Dancing with Dragons: Ursula K. LeGuin and the Critics

Le Guin criticism examined, showing how her reputation as a leading American writer has developed.

Ursula K. Le Guin began to provoke attention in the late 1960s with the publication of A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). The former, a young adult fantasy, established Le Guin as America's foremost contemporary fantasist, a reputation which continues to this day. Both books started Le Guin on the road to being one of the most award-winning writers in America, as author of realistic fiction, historical fiction,children's literature, fantasy, poetry, reviews, and critical essays.
The moral force and stylistic sophistication of Le Guin's work demand a critical reponse that reviewers and scholars have been quick to provide. As an academically trained critic in her own right, Le Guin has never shied from critical confrontation, though preferring discussion to warfare. For thirty years, she has maintained a dialogue with her critics, exploring with them her changing views on feminism, environmentalism, and utopia. Dancing with Dragons brings together for the first time the various strands of Le Guin criticism to show how the author's dialogue with the critics has informed and influenced her work and her own critical stance, and explores how her reputation as a major voice in American letters has developed.
Professor DONNA WHITE teaches at Clemson University.