Communities of the Heart: The Rhetoric of Myth in the Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin
Warren Rochelle2001

We live in a society that believes itself to be rational – scientific and quantifiable. Yet, at the same time, we live in a culture that is saturated with the mythic. We speak of life as a journey; we are all heroes on our own quests. We seek the fantastic, the princess in the castle, the wizard peering into a crystal bowl. We tell fantastic stories of our technological age – of space ships, other worlds, aliens. and we tell the same stories – in myth, in fantasy, in science fiction. Or do we? Ursula K. Le Guin would answer yes and no. We do tell the same stories, to better and more fully understand what it means to be human, and yet we reinterpret, reimagine these stories, so that they reflect our contemporary world. Warren Rochelle examines Le Guin's reimagining of myth and how such reimagining becomes rhetorical. Through story, through myth, through science fiction and fantasy, he argues, Le Guin takes us into her communities of the heart, communities that are truly human.

Titre original : Communities of the Heart: The Rhetoric of Myth in the Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin (2001)