Department of English and American Studies Neil Gaiman: Myths In
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Lenka Koudelková Neil Gaiman: Myths in Postmodern Literature Master‘s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. 2015 0 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Bc. Lenka Koudelková 1 I would like to thank doctor Jeffrey Smith for his kind supervision of my work, his advice and endless patience. Many thanks go to my parents, who have supported me throughout my studies; without them this would not be possible. Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank all my friends who encouraged me and took care of my mental health during the last couple of months. Special thankyou goes to David, whose comforting arms and shoulders to cry on were there. Always. 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 2. Myths, modern myths, and new mythologies ...................................................................... 7 a. Joseph Campbell’s theory of The Hero’s Journey ............................................................. 8 2.1.1 Departure ..................................................................................................................... 9 2.1.2. Initiation .................................................................................................................... 10 2.1.3. Return ........................................................................................................................ 11 3. Neil Gaiman: The Prince of stories ...................................................................................... 13 4. American Gods .................................................................................................................... 17 a. American Gods and The Hero’s Journey ......................................................................... 19 i. Departure .................................................................................................................... 20 ii. Initiation ...................................................................................................................... 21 iii. Return .......................................................................................................................... 22 5. The Sandman ........................................................................................................................... 23 5.1. Storyline ...................................................................................................................... 25 5.2. The Endless .................................................................................................................. 26 5.2.1. Dream ........................................................................................................................ 28 5.2.2. Death ......................................................................................................................... 31 5.2. Sandman and The Hero’s Journey .................................................................................... 38 6. Retelling fairy tales .............................................................................................................. 40 6.1. “Snow, Glass, Apples” ................................................................................................. 41 6.2. The Sleeper and the Spindle ....................................................................................... 47 7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 51 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 53 List of picture sources ................................................................................................................. 56 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 57 Resumé ........................................................................................................................................ 57 3 1. Introduction Myths and old stories always fascinated me, and ever since I was little, I have liked reading in books of Greek mythologies, old folk tales, Brothers Grimm‘s fairy tales or even local ballads and legends. After I first encountered Neil Gaiman‘s work, I was immediately drawn to it – both because he offered new retellings and perspectives on the stories that I already knew, but also because he created new worlds, some of which might have seemed familiar, but in the end always brought me to a whole new place. I started to be interested in the connection between old myths and the work of my favourite author, and therefore decided to compare them and try to look into the process of Gaiman‘s writing in the present thesis. Even though some works have been written on Neil Gaiman‘s usage of mythologies, they did not really explore the extent to which he preserves the original readings of myths and folk tales, and compare it to the times he denies them either partly or completely, and recreates them on his own accord. His work is inspired by many writers he read as a child, such as Tolkien, Lewis, Lovecraft or even Shakespeare, as well as myths, fairy tales and folk tales. Gaiman follows and continues the tradition of his fellow contemporary postmodern writers and retells classic stories, offering new aspects to them, new points of view – whether we talk about gender, sexuality or questioning the ―right and wrong‖. He is standing out, though, as a male re-teller of these stories, since they are more often retold by women writers, such as Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood or Jeanette Winterson, who offer new, women-centred versions of old tales. In this respect, Gaiman does not make an exception, for he also delivers strong female characters with strong voice. His work is a mixture of both old and new mythologies and legends, and he very often uses the old to create the new. 4 His versatility precedes him in the literary circles, and he is praised by many. In the introduction to Hanging out with the Dream King, journalist and editor, Joseph McCabe says: Neil Gaiman stories have always crossed boundaries. The boundaries between life and death, between reality and dream, between male and female, and between humans and gods. And the forms these stories take refuse to adhere to any strict boundaries of genre or medium. If an idea doesn‘t quite work in one medium, Gaiman does not abandon it like an unwanted child, but instead lifts it up and carefully examines it to see if it could work in another – be it a comic book, a movie, a novel, a short story, a poem, or a song. (McCabe, 1) To show his versatility and his usage of myths and folk tales in his work, this thesis will deal with three of the many genres Neil Gaiman engages himself in – a novel (American Gods), a graphic novel1 (The Sandman), and two of his short stories - namely Snow, glass, apples; The Sleeper and the Spindle – both being retellings of classic fairy tales. Since American Gods is a very complex piece of fiction, referencing to poetry, prose, popular culture but also myths, stories and legends from all over the world – including African, Native American, Irish, Norse, Slavic and many other mythologies – the focus will be narrowed to the character of Shadow, and his journey, comparing his adventure to Campbell‘s pattern of the Hero‘e Journey. The next part of the thesis will focus on Gaiman‘s graphic novel – The Sandman. Again, the work is very complex, since the main character can travel through all time and space, and through real and imaginary, and the series consists of seventy-five issues. However, it is also a great example of Gaiman creating a whole new mythology, this time based on old ones, but recreating them to a great extent. I will discuss two of the main 1 For the purposes of the thesis, The Sandman is understood as a series of 75 individual comic books,that together form a graphic novel. Another understanding of ‗graphic novel‘ in this case might be the ten volumes, sometimes called graphic novels, in which the individual issues were collected and published. 5 characters of the series in term of their origin in old mythologies, and their comic representation. Soon after the introductory chapter, I will also the theory of The Hero‘s Journey developed by Joseph Campbell, who claimed that all the myths share some common features and developed a pattern. I will introduce this pattern, and try to apply it on both American Gods and The Sandman, seeing if this pattern is truly universal. In the last part of my present work, I will focus on two retellings of classic Grimms‘ fairy tales. The first story, ―Snow, Glass, Apples‖, is Gaiman‘s version of ―Snow White and the Seven Dwarves‖, the second being ―The Sleeper and the Spindle‖, a story published in 2014, merging ―Snow White‖ and ―The Sleeping Beauty‖. I will compare and contrast Gaiman‘s versions to the ones written by brothers Grimm, and also to popularised and children-friendly adaptations by Disney. 6 2. Myths, modern myths, and new mythologies Myth is by the Oxford English dictionary defined as ―a traditional story, typically