Dancing with dragons
Subtitle: Ursula K. Le Guin and the critics
By: Donna R. White.
Series: Studies in English and American literature, linguistics, and culture. Literary criticism in perspective
Publisher: Camden House
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Columbia, SC
Language: eng
Number of pages: 144
Subjects: Le Guin, Ursula K., 1929- -- Criticism and interpretation -- History.; Children -- Books and reading -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Children's stories, American -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.; Science fiction, American -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Criticism -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Description: Ursula K. Le Guin began to draw attention in the late 1960s with the publication of A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). The former, a young adult fantasy, established Le Guin as America's foremost contemporary fantasist; the latter, a science fiction novel, embroiled her in a feminist controversy that continues to this day. Both books started Le Guin on the road to being one of the most award-winning writers in America.

As an academically trained critic in her own right, Le Guin has never shied from critical confrontation, but she prefers discussion to warfare. For thirty years, she has maintained a dialogue with her critics, exploring with them her changing views on feminism, environmentalism, and utopia. A writer of realistic fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, children's literature, fantasy, poetry, reviews, and critical essays, Le Guin challenges genre classifications and writes what she will.

Dancing with Dragons brings together for the first time the various strands of Le Guin criticism to show how the author's dialogue with the critics has informed and influenced her work and her own critical stance. Well-known literary critics such as Robert Scholes, Fredric Jameson, and Harold Bloom have declared Le Guin to be a major voice in American letters. This volume examines how that reputation developed.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [123]-134) and index.