Diana Wynne Jones: An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom is a collection of scholarly essays examining the work of British author Diana Wynne Jones, whose prolific contributions to speculative fiction span the past thirty years. A contemporary of such well known fantastic authors as Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, Jones is also a clear influence on more recent writers such as J. K. Rowling. Her humorous and exciting stories, many published for children but read by all ages, are also complexly structured and thought provoking. These essays - written by academics and independent scholars from Australia, North America, Europe, and Asia - present a wide variety of approaches to and ideas about Jones's work. This book will be of interest to Jones's many admirers and to those who study or appreciate speculative fiction and children's literature. Diana Wynne Jones: An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom is a collection of scholarly essays examining the work of British author Diana Wynne Jones, whose prolific contributions to speculative fiction span the past thirty years. A contemporary of such well known fantastic authors as Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, Jones is also a clear influence on more recent writers such as J. K. Rowling. Her humorous and exciting stories, many published for children but read by all ages, are also complexly structured and thought provoking. These essays ¿ written by academics and independent scholars from Australia, North America, Europe, and Asia ¿ present a wide variety of approaches to and ideas about Jones¿s work. This book will be of interest to Jones¿s many admirers and to those who study or appreciate speculative fiction and children¿s literature. Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1(12) Teya Rosenberg Nowhere To Go, No One To Be: Diana Wynne Jones and the Concepts of Englishness and Self-Image 13(12) Karen Sands-O'Connor Heterotopia as a Reflection of Postmodern Consciousness in the Works of Diana Wynne Jones 25(15) Maria Nikolajeva Dragons and Quantum Foam: Mythic Archetypes and Modern Physics in Selected Works by Diana Wynne Jones 40(13) Karina Hill Diana Wynne Jones and the World-Shaping Power of Language 53(13) Deborah Kaplan Now Here: Where Now? Magic as Metaphor and as Reality in the Writing of Diana Wynne Jones 66(13) Charles Butler Good and Evil in the Works of Diana Wynne Jones and J. K. Rowling 79(17) Sarah Fiona Winters The Importance of Being Nowhere: Narrative Dimensions and Their Interplay in Fire and Hemlock 96(12) Martha P. Hixon Fire and Hemlock: A Text as a Spellcoat 108(9) Akiko Yamazaki Transformation of Myth in A Tale of Time City 117(8) Sharon M. Scapple Living in Limbo: The Homeward Bounders as a Metaphor for Military Childhood 125(13) Donna R. White The Trials and Tribulations of Two Dogsbodies: A Jungian Reading of Diana Wynne Jones's Dogsbody 138(11) Alice Mills Cats and Aliens in the Unreal City: T. S. Eliot, Diana Wynne Jones, and the Urban Experience 149(14) Marilynn S. Olson Interview with Diana Wynne Jones Conducted 163(10) Charles Butler List of Contributors 173(4) Index 177