|
|
Fantastic Society: Social Themes in Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Hájek, Jáchym ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Horová, Miroslava (referee)
Terry Pratchett is best known as the author of Discworld, a series of more than forty books and several short stories set in a world that is often described as humorous fantasy. Pratchett, however, uses this genre and its imaginative and satiric opportunities not only to tell stories, but also to mediate his own views on some of the major social themes such as feminism, religion, or racism. He uses the stereotypical fantasy roles and settings and subverts them to point out real world problems and issues. The rise of popularity of the fantasy genre, especially satirical or humorous enables Pratchett to present his views to a broader audience, and to create a world mirroring and distorting the real one as to show the importance and impact of these issues on society. The fantasy setting also gives Pratchett the opportunity to create a world in which these themes can be illustrated and discussed freely. The first chapter sets up Discworld as a Secondary World and presents the topics that will be discussed. The second chapter deals with the many forms of racism in Discworld. The first part of the chapter discusses the standard, human-human type of racism, which is illustrated in the book Jingo. A subchapter is then dedicated to human-nonhuman and dwarf-troll racism, illustrated in Thud!, where Pratchett...
|
guest ::
RSS feed.