Introduction (2019)

Introduction David Russell, Karin Westman, and Naomi Wood The essays for this issue of The Lion and Unicorn bring nuance, complexity, and cultural context to a range of texts for young readers. "'This Effect Defective Comes by Cause': Disability and George Mac-Donald's The Light Princess" by Danielle Price offers an illuminating new approach to an old story. Price reads George MacDonald's classic as a way to understand how disability and femininity are linked during the nineteenth century. Using medical history, biographical notes, and attentive reading, Price shows how a sensitive and nuanced use of contemporary theory revitalizes our understanding of historical texts. The Light Princess's disability lends her a surprising amount of agency, challenges stuffy prudishness, and even paves the way for a happy ending. In "Representing Zoo Animals: The Other-than-Anthropocentric in Anthony Browne's Picturebooks," Chengcheng You offers a careful study of Anthony Browne's artistic and thematic development, finding an increasing emphasis on animal subjectivity and experience in zoos and other carceral spaces. Browne's later works prod human readers and viewers to see the great apes especially as subjects whose needs and desires make ethical demands. Browne's visual and narrative treatment moves between appreciative spectatorship and deconstruction of anthropocentrism, forming a "humanimal" hybrid and a posthuman ethics. Vassiliki Panoussi serves as our guide for "Harry's Underworld Journey: Reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows through Vergil's Aeneid." As Panoussi shows, "In the Harry Potter series, the motif of the Underworld journey as understood through the lens of the Aeneid provides additional evidence for the claim that it, too, constitutes a foundational narrative, one that pits tolerance, democracy, and cooperation against intolerance, tyranny, and self-indulgence as fundamental values on which a healthy society rests." Providing detailed close readings of Rowling's novels alongside Vergil's Aneid, Panoussi takes as her goal "not only to identify possible [End Page v] sources or parallels for Rowling's work but also, and more importantly, to argue that by recognizing this intertext we can appreciate the ways in which Rowling uses classical motifs to enhance her narrative's status as a modern foundational epic." In "Contraception, Consent, and Community in Kristin Cashore's Graceling Trilogy," Corinne Matthews argues for Cashore's "thoughtful, nuanced inclusion of birth control in Graceling (2008), Fire (2009), and Bitterblue (2012)," Cashore's best-selling fantasy trilogy. "By making contraception and consent fundamental components of their decision-making processes," Matthews explains, Cashore permits her female characters "to make fully informed decisions about whether or not to have sex." Cashore's characters also prompt readers and scholars to recognize "the reproductive potential of female heroes, show how they handle it, and acknowledge how it affects their character arcs." In doing so, Matthews concludes, "Cashore's trilogy builds on and extends the methods that progressive YA fantasy uses to address pressing sociopolitical issues, issues that have become even more urgent since the rise of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements." Paired with Matthews's essay is an interview with author Kristin Cashore about her work. In "A Conversation with Kristin Cashore," Cashore engages with topics related to Matthews's argument and other concerns emerging from the Graceling trilogy. We are pleased to offer this extended conversation with Cashore—the first interview of such breadth and depth with this best-selling and award-winning author. Best-seller status plays a role in our final entry for this issue, too. In August 2017, a young adult novel few had ever heard of broke into the top slot of the New York Times' bestseller list, virtually overnight. Then, equally quickly, YA Twitter investigated and revealed how the Times' bestseller slot had been gamed, and the work was withdrawn from the list. In "YA Twitter versus Handbook for Mortals: A Case Study in Best-seller List Manipulation, Controversy, and the Effects on Library Acquisition," Rebekah Fitzsimmons, Karen Viars, and Liz Holdsworth recount the drama, debates, and outcomes. The case raises questions about the roles social media, traditional media, and brick-and-mortar publishing play in defining literary value. Who counts as an "outsider," and how does it matter? As always, we welcome your comments and...