Mosaic and Cornucopia: Fairy Tale and Myth in Contemporary Australian YA Fantasy

Abstract

Since the 1990s, Australian Young Adult fantasy has flourished as a genre, buoyed by the increasing interest in fantasy literature world-wide and at home. From fully realized secondary fantasy worlds, to intrusion fantasy that incorporates fantasy and the real world, to portal quests with one foot in the contemporary Australian scene, Australian writers of Young Adult (YA) literature have been adept at exploring the literary opportunities offered them by this genre. In this essay, we explore some of those literary opportunities-namely, the adaptation of fairy tale and myth in Australian YA fantasy. These two strands have emerged in recent years, and they demonstrate Australian writers' engagement with their cultural heritage and their ongoing interest in interweaving local interests with a universal experience. We use the terms "mosaic and cornucopia" to point to the rich array of influences visible in Australian YA fantasy: mosaic referring to the incorporation of elements put together in ways that create new material; and cornucopia referring to the idea that fantasy writers work in a context of a plenitude of influences, references, and ideas from myth (ancient and modern).