Manual Beyond His Dark Materials: Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman

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Beyond His Dark Materials: Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman

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But since he declares that not all Bildungsromane have to be autobiographical, he claims that a Bildung narrative can be fictional. As Buckley describes, almost every character and incident that the hero encounters may have some final relation to the development of the hero, which is the case with Lyra. Separation According to Buckley, several protagonists in his study are orphans, come from rural communities and are often from poor conditions.

Lyra is an orphan living in a rural community, Oxford, although she is not poor — she has a relative, her uncle Lord Asriel, who works with politics and science and therefore she is brought up under reasonable conditions at Jordan College. If that incident had not been observed by her, she would never have saved her uncle and her curiosity of the North would never have been awakened.

But that is not enough; the second call if there may be more than one is when her best friend Roger is abducted by the Gobblers. Now she feels that she has got to leave and rescue him. Mrs Coulter shows up and offers Lyra the opportunity to leave, for London at first, but then to the North. This is exactly what happens to the hero of the Bildungsroman; Lyra leaves the security of home — and as most bildung heroes do — she enters the big city. For Lyra, London is very different from Oxford. Instead of playing outdoors with friends, Lyra is indoors at fancy parties among grownups.

She discovers that Mrs Coulter is not whom she appears to be; she is instead the brain behind the Gobblers and Lyra realises it is dangerous to be around Mrs Coulter, and so she leaves. To find out that the one person you know in the entire city has been untrue to you must feel like the greatest betrayal. Among them Lyra develops a close relationship to Farder Coram. When she finds out that she is not an orphan and learns who her parents are she is torn emotionally. She finds it easier to accept Lord Asriel as her father, but to accept Mrs Coulter, a liar and a child abductor, as her mother is not easy.

I believe Lyra feels alienated in two ways: The lies maybe started so that she could gain power and authority among the children, to feel that she had a function to fill somewhere. When it comes to her parents, it is pretty clear that Lyra feels alienated from them; she does not know them and I presume she feels betrayed by the fact that they have left her believing for years that she is an orphan.

Lyra talks back and tells him that a father should love his child. She grows even more distant from her father when he deceives her by killing her friend Roger. From having disliked her mother, which is the opposite to what male bildung protagonists do, who usually are in conflict with their fathers, Lyra also starts to dislike or even hate her father. In the end, she dislikes both her mother and her father.

During her travels with the Gyptians, Lyra has found both a mentor and maybe even a father figure in Farder Coram, since he takes the time to listen to what she is saying and is interested in her. He also gives her clues and advice on how to read the alethiometer.

Beyond His Dark Materials: Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman

It is also likely that the hero has been destined to go on his journey ever since he was born. This is exactly the case with Lyra. After arriving at Dr. Lanselius in Trollesund, she is tested. The prophecy says that Lyra is the child that will save us all. Her entire journey from her departure from Oxford until her return is filled with trials. Females, however, do not have the same opportunities.

Lyra is the protagonist in a twenty- first century novel, but even for her, sexuality is something she encounters only once throughout the trilogy: It is understandable that her encounters with sexuality are very few, since she is very young but I still believe that even if she had been in her older teens, she would not have had more than one sexual encounter — otherwise, since she is a woman, she could easily be vilified.

Maybe, because of this social prescription, Lyra does not fall in love until the very end. This also marks another difference in Lyra from male protagonists; they can experience sexual encounters without being in love, whereas a woman only gives herself to the man she loves — or her husband if she forced into a marriage and has to fulfil her marital duty. Male and female sexual encounters are not often seen and experienced in the same way. While male protagonists stay in the city and develop there, women are often placed outside the city, in the countryside as in Jane Eyre for example.

The idea behind situating women in the wild can be that there are not as many temptations outside the city: This is one of the greatest ordeals for Lyra through the trilogy. She has to leave Pan, a part of her soul, behind — a torturing experience that demands both courage and strong will. When she finally reunites with Pantalaimon, she and he are both changed. Until Lyra the name resembles the noun liar enters the land of the dead she has lied frequently and often avoided telling the truth.

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Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman Beyond the His Dark Materials series lies a vast fictional realm populated by the many diverse. www.farmersmarketmusic.com: Beyond His Dark Materials: Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman (): Susan Redington Bobby: Books.

As the story develops, she learns that truth is the ultimate way to move forward. In her confrontation with the harpies, she also learns that telling the truth is in the end what will set us all free. Pan has in the meantime almost figured out his settled form.

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They are very much on the threshold to completing their journey. Lyra has returned from a long journey where she has survived several trials; she has used her wit and imagination and escaped from captivity both in the care of Mrs Coulter and from Bolvangar and the bears of Svalbard. She managed to save the children at Bolvangar and her friend Roger — although her mission concerning him was not fulfilled until she frees the souls from the land of the dead.

Her commitment in saving her friend is admirable, she never gives up. According to Buckley, the important task for the hero is to come to terms with himself or herself. In the end the person has achieved self-knowledge of who they are and what they are meant to do in life and can return home as an independent and confident individual.

The child she was in the beginning was very self-indulgent, trying to define herself through made up stories. She played pranks on people, did things without thinking of the consequences. This impulsive side of her may be a positive quality when it comes to understanding the alethiometer. A child simply does things, does not have the same self-awareness as an adult who would see the impossibility of reading a device who no one else can read without guidance. As a child, nothing is impossible and when Lyra finds out that her father is Lord Asriel, she becomes even more confident in her own abilities.

In returning to Oxford, she is more insecure and concerned about what people might think about her and she has lost her power in reading the alethiometer, but she now knows that she can regain the ability by working hard at it. Buckley mentions that the ambition of many of Bildungsroman protagonists is to find what they are meant to do in life, mostly professionally.

She will be a Scholar, learn to read the alethiometer and master it once again. In returning to Oxford, Lyra is also calmer and more respectful. Campbell is of the opinion that the hero can achieve either a microcosmic or a macrocosmic triumph. Lyra manages to achieve both. When she, as a child, saves the children at Bolvangar, in her own universe, she accomplishes a microcosmic triumph.

Her deed affects everyone, irrespective which universe they live in. Conclusion Something happened when innocence changed into experience Pullman, Can His Dark Materials be considered a female Bildungsroman? I would definitely reply to that question in the affirmative. The novels are not autobiographical, but as Buckley himself points out, not all Bildungsromane are. The story is narrated in a chronological order, from beginning to end; there are no narrative flashbacks and no flash forwards. Lyra is an orphan, comes from a rural community Oxford and leaves for the big city London , which she in time finds to be disappointing.

She later leaves the city and travels further into the wild and dangerous unknown. She achieves her mission in life, as she has been prophesised to do, and returns home to Oxford with a new understanding of life and herself.

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She has learned that one has to work for what one wants to achieve in life and to make the best of the means available in the life we live. The departure with the call to adventure is fulfilled when Lyra decides to save Roger. The supernatural aid is the Master handing her the alethiometer. Crossing the first threshold is achieved when she travels with Mrs Coulter to London, but Pullman develops the story further and actually lets Lyra cross the threshold to the unknown three times included the journey to London when he lets her go to the dark and desolate North and also when the bridge through the Aurora brings her to another universe.

Finally, Lyra crosses the return threshold as a whole new person, an adult. Harvard University Press, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Mythology. Wordsworth Editions Ltd, A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, British Women Writers and the Novel of Development. The Practice of Poetry. The Best American Poetry From Cover to Cover. The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. On Teaching and Writing Fiction. The Company of Writers. The Art of Storytelling.

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