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The relationship of religion and fantasy: The influence of Christianity on the fictional religion in the fantasy genre
Vrbatová, Marcela ; Clark, Colin Steele (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to identify and analyse the relationship between religion, specifically Christianity, and the genre of fantasy, through an in-depth discursive analysis of these themes on a sample of selected works of post WWII fantasy. It primarily focuses on a contrastive comparison of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. The consecutive chapters analyse these works firstly in terms of content, meaning the utilization of the structure of biblical theology in the fictional religions, or specific manifestations of Christian values, beliefs and dogmas in the texts. Secondly, in terms of form of the narrative, specifically the presence or absence of worship, and utilization of Christianity in the language of worship. The thesis identifies the template of a fantasy work created with Christian values in mind provided by Tolkien and the different approaches of Martin and Donaldson, who derivate from this template to some degree. Special attention is payed to the concepts of Good and Evil in The Lord of the Rings and the subsequent character traits and aspiration attributed with it in relation to Christianity, the similarities of Faith of Seven and Christianity in A Song of Ice and Fire, and the roles...
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