Mazes Intricate: The Minotaur as a Catalyst of Male Identity Formation in British Young Adult Fiction

As a general rule, appearances of the Minotaur serve a symbolic function, and young adult fiction is no exception. This chapter examines the use of the Minotaur in British young adult fiction to explore how this mythical creature provides a way to explore the transitions that the target audience for these works experience. The chapter looks at three case studies. Stoneheart animates the Minotaur statue found in the Barbican to serve as the final adversary facing the child protagonists. Similarly, in Shadow of the Minotaur, when Phoenix is drawn into a parallel world accessed by an immersive computer game, he must fight his way through the Minotaur myth to survive. Finally, in Corydon and the Island of Monsters, the Minotaur appears as a friend rather than a foe, helping young Corydon travel through the underworld and putting himself at risk in the process. The figure of the Minotaur, located ambiguously between man and beast, thus serves as a vehicle for young male protagonists to explore parts of their identities with which they have previously struggled to come to terms.The volume gathers the results of a stage of the programme Our Mythical Childhood, supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives and an ERC Consolidator Grant. Open Access at Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH at https://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/978-3-8253-7874-5/Marciniak_Ed_Chasing_Mythical_Beasts_PDF/ book/ hardcover ISBN: 978-3-8253-6995-8 Series: Studien zur europäischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur/Studies in European Children's and Young Adult Literature, Volume No. 8 Information about Our Mythical Childhood is available at http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl