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Escapes and Returns in Neil Gaiman´s Fantasy Stories
ŠEDIVÁ, Barbora
The diploma thesis deals with the interpretation of Neil Gaiman's work, in particular, the children's stories Coraline (2002), The Graveyard Book (2008) a Fortunately, the Milk (2013). The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the continuity of the discussed works with the tradition of adventure literature and the Gothic novel. The theoretical parts also covers the theme of British children literature and Neil Gaiman and his main works. This part also concentrates on the structure of the rites of passage (Gennep) and on the theme of the test/crisis as an inevitable part of the protagonist's search for his own identity. The practical part of the diploma thesis analyses the stories of Gaiman's protagonists as examples of the initiation that takes place in three main phases: the preliminal, the liminal and the postliminal phase. The specific function of the time-space relations (the motifs of the old house and the cemetery as a border/limit) is described in the same way. The conclusion considers the meaning of escape to another world as an important experience and a part of the journey to adulthood, which helps the protagonists to accept the real world, to find their own place in it and to appreciate the value of real interpersonal relationships.
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The Image of a Forsaken Child in Neil Gaiman´s Children´s Stories
KULHÁNKOVÁ, Nikola
The aim of this diploma thesis is a comparative analysis of the image of a forsaken child in the stories written by a popular English writer Neil Gaiman. The survey of a forsaken child in the Gothic, Romantic and Victorian literature (Walpole, Radcliffe, Blake, Dickens, the Brontë sisters) precedes the interpretation. In addition, this diploma thesis considers the separation of the young hero from his family and friends in traditional fairy tales. In this respect, the thesis discusses the role of transitional rituals and their links to the theme of the test in adventurous literature (Gennep, Bachtin). The first, theoretical chapters point out the fact that the transition to a new existence (adulthood) is often accompanied by horror elements or the nearness of death in the adventurous stories. The novel Coraline is a basis for the literary analysis. The psychological characteristic of the main heroine and her family is linked to the function of home and the role of "the other mother" as a source of the Gothic atmosphere and danger. The following chapters analyse other Gaiman's works ("M is for Magic", The Graveyard Book, Odd and the Frost Giants, Fortunately, the Milk, The Ocean at the End of the Zone) in order to study the relations between the reality and dreams, violence and interpersonal relationships, and to describe the heroes' search for the individual identity.
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