Therapy Through Faerie ― Therapeutic Properties of Fantasy Literature by the Inklings and by U. K. Le Guin

This book argues that the fantasy fiction rooted in J. R. R. Tolkien’s concept of Fa?rie, as represented by the fantasy works of the Inklings and of U. K. Le Guin, has certain psychotherapeutic properties. Fa?rie’s generic ‘ethos’ seems to draw on ‘moral imagination’ and on logos (meaning and word), which informs its secondary worlds and encourages a search for an unconditional sense of life, against the postmodern neo-nihilistic aporia. The book postulates an applicability of logotherapy (‘therapy through meaning’, developed after WW2 by Victor Frankl,) to the workings of Fa?rie, whose bibliotherapeutic potential rests on its generic marks, identified by Tolkien as Fantasy, Recovery, Escape (breaking free from incarcerating meaninglessness), Consolation, and (cathartic) Eucatastrophe.

Anna Cholewa-Purgal works at Jan Dlugosz University of Czestochowa, Poland, and holds a PhD in literary studies from the University of Lodz. Her major research interests are fantasy literature, mythopoeia, ekphrasis and therapy in literature, as well as art and music therapy.