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Writings About DWJ and her works: a critical bibliography

Charles Butler put together a bibliography of critical works about DWJ for the mailing list. Note that Charlie is on this list twice (or three times, if you count both of his contributions to An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom).

Charlie notes, "I've included books which give DWJ more than a passing mention, as well as books and articles specifically about her. Also, critical articles she's written about her own work or subjects obviously related to it. I haven't included reviews of her books, though."

Reviews for DWJ's books aren't here; they are linked from the pages of the books being reviewed.

Attebery, Brian. Strategies of Fantasy. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992.
Winner of the 1993 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies.
Review
Butler, Charles. Four British Fantasists: the Children's Fantasy Fiction of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper. Methuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 2006
---. "Jones, Diana Wynne." The Literary Encyclopedia. 14 Dec. 2005. The Literary Dictionary Company. 14 July 2007. <http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=6037>
Gross, Ros Kepel. "Diana Wynne Jones: an Overview." <http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/rosgross.htm>.
Jones, Diana Wynne. "The Shape of the Narrative in The Lord of the Rings." 87-107 in Robert Giddings, ed. J.R.R. Tolkien: This Far Land. London: Vision, 1983.
---. "Diana Wynne Jones." [Something About the Author Autobiography Series, Volume 7.] <http://www.suberic.net/dwj/bio.html>.
---. "The Heroic Ideal: A Personal Odyssey." The Lion and the Unicorn 13, no. 1 (1989): 129-40.
---. "Heroes." 1992. <http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/heroes.htm>.
---. "Inventing the Middle Ages." [Lecture delivered at Nottingham University, 1997.] <http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/medieval.htm> (9 June 2004).
---. "The Profession of Science Fiction: Answers to Some Questions." 1997. <http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/questions.html>. (25 February, 2001).
---. "Article from The Medusa." <http://suberic.net/dwj/medusa.html>.
---. "The Magic of Narnia." <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/91955/102-5212857-2254559>.
---. "Birthing a Book." The Horn Book Magazine (July/August 2004): 379-93.
---. Review of The Amulet of Samarkand. <http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1105527,00.html">.
---. Review of Inkheart. <http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/childrenandteens/0,6121,1090448,00.html>.
Jones, Nicolette. "Fantasy Matches How our Brains are Made." [Interview with Diana Wynne Jones.] The Times. 26 March 2003.
Mendlesohn, Farah. "Toward a Taxonomy of Fantasy." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 13, no. 2 (2002): 169-83.
---. Diana Wynne Jones and the Children's Fantastic Tradition. London: Routledge, 2005.
Nikolajeva, Maria. Children's Literature Comes of Age: toward a new aesthetic. New York and London: Garland, 1996.
---. "Diana Wynne Jones". De skriver för barn och ungdom. Svenska och översatta nutidförfattare. Lund: Btj 1995.
---. "Fairy Tale and Fantasy: From Archaic to Postmodern." Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies 17, no. 1 (2003): 138-56.
ABSTRACT: The essay discusses the ontological, structural, and epistemological differences between fairy tales and fantasy literature, two genres often treated together in critical works. Using contemporary theories of the fantastic, it is argued that unlike fairy tales, with their origin in archaic thought, fantasy literature is firmly anchored in twentieth-century science and philosophy, especially the postmodern concepts of uncertainty, intersubjectivity, heterotopia, and heteroglossia. The characteristic features of postmodern fantasy literature are illustrated by the works of Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman, Susan Cooper, and Russell Hoban.
Rahn, Suzanne. Rediscoveries in Children's Literature. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1995.
Ridge, Judith. "Diana Wynne Jones 1992 Interview." <http://www.misrule.com.au/dwj92_1.html> to <http://www.misrule.com.au/dwj92_6.html>.
Rosenberg, Teya. "Magical Realism and Children's Literature: Diana Wynne Jones's Black Maria and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children as a Test Case." Papers 11, no. 1 (2001): 14-25.
Rosenberg, Teya et al, eds. Diana Wynne Jones: an exciting and exacting wisdom. New York: Peter Lang, 2002.
Contents:
  • Introduction by Teya Rosenberg
  • "Nowhere To Go, No One To Be: Diana Wynne Jones and the Concepts of Englishness and Self-Image" by Karen Sands-O'Connor
  • "Heretopia as a Reflection of Postmodern Consciousness in the Works of Diana Wynne Jones" by Maria Nikolajeva
  • "Dragons and Quantum Foam: Mythic Archetypes and Modern Physics in Selected Works by Diana Wynne Jones" by Karina Hill
  • "Diana Wynne Jones and the World-Shaping Power of Language" by Deborah Kaplan
  • "Now Here: Where Now? Magic as a Metaphor and as Reality in the Writing of Diana Wynne Jones" by Charles Butler
  • "Good and Evil in the Works of Diana Wynne Jones" by Sarah Fiona Winters
  • "The Importance of Being Nowhere: Narrative Dimensions and Their Interplay in Fire and Hemlock" by Martha P. Hixon
  • "Fire and Hemlock: A text as a Spellcoat" by Akiko Yamazaki
  • "Transformation of Myth in A Tale of Time City" by Sharon M. Scapple
  • "Living in Limbo: The Homeward Bounders as a Metaphor for Military Childhood" by Donna R. White
  • "The Trials and Tribulations of Two Dogsbodies: A Jungian Reading of Diana Wynne Jones' Dogsbody" by Alice Mills
  • "Cats and Aliens in the Unreal City: T.S. Eliot, Diana Wynne Jones, and the Urban Experience" by Marilynn S. Olson
  • Interview with Diana Wynne Jones conducted by Charles Butler
Review 1
Review 2
Rumbold, Margaret. "Taking the Subject Further." Papers 7, no. 2 (1997): 16-28.
Stephens, John. Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction. London and New York: Longman, 1992.
Sullivan, C.W. III. "Traditional Ballads and Modern Children's Fantasy: Some Comments on Structure and Intent." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 11 (1986): 145-47.
Waterhouse, Ruth. "Which Way to Encode and Decode Fiction?" Children's Literature Association Quarterly 16 no.1 (1991): 2-6.