The uses of magic: Fantasy literature and its effects in pre-adolescent development

Using the theories of Bruno Bettelheim's seminal work The Uses of Enchantment as a prototype, this paper delineates several ways in which books from the genre of fantasy fiction can facilitate pre-adolescent psychological development. Exemplars of the genre are scrutinized for themes consistent with the necessary developmental tasks appropriate for children between the ages of 9 and 12. Popular works such as the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and Neil Gaiman's Coraline are found to contain analogous themes similar to the archetypes found worldwide in Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. This dissertation theorizes that an unconscious understanding of important developmental tasks is enhanced by the young readers of these magically themed stories.