The Universe of Oz: Essays on Baum's Series and Its Progeny

by Kevin K. Durand (Editor), Mary K. Leigh (Editor)

Overview

The Wizard of Oz has captured the imagination of the public since publication of L. Frank Baum's first book of the series in 1900. Oz has shaped the way we read children's literature, view motion pictures and experience musicals. Oz has captured the scholarly imagination as well. The seventeen essays in this book address numerous questions of the boundaries between literature, film, and stage—and these have become essential to Oz scholarship. Together the essays explore the ways in which Oz tells us much about ourselves, our society, and our journeys.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786446285
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	03/02/2010
Series:	Genre/SF & Fantasy
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kevin K. Durand is the dean of academics at the LISA Academy College Preparatory School in Little Rock, Arkansas. He has published broadly in philosophy, religion, and ethics. Mary K. Leigh is a Doctoral Academy Fellow at the University of Arkansas.

Table of Contents

Preface; or, Scholars Walk the Yellow Brick Road 1

Part 1 Oz and Literary Criticism

1 The Emerald Canon: Where the Yellow Brick Road Forks Kevin K. Durand 11

2 Dorothy and Cinderella: The Case of the Missing Prince and the Despair of the Fairy Tale Agnes B. Curry Josef Velazquez 24

3 Psychospiritual Wizdom: Dorothy's Monomyth in The Wizard of Oz Jen? Gutierrez 54

4 "Come out, come out, wherever you are": How Tina Landau's 1969 Stages a Queer Reading of The Wizard of Oz Ronald Zank 61

5 "Something between higgledy-piggledy and the eternal sphere": Queering Age/Sex in Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl Emily A. Mattingly 77

6 No Place Like the O.Z.: Heroes and Hybridity in Sci-Fi's Tin Man Kristin Noone 94

7 The Wizard of Oz as a Modernist Work Charity Gibson 107

Part 2 Oz and Philosophy

8 Ask the Clock of the Time Dragon: Oz in the Past and the Future Randall Auxier 121

9 Down the Yellow Brick Road: Good and Evil, Freewill, and Generosity in The Wizard of Oz Gail Linsenbard 136

10 The "Wonderful" Wizard of Oz and Other Lies: A Study of Inauthenticity in Wicked: A New Musical Mary K. Leigh 147

11 Memories Cloaked in Magic: Memory and Identity in Tin Man Anne Collins Smith 158

12 The Wicked Wizard of Oz Kevin K. Durand 172

13 A Feminist Stroll Down the Yellow Brick Road: Dorothy's Heroine's Adventure Paula Kent 179

Part 3 Oz and Social Critique

14 The Wiz: American Culture at Its Best Rhonda Williams 191

15 The Wiz as the Seventies' Version of The Wizard of Oz: An Analysis Claudia A. Beach 200

16 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Religious Populism and Spiritual Capitalism Kevin Tanner 204

17 The Ethics and Epistemology of Emancipation in Oz Jason M. Bell Jessica Bell 225

About the Contributors 247

Index 251

Editorial Reviews

wide range of fascinating articles about Oz and its place in our culture”—SFRA Review.

From the Publisher

wide range of fascinating articles about Oz and its place in our culture

SFRA Review