Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

5.4.4
 
Absence of authority 
Even though the traditional hero lives in an intact social and family environment, his 
parents or guardians need to be temporarily absent for him to have the necessary freedom for 
adventures. Since freedom means space, many fantastic adventures take place outside of the 
house, the symbol of enclosure and security. In order to engage with unknown situations, 
environments and beings, known territory has to be left behind. Where this is not physically 
possible, a fantastic encounter such as that of Alice or Diamond can be experienced within the 
framework of a dream. Its advantage is obvious: Reality, its conventions, norms and laws of 
nature are suspended or overruled, and other restrictions are more easily overcome. Another 
reason for the absence of adults and their authority is the fact that their rationality is often 
incompatible with imagination and play and would only hinder the children’s creativity.
From the start, the modern hero in British fantasy novels for children enjoys 
substantially more freedom than the traditional one due to different family structures and the 
less strict education system. This circumstance renders dreams as a framework or background 
for fantastic adventures superfluous. With the increased amount of freedom, more possibilities 

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for fantastic encounters arise. The reasons for the absence of parents and their authority vary 
from holiday, work-related trips, divorce or separation to illness or even death. Whether real 
or temporary orphans,
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the total absence of authority is only given if there is no guardian 
involved.
A large number of corpus novels are based on such an absence of parents and 
authority for various reasons. Whereas Artemis Fowl’s father has been kidnapped, his mother 
suffers from depression and is thus incapable of looking after him. In view of this unusual 
freedom combined with Artemis’ cleverness, the teenager is given a free hand for his 
decisions and activities. His bodyguard, aptly named Butler, is exactly that, not a guardian. 
Artemis is clearly the master. Brennan’s hero Henry is troubled by the separation of his 
parents and his mother’s new lesbian relationship and spends his spare time with the 
pensioner Fogarty, who acts as a mentor but cannot replace the parents. In Nix’ The Keys to 
the Kingdom
series, Arthur has been adopted. In addition, his mother has a stressful job as a 
doctor, thus often being absent. When a highly contagious epidemic disease breaks out, his 
family is affected and put under quarantine. This separation permits Arthur to be separated 
from his family and to enter the House without his parents coming to look for him. In His 
Dark Materials
, Will’s father has disappeared, and his mother is mentally incapable of 
looking after him. Rather, he has to look after her until he enters the secondary world, but not 
without making sure that his mum is being taken care of by someone else during his own 
absence. It is only shortly before his father’s death that Will is reunited with him. Lyra, by 
contrast, is raised as an orphan, before her true origin is revealed to her. She learns that Mrs 
Coulter and Lord Asriel, whom she knew all along in other functions, are in reality her 
parents. Eventually, the girl loses both again and then is truly orphaned. Molly Moon is an 
orphan, too, and can do away with guardians thanks to her gift of hypnotism. With his parents 
murdered by Voldemort, Harry Potter is also an orphan. While his last living relations, his 
aunt and uncle, keep their distance and shun him whenever possible, the Weasley family 
makes him feel welcome and part of their clan right from the beginning. All the same, the
theme of the lost parents runs through the entire series, and Harry never overcomes his pain. 
This shows that even though parents are often absent, this is not always seen as a good thing 
and the children miss their love and care. Guardians or friends can only ease the situation but 
they cannot substitute the parents. In Hoffman’s Stravaganza, we come across a rare case of 
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One day, a temporary orphan’s true origin is revealed and the parents are either newly found or recognised for 
what they really are if they have been present all this time, but in a different function. 

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role reversal. In the primary world, Lucien’s parents are orphaned by their son’s death from 
cancer, and in the secondary world, a Talian boy leaves his parents behind as well. Instead of 
dying, the two boys change between the two worlds, and live on in the respective other world. 
Lucien’s parents are partially consoled by the arrival of a foster son – the boy from Talia.
As all the above examples demonstrate, the absence or loss of a child’s parents – or, as 
in Lucien’s case, the loss of a child – leaves a void which cannot be fully bridged or filled. 
Despite today’s changing family structures towards less complex and looser bonds and a 
general openness in dealing with them, the traditional core family is still something which 
both parents and children long for. No matter how strained the daily routine might be, all 
those fantasy novels directly or indirectly mourn the traditional family concept.