Abstract :
Given its stance against organised religion, it is perhaps not surprising
that Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy His Dark Materials has, alongside the
plaudits and praise, invited controversy and debate. Jacobs (The Weekly Standard,
2000), for instance, views the ‘‘anti-Christian’’ theme in Pullman’s work as both
misleading and dishonest, whilst Hitchens (The Mail on Sunday, 2002) denounces it
as atheistic ‘‘propaganda.’’ Of central concern to these critics, and others, is the
impact of Pullman’s heretical understandings on impressionable young readers. I
would suggest that such concern implies a somewhat questionable homogenisation
of young readers, and fails to recognise the empowering potential residing in
Pullman’s text. Indeed, by drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of ‘‘carnival,’’ a
literary mode which subverts official culture through laughter and role reversals, it
can be argued that far from indoctrinating the reader or promoting uncontested
atheistic understandings, the heretical disruptions and inversions in Pullman’s
religious theme encourage an altogether more positive and plural response
