Category Archives: Student Papers
Ambiguities and Divided Loyalties: Focalization in Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana
Ambiguities and Divided Loyalties: Focalization in Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana This is a bachelor’s thesis by Roosa Töyrylä, written at the University of Helsinki, Finland. 2017. Introduction In fantasy literature, good and evil are often portrayed as absolute opposites, the … Continue reading
10 Fantasies of History: Guy Gavriel Kay’s Synthesis of the Historical Fantasy Novel
10 Fantasies of History This is the 2012 honours thesis by Matthew Rettino written when while attending McGill University. Since the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, fantasy literature has simultaneously seen the rise of formulaic fantasy … Continue reading
Weaving Legitimacy: Kay’s Use of Mythology in The Fionavar Tapestry
This is an undergraduate paper by Adrienne Johansson written when she was at Wilfrid Laurier University. Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry, undoubtedly the greatest fantasy trilogy ever written by a Canadian, consists of three books; The Summer Tree, published … Continue reading
The Themes of Fate and Free-will in the Fionavar Tapestry
by Shelley McLennan, 2002 The struggle between fate and free-will is a fundamental theme in Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry. The ability of people to change their destiny by the exercising of their free will is most clearly shown … Continue reading
Comment naissent les héros? by Patricia Gagne
An undergraduate essay by Patricia Gagné. In French! Thanks to Alec Lynch for help with the formatting… Au début, il n’y avait rien… Puis arriva le Tisserand qui s’installa à son Métier où il tissa Fionavar, le premier de tous … Continue reading
How are Heroes Born?
This is the English version of Patricia Gagné’s undergraduate essay, “Comment naissent les héros?”, as translated by Morgan Mills. The original French version is also on the site. A translator’s introduction of his work must always consist of an apology … Continue reading
“Brightly Woven” or Free to be Bright
This is a paper written by Joshua Fontanna for a grade 12 high school English class in 2009. Why are you reading this? Do you honestly think it will be worth your time? You don’t have to do this you … Continue reading
“The Unacknowledged Legislators of the World”: Songs and Poetry in Guy Gavriel Kay’s A Song for Arbonne
“The Unacknowledged Legislators of the World”: Songs and Poetry in Guy Gavriel Kay’s A Song for Arbonne This is an undergraduate paper by James Allard written when he was at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He also presented the paper … Continue reading
Myth in Fantasy
An Honours Thesis by Amy Yeong Xiao Hui, submitted as part of her BA in English Literature at the University of Singapore Contents Chapter One: The Importance of Structure in Fantasy Chapter Two: Kay’s Treatment of Archetypes Structure within the … Continue reading
Postcolonialism in Guy Kay’s Tigana
This is an undergraduate paper by Kent Aardse written for a course taken at the University of Lethbridge in 2008. The unifying movement of postcolonial literature sets out to expose the conditions experienced in the world by those people of … Continue reading
Present Reality in Historical Fantasy (Guy Gavriel Kay – Scholarship: & Dissertation)
This is a dissertation by Anya Kleander written for her Honours English Studies with Film and Media Studies Degree at Stirling University, submitted in Spring 2008. Table of contents Acknowledgments and Declaration List of abbreviations Introduction Tigana – ‘mirroring … Continue reading
Royal Ascent: the romance of monarchy in Yvain, The Hobbit, and Tigana
by Stephen David Wark, 1998 Stephen Wark explains how he came to write this paper: “As far as the provenance of the paper goes, it was written for a course during my M.A. at Concordia University titled “Early Modern Romance”. … Continue reading
Songs in the Blood: The Discourse of Music in Three Canadian Novels
by Joyce Gutensohn, 2004 Joyce explains: I had originally planned to write my MA thesis at the University of Victoria on some aspect of the relationship between music and literature, and was leaning toward the traditional approach of examining a … Continue reading
The Creative Construction of History in Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Sarantine Mosaic
by Jillian Hatch, 2005 As Holly E. Ordway recognizes in her essay, “The World-Building of Guy Gavriel Kay,” “Kay’s work is notable in that he makes extensive use of sources from […] the ‘primary world,’” such as “literature, mythology, and … Continue reading