Nodelman, Perry. “Reinventing the Past: Gender in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Tehanu and the Earthsea “Trilogy”.” Children’s Literature, vol. 23, 1995, p. 179-201. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/chl.0.0246.
In this essay, Perry Nodelman suggests that Ursula Le Guin made contradictory ideas in Tehanu that backtracked on the ideas relating to gender and sex that existed in the previous books. Nodelman criticizes Le Guin for conforming to the patriarchal standards set in the fantasy genre and then revising these constraints and re-writing the role of women in Earthsea in the fourth book of the series. These ideas are very critical of Ursula K. Le Guin; Nodelman doesn’t like the way that the Earthsea books evolved in their portrayal of women.
Comoletti, Laura & Drout, Michael. (2001). How They Do Things with Words: Language, Power, Gender, and the Priestly Wizards of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Books. Children’s Literature. 29. 113-141. 10.1353/chl.0.0786.
file:///Users/ruby/Downloads/ComolettiAndDrout%20(1).pdf
This essay suggests, contrary to Nodelman’s belief that Le Guin made contradictory ideas in her later installments to the Earthsea series, that instead Le Guin made a calculated decision to alter the way that women can be perceived in her world. It analyzes the cultural influences that go into Earthsea, such as the wizards being very similar to medeival Christian priests, being celibate, educated, and all male. The essay cites many sources from the Earthsea books themselves and Earthsea Revisioned to other essays about Earthsea as well as quotes and ideas about the fantasy genre and influences. The comparison of wizards to priests is a theme in the essay that is emphasized. The authors of this essay compare magic to religion, in that mages and priests are the go-between for the common people to access this higher power. The higher power can only be received through extensive study at a specific place by specific people. Just as priests learn latin, wizards learn the Old Speech. These comparisons have helped me understand where Ursula may have taken inspiration from.
Hedberg, Malin. “Failed Feminism?: Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel Tehanu”
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:5724/FULLTEXT01.pdf
This article agrees with the ideas that Perry Nodelman asserts, but thinks more critically about why those ideas are true. The structure of the essay presents the opportunities that Le Guin sets up in which the sexism built in the previous installments of the series could be reversed or revised. Hedberg then shows that these opportunities to provide feminism in the Earthsea world are then squandered and don’t come to anything. She brings feminist criticism and ideas into the reading of the novels, inviting readers to think critically about whether Ursula Le Guin was thinking of these ideas when she was writing. Did Le Guin not realize the opportunities she had to lift up her characters in their feminine power? Or did she recognize what could have been done, and decided not to do it?
Rawls, Melanie A. (2008) “Witches, Wives and Dragons: The Evolution of the Women in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea—An Overview,” Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 26 : No. 3 , Article 10. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol26/iss3/10
This essay examines the roles of women in Earthsea throughout the books. Melanie Rawls looks at how women, particularly Tenar, the main female character of the series, act and are treated. Tenar is the protagonist of the second and fourth books, but they have her in very different roles; in the second, Tenar is a hero; in the fourth, Tenar is a widowed homemaker, with two grown children and a farm to take care of. The ideas explored in Rawls’ essay include how this is somewhat typical of Le Guin; she has revised and reviewed ideas in her past books before. Another idea explored is that of finding empowerment in traditional female roles. Tenar is a homemaker, a mother and a wife, but she enjoys those jobs and she chose that life for herself.
K., Le Guin Ursula. Earthsea Revisioned. Children’s Literature New England, 1993.
A speech given by Ursula K. Le Guin at Oxford in 1993. She spoke about her choices in writing her books, her place as a female author, and her development of the Earthsea world. She also touched on the criticism she has received for the differences between her earlier and later books in the series, specifically the changes in how women behave and are treated. These changes and differences are key to my essay, and reading Ursula Le Guin’s first-hand account of her thoughts while writing will be very useful to help me understand her, her process, her books, and the world of Earthsea.