Terry Pratchett's narrative worlds [electronic resource] : from giant turtles to small gods /
Rana, Marion,editor.
This book highlights the multi-dimensionality of the work of British fantasy writer and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett. Taking into account content, political commentary, and literary technique, it explores the impact of Pratchett’s work on fantasy writing and genre conventions. With chapters on gender, multiculturalism, secularism, education, and relativism, Section One focuses on different characters’ situatedness within Pratchett’s novels and what this may tell us about the direction of his social, religious and political criticism. Section Two discusses the aesthetic form that this criticism takes, and analyses the post- and meta-modern aspects of Pratchett’s writing, his use of humour, and genre adaptations and deconstructions. This is the ideal collection for any literary and cultural studies scholar, researcher or student interested in fantasy and popular culture in general, and in Terry Pratchett in particular. Marion Rana is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Bremen, Germany, where she is in charge of a project analysing the negotiation of deafness in children’s literature. She is one of the publishers of interjuli, an international journal for research in children’s literature. Her recent publications deal with disability poetry, the commodification of sexuality in dystopian fiction, as well as categories of simplicity and the use of Young Adult literature in the foreign language classroom.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Shedding the Light Fantastic on Terry Pratchett’s Narrative Worlds: An Introduction; Marion Rana -- 2. Be A Witch, Be A Woman: Gendered Characterisation of Terry Pratchett’s Witches; Alice Nuttall -- 3. “Not the Most Stable of Creatures”: Female Monstrosity and Gender Negotiations in the Character of Angua von Uberwald; Marion Rana -- 4. “There Is No Race So Wretched That There Is Not Something Out There That Cares for Them”: Multiculturalism, Understanding, Empathy and Prejudice in Discworld; Mel Gibson -- 5. And the World Continues to Spin Secularism and Demystification in Good Omens; Daniel Scott -- 6. (Non-) Formal Education in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Novels: Mort’s Apprenticeship, Tiffany’s Coming of Age, Susan’s Learning Path and the Unseen University; Maxi Steinbrück -- 7. Learning Relativism through Humour, Intertextuality and the Shift of Viewpoint in the Truckers-Trilogy; Virginie Douglas -- 8. Parody, Pastiche and Satire in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Novels; Gideon Haberkorn -- 9. “At Times like This It's Traditional that a Hero Comes Forth”: Romance and Identity in Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!; Emily Lavin Leverett -- 10. Fantasy as Belief and its Happenings in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather; Minwen Huang -- 11. The Old and the New: Metamodern Oscillation and Reconstruction in Johnny and the Dead and Nation; Nurul Fateha -- 12. Feeling the Potential of Elsewhere: Terry Pratchett’s Nation in Theatre; Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak -- 13. Where Discourse Becomes Discworld: Terry Pratchett, Postmodern Writing and Genre Conventions; Thomas Scholz.
This book highlights the multi-dimensionality of the work of British fantasy writer and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett. Taking into account content, political commentary, and literary technique, it explores the impact of Pratchett’s work on fantasy writing and genre conventions. With chapters on gender, multiculturalism, secularism, education, and relativism, Section One focuses on different characters’ situatedness within Pratchett’s novels and what this may tell us about the direction of his social, religious and political criticism. Section Two discusses the aesthetic form that this criticism takes, and analyses the post- and meta-modern aspects of Pratchett’s writing, his use of humour, and genre adaptations and deconstructions. This is the ideal collection for any literary and cultural studies scholar, researcher or student interested in fantasy and popular culture in general, and in Terry Pratchett in particular. Marion Rana is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Bremen, Germany, where she is in charge of a project analysing the negotiation of deafness in children’s literature. She is one of the publishers of interjuli, an international journal for research in children’s literature. Her recent publications deal with disability poetry, the commodification of sexuality in dystopian fiction, as well as categories of simplicity and the use of Young Adult literature in the foreign language classroom.
Pratchett, Terry