Dimensions of Madeleine L’Engle

Best known for her Newbery Medal-winning novel A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle (1918–2007) had a long and successful writing career. Her books enjoyed popular acclaim and she was in constant demand to give speeches, write forewords and advise and encourage younger authors. Yet her work—particularly her adult fiction—has been largely ignored by scholars. This collection of new essays gives overdue critical attention to L’Engle’s complete body of work, from her familiar young adult fiction to her religious writings, poems and short stories.

Suzanne Bray is a professor of British literature and civilization at Lille Catholic University in the north of France. She specializes in the history of religious ideas and their place in popular culture in the 20th century. She has published extensively in French and English on various Christian authors including C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Charles Williams and Madeleine L’Engle.

Edited by Suzanne Bray

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 208
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6435-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2798-4
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1

New Directions in L’Engle Studies?
(Suzanne Bray) 3
A Scientific Girl and Two Intuitive Boys: The Unconventional Protagonists of A Wrinkle in Time
(Anne-Frédérique ­Mochel-Caballero) 40
Thinking, Doing and Delaying Insemination in Madeleine L’Engle’s Many Waters
(Chantel Lavoie) 51
Narration of the Poet as a Young Woman: Intertextuality, Genre and ­World-Building in L’Engle’s Austin Family Novels
(Carol S. Franko) 65
What Madeleine Inherited from Her “Grandfather George”: The Influence of George MacDonald on Madeleine L’Engle in Her Children’s Fantasy Books
(Sophie Dillinger) 90
Madeleine L’Engle: An ­Anti-Romantic Romantic?
(Gregory G. Pepetone) 111
Discarded Image and Expanding Universe: The (Meta)physics of C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle
(Naomi Wood) 133
A Problematic Sense of Place: Madeleine L’Engle’s “White in the Moon the Long Road Lies”
(Gérald Préher) 149
Of God and Women: The Evolution of Theology in L’Engle’s Biblical Reimaginings
(Emily Louise ­Zimbrick-Rogers) 160
“And what should I do in Illyria?”: Discovering the American South and Its Gods in Madeleine L’Engle’s The Other Side of the Sun
(Suzanne Bray) 178

Selected Works 189
About the Contributors 195
Index 197

• “Brings new angles, focus and scholarship to areas not much explored in L’Engle”—Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction
• “A significant contribution to L’Engle criticism”—SFRA Review