David Oberhelman

co-editor of The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America: From H.P. Lovecraft to Leslie Marmon Silko

November 4, 2015

David D. Oberhelman is an associate professor in the humanities social sciences division of the OSU Library, and prior to that was on the faculty in the department of English at Texas Tech University. He holds a Ph.D in English with an emphasis in critical theory from the University of California, Irvine and a masters in library and information science from the University of Pittsburgh. He has written a book on madness in the fiction of Charles Dickens, as well as book chapters and articles on the 19th Century British novel and on Anglo-American fantasy literature, particularly the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. He is also the North American Editor of Reference Reviews and Administrator of the Mythopoeic Fantasy and Scholarship Awards, and serves in many leadership roles for various library and literary associations. He has widely presented and published on topics ranging from emerging technologies in libraries and scholarly communication to the history of the book.

A number of contemporary Native American authors incorporate elements of fantasy into their fiction, while several non-Native fantasy authors utilize elements of Native America in their storytelling. Nevertheless, few experts on fantasy consider American Indian works, and few experts on Native American studies explore the fantastic in literature. Now an international, multi-ethnic and cross-disciplinary group of scholars investigates the meaningful ways in which fantasy and Native America intersect, examining classics by American Indian authors such as Louise Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor and Leslie Marmon Silko, as well as non-Native fantasists such as H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. Thus, these essayists pioneer new ways of thinking about fantasy texts by Native and non-Native authors, and challenge other academics, writers and readers to do the same.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2010-honorees/david-oberhelman

Last Updated: 14 January 2021