Browsing by Subject "fantasy"

This thesis analyses Joe Abercrombie’s fantasy trilogy, The Shattered Sea, from a cognitive literary perspective. Its focus is on the surprise regarding the storyworld and how our cognitive reading habits can be manipulated in order to surprise us. The analysis utilises theories on narrative surprise and shows how internal focalisation, popular cultural knowledge and genre expectations can be used to mislead readers and then surprise them. The storyworld of Joe Abercrombie's The Shattered Sea is at first a seemingly ordinary fantasy world. The reader is told early on that elves, who are now extinct, have left various relics and elf-ruins behind. As the story continues, the reader finds out that the elves were really us – modern humans. This triggers a narrative frame shift that makes the reader realise that the seemingly ordinary fantasy world is actually a post-apocalyptic world. By putting various clues together, the reader is also able to deduce that the story appears to take place in Northern Europe, only far in the future. The first analysis chapter focuses on the various clues that precede the surprise and two scenes that aim to initiate the frame shift. The chapter is concluded with a discussion that studies the tools used to mislead the reader from the real nature of the storyworld. The second part of the analysis will focus on the effects that the frame shift has to the reading of the rest of the story. Because the story is consistently told from an internally focalised perspective, the post-apocalyptic storyworld does not overwrite the fantasy world but becomes tangled up with it. Thus, even after the frame shift, through the perspective of the narrating characters a fantasy world full of magic and wonders is still portrayed. Simultaneously, the reader as a modern human is aware that this is essentially just a matter of perspective as, for example, the magical elvish relics turn out to be modern objects mundane to us. A curious reader will have to actively put together bits and pieces of the rather limited information in order to answer various questions that the story evokes. This includes figuring out, for instance, how much time has passed since the Breaking and what the event was that destroyed our civilisation. This thesis builds upon existing theories regarding narrative surprises in the way it shows how our cognitive reading habits and expectations can be used to mislead us. It explores how various elements can simultaneously be at work together in order to surprise the reader. The layering of the two storyworlds in The Shattered Sea also shows our cognitive capabilities when reading a narrative.

This thesis examines depictions of and attitudes towards nature in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The depictions can be divided into two different categories: those that highlight awe-inspiring qualities of nature and promote the idea of living in harmony with it, and those that concentrate on environmental destruction and the characters’ ethical stances concerning the loss of nature. Through its nature descriptions and underlying ethical stances The Lord of the Rings can affect the reader’s own relationship with nature. In the thesis, The Lord of the Rings is discussed from ecocritical viewpoints, concentrating on human-nature relationship and environmental destruction. Drawing on from studies concerning literature’s ability to affect us through imagination, character identification, narrative empathy and sympathy, and narrative ethics, this thesis demonstrates how the attitudes towards nature in the novel can make the reader appreciate the natural world. Through the above mentioned means the reader may begin to feel stronger emotional affinity to nature and as a result starts seeing nature as having value beyond using it as a commodity. The first discussion chapter focuses on the awe-inspiring and magical nature of Middle-earth and shows how descriptions of it can instil a sense of wonder towards nature in the real world. After that the characters who live in harmony with the natural world are discussed: Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, the Elves and the Ents all live in close connection with nature, presenting a model of a harmonious relationship with nature. In the second discussion chapter the environmental destruction of Middle-earth is examined: the destruction of nature goes hand in hand with the actions of the villains, and the heroes of the story constantly judge those who destroy nature. Underlying ethics of the novel are further highlighted by the story of Saruman which serves as a cautionary tale of using nature as a commodity. Through narrative empathy, narrative sympathy and character identification, the reader is likely to be on the side of the heroes, and therefore the novel guides the reader in the direction of its underlying ethical stance that presents nature as having intrinsic value. The discussion on The Lord of the Rings demonstrates the ways in which literature can help the reader form a new relationship with the natural world by highlighting awe-inspiring qualities of nature and presenting a model of living in a harmonious relationship with nature, and by presenting destruction of nature as ethically wrong. As one’s emotional affinity to nature is likely to lead to willingness to protect the natural world, literature may offer us some tools to tackle both climate change and the loss of biodiversity.