Ethics and Imagination

While Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" Trilogy is aimed at young readers, the three texts construct a dynamic and complicated world that forces readers to confront and question ofter overlooked questions of ethics. Breaking with the canonical norms and patterns of Children's and Young Adult Literature, Pullman's three novels open new perspectives on the very possibility of thinking ethically in the contemporary political moment. This book aims to trace Pullman's critiques of the theological tradition and articulated alternative modes of imagining subjectivity and ethics. Drawing on the work post-structuralist thinkers and literary critics, this work finds a stunning connection with Pullman's radical imaginary. Literary critics yearning for a more sustained relationship between Children and Young Adult fiction and critical theory should find this work useful to illustrate the depths to which this connection can be mined.