XA Proceedings, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2019.
Conference paper
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Book of Lost Things: Escape into Fantasy as a Way of Dealing with War
Valentina Markasović
; Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek
Abstract
Many children’s fantasy novels include scenes in which the protagonists leave the safety of their homes and cross over into unknown fantasy worlds. It could be argued that the whole premise is based on the phenomenon of escapism. In particular, this paper will explore the way in which the war circumstances of the real-world fuel the need of the child protagonists to seek out a new and better world. This will be done through a comparative analysis of two novels that take place in England during the Second World War, and whose protagonists temporarily leave their homes in favour of the novels’ respective fantasy worlds: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. The comparison will be explicated by following the proposed stages of the plots’ development: the introduction and contextualisation of the war circumstances; going over into the fantasy world; the adventure in the fantasy world and how it mirrors the real situation. The final stage encompasses the return to the ordinary world and the exploration of how the protagonists’ worldview has changed.
Relevant literary sources will be consulted to support the arguments, and historical sources will be utilised for the contextualisation of the plot and an interdisciplinary overview of the topic.
Keywords
fantasy; war; escapism; Lewis; Narnia; Connolly
Hrčak ID:
220857
URI
Publication date:
8.6.2019.
Visits: 1.657 *