and His Boy.
D.L. mentions reading Birchbark House series in conjunction with the Little House books to her daughter. Read her essay on it here.
Rhodes must fall (39:40)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mscecire
Website: https://mariacecire.wordpress.com/
