"First Among Shepherds": Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching Series from an Arthurian Perspective

<p>Throughout his career writing on the Discworld, Terry Pratchett employed what he referred to as ‘white knowledge’; a wide spectrum of intertextuality and allusiveness that pervaded the structure of his stories, the dialogue, the narration, and that was even discussed in scenes constructed to comment on the very absurdity of its existence. In my MA thesis, I examine closely the allusive qualities of the white knowledge present in Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series: The Wee Free Men (2003), A Hat Full of Sky (2004), Wintersmith (2006), I Shall Wear Midnight (2010) and The Shepherd’s Crown (2015). Specifically, I analyze Pratchett’s use of the Arthurian tradition and his references to our understanding of the Arthurian tradition, as constructed by Malory, Tennyson and T. H. White. My aim is to demonstrate how Pratchett constructs Tiffany Aching as an Arthurian palimpsest, alluding to what came before whilst subverting and challenging the very texts from which she is imagined. In my first chapter I analyze the third Tiffany Aching book, Wintersmith, as an example of the Arthurian story of the Fisher King. I also argue for Tiffany Aching herself, in the first two books, existing as a subversive, humanist, reversed Fisher King, who draws strength and power from the land rather than inflicting sterility upon it. In the second chapter I examine the Arthurian tradition of love triangles, and examine from a feminist, genderqueer perspective Pratchett’s habit of placing characters in roles outside of their traditional gender binaries. In the third chapter I look at Letitia Keepsake, a character introduced in I Shall Wear Midnight, and examine her subversive relationship to the Tennyson poem “The Lady of Shalott”.</p>

"First Among Shepherds": Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching Series from an Arthurian Perspective

<p>Throughout his career writing on the Discworld, Terry Pratchett employed what he referred to as ‘white knowledge’; a wide spectrum of intertextuality and allusiveness that pervaded the structure of his stories, the dialogue, the narration, and that was even discussed in scenes constructed to comment on the very absurdity of its existence. In my MA thesis, I examine closely the allusive qualities of the white knowledge present in Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series: The Wee Free Men (2003), A Hat Full of Sky (2004), Wintersmith (2006), I Shall Wear Midnight (2010) and The Shepherd’s Crown (2015). Specifically, I analyze Pratchett’s use of the Arthurian tradition and his references to our understanding of the Arthurian tradition, as constructed by Malory, Tennyson and T. H. White. My aim is to demonstrate how Pratchett constructs Tiffany Aching as an Arthurian palimpsest, alluding to what came before whilst subverting and challenging the very texts from which she is imagined. In my first chapter I analyze the third Tiffany Aching book, Wintersmith, as an example of the Arthurian story of the Fisher King. I also argue for Tiffany Aching herself, in the first two books, existing as a subversive, humanist, reversed Fisher King, who draws strength and power from the land rather than inflicting sterility upon it. In the second chapter I examine the Arthurian tradition of love triangles, and examine from a feminist, genderqueer perspective Pratchett’s habit of placing characters in roles outside of their traditional gender binaries. In the third chapter I look at Letitia Keepsake, a character introduced in I Shall Wear Midnight, and examine her subversive relationship to the Tennyson poem “The Lady of Shalott”.</p>

By the Strength of Their Enemies: The Virtue of the Stereotypical Antagonist in Terry Pratchett's 'Witches' Novels

<p><b>The comic fantasy Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) are marked by their clear and insightful approaches to complex ethical issues. This has been noted in academic approaches from the beginning, with Farah Mendlesohn’s chapter “Faith and Ethics” appearing in the early collection Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature (2000) and many others since touching on the issues Pratchett raises. However, this thesis’s investigation into the use of stereotypes in characterisation and development of the antagonist figures within the Discworld novels breaks new ground in mapping the course of Pratchett’s approaches across six Discworld novels. </b></p><p>This argument will focus on the ‘Witches’ sequence of novels: Equal Rites (1987), Wyrd Sisters (1988), Witches Abroad (1991), Lords and Ladies (1992), Maskerade (1995), and Carpe Jugulum (1998). Unlike other sequences in the Discworld series, these novels have a strong metatextual focus on the structural components of narrative. In this context, stereotypes facilitate both the humour and the moral arguments of these novels. Signifiers of stereotypes invoke expectations which are as often thwarted as they are fulfilled and, while resulting in humour, this process also reflects on the place of the individual within the community, the nature of right and wrong, and how we as people control the narratives which define our lives and ourselves. In closely examining the role of antagonists in the development of an ethical thread through the sequence, I argue that the careful use of stereotypes in these texts serves as a key shorthand in engaging the reader in the philosophical bent of the novels.</p>

By the Strength of Their Enemies: The Virtue of the Stereotypical Antagonist in Terry Pratchett's 'Witches' Novels

<p><b>The comic fantasy Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) are marked by their clear and insightful approaches to complex ethical issues. This has been noted in academic approaches from the beginning, with Farah Mendlesohn’s chapter “Faith and Ethics” appearing in the early collection Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature (2000) and many others since touching on the issues Pratchett raises. However, this thesis’s investigation into the use of stereotypes in characterisation and development of the antagonist figures within the Discworld novels breaks new ground in mapping the course of Pratchett’s approaches across six Discworld novels. </b></p><p>This argument will focus on the ‘Witches’ sequence of novels: Equal Rites (1987), Wyrd Sisters (1988), Witches Abroad (1991), Lords and Ladies (1992), Maskerade (1995), and Carpe Jugulum (1998). Unlike other sequences in the Discworld series, these novels have a strong metatextual focus on the structural components of narrative. In this context, stereotypes facilitate both the humour and the moral arguments of these novels. Signifiers of stereotypes invoke expectations which are as often thwarted as they are fulfilled and, while resulting in humour, this process also reflects on the place of the individual within the community, the nature of right and wrong, and how we as people control the narratives which define our lives and ourselves. In closely examining the role of antagonists in the development of an ethical thread through the sequence, I argue that the careful use of stereotypes in these texts serves as a key shorthand in engaging the reader in the philosophical bent of the novels.</p>

Intertextuality in T. Pratchett’s Novel Maskerade

The category of intertextuality and playing with the reader have become an integral part of mass literature in the era of postmodernism. The aim of this article is to analyse the intertextual inclusions in Maskerade (1995), a novel by Terry Pratchett, a British writer who achieved success in comic fantasy and is well-known for his book series Discworld and the use of different cultural references which play a crucial role in the construction of the storyline. The research refers to the original text of Maskerade, the primary precedent texts, i.e. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux and the musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber, as well as several musical works of the last century. The distinctive features of the novel include a predominance of musical references over literary ones, which can be explained by the primary plot of the book developing on the stage of the Ankh-Morpork Opera House. In the very paratitle of the novel, the writer begins an intertextual game with the reader, hinting at the main narrative line, the duality and masquerade of what happens. All the plot-forming intertextual connections analysed in this article have no attribution and are expressed in the form of marked quotations, quasi-quotations, and allusions. However, taking into consideration “the white knowledge” and the readers’ horizon of expectations, Terry Pratchett reconsiders many images of the characters and seemingly well-known plot twists of The Phantom of the Opera. Furthermore, showing the backstage of the theatrical world with its prejudices and difficulties, the author thereby connects the real world with the secondary fictional world which turn out to be hardly distinguishable from each other.

Scenes from the End of the World in American Popular Culture

This chapter examines the influence of biblical apocalyptic literature in popular culture. After exploring the problems of terminology and definitions, it examines four examples of apocalyptic in popular culture: two of these, Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 1990) and the television series Supernatural (created by Eric Kripke, 2005–2020) draw directly from the biblical apocalypses, especially Revelation. They also change details from Revelation in order to better fit their agenda. Two additional examples are explored: the movie 2012 (2009) and Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. Both focus on end-time scenarios that do not derive directly from the biblical apocalypses but instead use the flood narrative from Genesis 6–9 to highlight their eschatology. This chapter argues that the shift in popular culture from drawing directly on biblical apocalypses to drawing on other narratives—specifically the flood—derives from a turn toward environmental concerns in contemporary Western culture.

(Post)Modern Marlowe in Hard-Boiled Victorian Age: Generic Classification of Terry Pratchett’s City Watch Cycle

Poprzez odrzucenie zasady czystości formy, postmodernizm umożliwił dogłębną analizę, rewaluację oraz ponowne zdefi niowanie cech charakterystycznych poszczególnych gatunków literackich. Dało to twórcom możliwość zabawy formą oraz tworzenia często nieoczywistych hybryd gatunkowych. Jednym z mistrzów owych międzygatunkowych chimer jest współczesny brytyjski pisarz, sir Terry Pratchett . Twórca z wszech miar przekorny i nie stroniący od eksperymentów literackich, w pełni wykorzystuje wolność gatunkową oferowaną przez tezy postmodernizmu. Efekty owej fascynacji postmodernizmem są dostrzegalne m.in. w serii jego powieści kryminalnych, które po zanalizowaniu okazują się być mieszaniną fantasy, powieści detektywistycznej, powieści policyjnej, kryminału noir, kryminału typu hard-boiled, ballady heroicznej, powieści łotrzykowskiej oraz satyry polityczno-społecznej. Ta wieloskładnikowa mikstura jest, pomimo pozornie chaotycznego doboru składników, tworzona wg starannie opracowanego klucza i zorganizowana wokół jednego głównego gatunku, którym na pierwszy rzut oka wydaje się być kryminał noir. Jednakże, oglądane z bliska, kryminały Pratchett a okazują się być, pomimo licznych współczesnych elementów, przedstawicielami klasycznej powieści detektywistycznej sięgającej tradycjami do epoki królowej Wiktorii i wywodzącej się od pewnego dżentelmena z fajką i szkłem powiększającym.