ABSTRACT
In a surprising variety of fantasy and children’s fiction, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) to recent works by Neil Gaiman, characters move between worlds with different cultural and social norms and values. This chapter explores the pedagogical and literary-critical implications of this trope in texts suitable for anglophone-literature curricula in second-language teacher education programs. It focuses on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (1911), a classic work of children’s literature, and Gaiman’s popular children’s and fantasy fiction, Coraline (2002) and American Gods (2001). Narratives of spatial mobility between worlds, the chapter argues, raise questions of intercultural negotiation and competence, and offer ways for instructors and teacher learners to explore the border-traversing potential of the literary imagination.
