Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Self-Discovery and the Alternative: A Postmodern Quest for Identity in Neil Gaiman’s Novels

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2019

Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Zuzana Kršková, Ph.D. Bc. Jesika Novotná

Declaration I hereby declare that I wrote this thesis independently and that I used only sources listed in the bibliography section.

______Brno, November 2019 Bc. Jesika Novotná

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Mgr. Zuzana Kršková, PhD., for her kind guidance, endless energy, and countless highly valuable tips she provided throughout the process of writing.

Annotation

This aim of this diploma thesis is to assess the protagonists of Neil Gaiman's novels Neverwhere and American Gods in the context of postmodern society, and what influence such a society poses on their identity. This thesis argues that the realities of postmodern life are responsible for their identity crises and the purposelessness of their lives since. Consequently, the thesis endeavours to document the state of their personalities against the backdrop of postmodern society. For such a claim, it firstly introduces the primary features of postmodernism and postmodern life. Above all, it claims that a turn to a fantasy realm provides the protagonist with an opportunity to explore their potential, and therefore to reclaim their identity. For that, the thesis outlines their transformation in the fantasy world according to Joseph Campbell's theory of monomyth. Finally, it evaluates the state of the protagonists' identities in contrast to their initial situation in the ordinary world.

Anotace

Cílem této diplomové práce je analýza hlavních charakterů v novelách Neila Gaimana Neverwhere and American Gods. Tato analýza je zakotvena v kontextu postmoderní společnosti a dopadů této společnosti na identitu protagonistů. Práce předkládá argument, že styl života v postmoderní éře je zodpovědný za osobnostní krizi hlavních postav. Dále se práce zaměřuje na fantastické světy, které se v novelách vyskytují a pomáhají protagonistům k hledání jejich identity. V závěru práce popisuje vývoj postav v tomto alternativním prostředí, k čemuž ji napomáhá teorie monomýtu rozpracovaná Josephem Campbellem. V neposlední řadě text reflektuje osobnostní změny po ukončení hrdinovy cesty v kontrastu s počáteční problematickou identitou protagonistů.

Key Words

Neil Gaiman, postmodernism, intertextuality, identity crises, alternative worlds, Joseph Campbell, hero’s journey

Klíčová slova

Neil Gaiman, postmodernismus, intertextualita, krize identity, alternativní světy, Joseph Campbell, cesta hrdiny

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 1 2 Between the Worlds of Neil Gaiman ...... 3 3 Plot Over-view ...... 5 4 The Concept of Postmodernism ...... 7 4.1 What Is Postmodernism ...... 8 4.2 Postmodernism in Neil Gaiman’s Work ...... 11 5 Postmodern Writing Techniques Significant for Character Transformation ...... 14 5.1 Duality ...... 14 5.2 Between Reality and Fantasy ...... 15 5.3 Introduction to Intertextuality ...... 16 5.3.1 Examples of Transtextuality in Neverwhere and American Gods ...... 17 6 Postmodern Society and Character Profiles Before Transformation with Emphasis on a Crisis of Identity ...... 25 7 The Alternative Worlds ...... 34 8 Postmodernism Meets the Hero’s Journey ...... 36 8.1 Departure ...... 39 8.1.1 Call to Adventure ...... 39 8.1.2 Refusal of the Call ...... 39 8.1.3 Supernatural Aid ...... 40 8.1.4 Crossing of the Threshold ...... 41 8.1.5 In the Belly of a Whale...... 43 8.2 The Initiation ...... 43 8.2.1 The Road of Trials ...... 43 8.2.2 Meeting with a Goddess/Woman as a Temptress ...... 44 8.2.3 Atonement with the Father/ Apotheosis/ Ultimate Boon ...... 45 8.3 Return ...... 47 9 Conclusion ...... 50 10 Bibliography ...... 52 10.1 Primary Sources ...... 52 10.2 Secondary Sources ...... 52

“Stories are, in one way or another, mirrors. We use them to explain to ourselves how the world works or how it doesn’t work. Like mirrors, stories prepare us for the day to come. They distract us from the things in the darkness.”

(Gaiman, The Fragile Things)

1 Introduction

This thesis has its roots many years ago when, one March afternoon, a good friend of mine and I were wandering in London. While waiting for a train at a busy Tube station, he asked me whether I knew of Neil Gaiman. On his recommendation I started to read my first novel by this author: Neverwhere1. Some years later, I have now read most of Gaiman’s most prominent books and collections. Needless to say, I am still as enchanted and amazed by his stories as at my first encounter. Gaiman’s ability to create new worlds, to build new retellings on familiar foundations and to create memorable characters drew me into his work as it had many others, including wider readership as well as academia. It might seem that the most of academic attention was concentrated on Gaiman’s comics of Sandman which were scrutinized by many literary scholars from several perspectives. However, the present thesis will focus on novels Neverwhere and American Gods as its main objectives, with a particular emphasis given to their protagonists – Richard Mayhew and Shadow Moon and their search for identity on their self-awakening journey. The aim of this diploma thesis is to assess the protagonists of Neil Gaiman's novels Neverwhere and American Gods in the context of postmodern society, and what influence such a society poses on their identity. This thesis argues that the realities of postmodern life are responsible for their identity crises and the purposelessness of their lives since. Therefore, the thesis submerges into exploration of their character shift upon their leaving of the postmodern world into a fantasy one. It will try to assess the protagonist’s reclaim of their identity through the medium of an alternative/fantasy realm. As a tool to track their metamorphosis the well- known theory of hero’s journey proposed by Joseph Campbell will be used. The thesis will try to reflect on the final state of their transformation in correlation to their initial state in the postmodern world. The thesis will try to scrutinise whether the right environment can enable the characters to explore their purpose of life and thus to find their true identity. This thesis is dived into five main chapters with the opening pages dedicated to providing a short commentary on the author himself and his most prominent works. Subsequently, it will provide brief plot over-views of the subject novels to give a better understanding of some phenomena in the theses.

1 Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere takes place mostly in London Tube area

The first chapter will start by introducing the notion of postmodernism due to the thesis’s claim that postmodern atmosphere has a vast influence on the character shaping and identity crises experienced by the protagonists. For a better understanding of this elusive notion and its reflection into the postmodern life, the thesis will firstly aim to describe some of the leading theories of postmodernism. After that, the thesis will attempt to put Gaiman into the postmodern literary perspective and trace signature moves of his writings that defend him as a postmodern author. A special emphasis will be given to the concept of duality and intertextuality as they figure as a key building block in the creation of the alterative worlds which are essential for character transformation. As a background for these claims it will serve theories concerning postmodern literature. The following chapter will study the politics of postmodern society and will focus on the hardship of today’s existence and comment on the crises of identity evolving from postmodern life-style. Most importantly, it will try to assess the main characters, Richard and Shadow, with regard to the symptoms of an identity crisis. It will scrutinise their characters from a psychoanalytical point of view while examining the interrelationships and external influences that shape their personality. Moreover, this chapter will also raise questions concerning the difficulty one can encounter in the contemporary world, burdened with its lack of meaning, self-worth and a daunting feeling of isolation. This thesis argues that the answer to these issues can be found in an escape from the dispirited concepts of a postmodern life into an alternative world. Consequently, the following chapter will focus on the part of alternative worlds of Neverwhere and American Gods and their coexistence with the primary worlds. It will point out the pitfalls of postmodern society and highlight the benefits that the fantasy world offers to the postmodern crisis. The central argument lies in the notion of the ‘other realities’ to provide the characters with a sense of meaning, and certain “rawness” and “realness” in an opposition to the world they left, a world full of postmodern preoccupations. The paper aims to highlight the significance of the fantasy place as a virtual feature of the spoken transformation, because it is only there where Richard and Shadow reach their full potential to become heroes; and most of all, find answers to their search for identity and a feeling of content. The last chapter will draw together the themes of the previous two, offering an actual analysis of the protagonists’ transformation taken in the alternative realms based on Joseph Campbell’s concept of hero’s journey. This section will be dedicated to surveying the most crucial parts of the novel leading to their transformation and will compare Richard and Shadow during their respective journeys. In conclusion, it will assess the initial state of their personalities with that at the end of the stories.

2 Between the Worlds of Neil Gaiman

“Born and raised in England, Neil Gaiman now lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has somehow reached his forties and still tends to need a haircut” (Greenberg n.p.)

Neil Gaiman maintains a fine position in the literary sphere as one of the most prominent and prolific contemporary writers, who is highly commended by readers and critics alike. Throughout his artistic career, Gaiman creatively exploited many of literary genres and forms; mostly known for his seminal work on comic books, he also significantly engaged with screenplays, novels, poems, and numerous short stories, both for adults and children. Moreover, as a result of his versatile writing, exceptional imagination, and intriguing storytelling skills, Gaiman was awarded many literary prizes such as Nebula, Locus, Hugo, and Bram Stoker Award. In the midst of many epithets associated with Gaiman such as Prince of Stories or Dream King, perhaps the most telling is the Forbes labelling Gaiman as “the most famous author you have never heard of”. What is more, his fellow writers unlimitedly praise Gaiman’s genius. For example, Peter Straub said, “Nobody in his field is better than this. Gaiman is a master, and his vast roomy stories, filled with every possible shade of feeling, are unlike anyone else’s” (Wagner 16). Simply put, Neil Gaiman is one of the most celebrated and influential of contemporaneous authors, who never fails to fascinate and spark interest across the wider readership, including critics and academics alike.

Gaiman was an avid reader in his childhood; among the many books that made a particular impact on his literary growth, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia as well as Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were paramount (Wagner 3). True to his writing, the longing for distant lands left a long-lasting impression on Gaiman, one which he would later pass into his own stories. However, at first Gaiman pursued a career in journalism, before he landed a job as a comic book writer where he created the phenomenal work Sandman. With the story of Sandman, the ruler of human unconsciousness, he made an A list of comics writers and was by many credited with changing the history of comics. Tiffin is quick to point out that “the patterns of inevitability and predestination” (Tiffin 396) that are crucial in Sandman, remained a dominant theme in subsequent Gaiman’s prose, too. On grounds of this significant break-through, many a door opened for the young author. Over the course of his literary career, Gaiman encountered various forms of media and literary genres. Indeed, to categorize Gaiman, or to try to label him into a library shelf, is, due to his

3 exceptional versatility, a task itself daring and unmanageable. After all, Gaiman produced many screenplays, poems, numerous short stories and wrote remarkable novels, both for adults and children. Despite a wide range of genres that Gaiman covers and a certain elusiveness of his writing, there are crucial themes, patterns, and ideas that are prominent and repetitive across his work that are regarded as typical for postmodern literature. Gaiman is an author whose poetry is founded upon connecting different worlds and blurring the lines of fantasy and reality. Besides that, another of the principal ideas appearing throughout his writing, is Gaiman’s inspiration from myths and tales and their re-framing into new narratives. This feature can be recognised for example in the newest2 of Gaiman’s books The Norse Mythology, where the author retells myths from Scandinavia; or the best-selling novel American Gods in which he depicts the fates of many world pantheons in this day and age. Another typical aspect for Gaiman’s writing is touching upon dualism of worlds and narrative pluralities in the stories he creates. This theme can be detected in Coraline – a children story in Alice-in-Wonderland fashion; or a riff on classical Victorian folk tales Stardust where the protagonist needs to cross a wall, magical portal, to enter a fairy world behind it to seek his fortune. In the same manner, Gaiman’s first solo novel Neverwhere depicts a main character venturing into London Below, which is a place in the London Underground filled with everything that is no longer needed or lost from today’s London. The main symbolism of Gaiman’s work is that these parallel realities coexist together and complete each other. Gaiman masterfully connects mainstream societies and fantastic worlds and therefore creates his own unison, space and time crossing world. This is depicted in the two chosen novels as a postmodern world runs parallel to a fantasy world created by Gaiman that becomes key in the to the character transformation of the protagonists.

2 To this date

3 Plot Over-view

Since the analysis is heavily dependent on the context of the novel and the texts are not well-known, it is useful to provide a brief plot over-view to get acquainted with pivotal events and features of the novels which will be referred to later.

Nevewehere is Gaiman’s first solo novel and is an urban story which depicts adventures of young, unassuming Richard Mayhew. At the beginning of the story, Richard relocates from Scotland to London due to a promising job offer. The London lifestyle, however, proves monotonous and unfulfilling for Richard. He spends his days at work in London city; his weekends with his ambitious and superior girlfriend Jessica who sees in Richard the potential to be “a good matrimonial accessory if harnessed by the right woman” (Gaiman 12). One evening when Jessica and Richard are about to have an important dinner with Jessica’s boss, they find a girl lying bleeding on the pavement. Despite his girlfriend’s protests, Richard helps the girl and takes her to his flat, leaving Jessica disappointed and angry. Richard learns that the injured girl is called Door and she is on the run from two assassins, Messrs Croup and Crouch, who killed her family. The next day, after Door’s miraculous recovery, Richard realises that he is being completely ignored and forgotten in his life. His co-workers do not recognise him, he cannot call a taxi or make a phone call. Simply put, he is invisible and unrecognisable to everybody. Therefore, Richard decides to seek Door in a hope that she will be able to explain to him the current situation. After finding her, he discovers that because of his encounter with Door, he no longer exists in London Above, the ordinary and conventional London. Contrarily, he now belongs to London Below, a disposal place of the forgotten and hidden. After the initial bewilderment, Richard unwillingly decides to join the party of Door, her friend Marquis de Carabas and Door’s bodyguard Hunter on their quest to find out who is responsible for the death of Door’s family. Richard hopes that on their journey he will discover a way how to be able to return to his old life. However, on their crusade, Richard undergoes a significant transformation of his character as he plays a key role in defeating Door’s arch enemy and slaying the Great Beast of London. In the end, Richard is given the freedom of the Underside (London Below) and returns to his previous life. To his surprise, Richard does not find reconciliation and fulfilment in a real world and longs to travel back to the Underside of which he now thinks his home.

American Gods begins when the main character Shadow Moon is about to be released from prison. Only days before the end of his detention, he is told that his wife Laura has been a victim of a fatal car accident. In the view of his wife’s death, Shadow is released early. After the tragic news, Shadow finds himself even more disconnected from himself, as he does not neither home, family or job. Following a sequence of odd occurrences, Shadow finds himself sitting on a plane next to an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. To Shadow’s incredulity, it appears that Wednesday is familiar with Shadow’s situation and he offers him a job as his bodyguard and errand-boy. At first, Shadow declines this offer many times, but in the end after he is told that “People don’t hire ex-cons. You folk make them uncomfortable” (Gaiman 35); he and his new boss seal their deal with golden mead. That very night Shadow has a surprising visit: his wife Laura, while still looking dead, visits him. Shadow gradually understands that he is in the middle of a pending war between two parties: old and new gods; and for an as yet unknown reason, he is significant for both groups as they lure him to their side. Mr. Wednesday invites Shadow on a road trip across America in order to visit old gods who immigrated with people to America and had to assimilate with a contemporary American society. Like that, Shadow meets old gods: Egyptian Thoth and Anubis, Slavic Czernobog and Zorya sister, followed by African Anansi. The main issue seems to lie in the abandonment of the old gods, who are losing their power as nobody worships them any longer. This has an effect on their fainting image and a rather sad way of life as the new gods, in a form of Techboy, Media or Mr. Road, take over people’s belief. Over the course of the novel Shadow experiences several adventures during Mr. Wednesday’s recruiting of old gods to go to war against new gods. Unfortunately, Mr. Wednesday is killed by the new gods in live-stream and now it is Shadow’s responsibility to hold his vigil – to be pinned to the tree of life for nine days and nine nights. Over the course of the vigil, Shadow discovers that this conflict of gods is in fact a two- man con, constructed by the leaders of opposing troupes, Mr. Wednesday and Mr. World, in order to gain power for themselves. Moreover, he also learns about his divine origin since his father is revealed to be Mr. Wednesday himself. By the end of the journey, Shadow is celebrated for stopping the unnecessary war as he exposed Mr. Wednesday and Mr. World to their respective followers.

4 The Concept of Postmodernism

Before proceeding any further, it is necessary to consider some possible pitfalls that might await on the journey. First, it is important to realise that the phenomenon of postmodernism is still vague and unclear among literary scholars with a great number of theories and opinions on this matter, which will be discussed later. The goal of this thesis is not to scrutinize postmodernism itself, but rather it aims to introduce the views of the leading thinkers to provide the theoretical background needed for a further character analysis. The explanation of postmodern discourse is significant due to its manifestation in lives of the protagonists as the thesis claims to be the source of their discontent. For the understanding of the consequences of a postmodern way of life it is crucial to be acquainted with the leading thoughts of postmodernism. The following paragraphs will focus on presenting the main ideas and central figures in this movement with a special emphasis on theories vital in supporting the objective of the thesis; e.g. Gerard Genette’s classification of transtextuality which mirrors in the creation of fantasy worlds; or Jameson’s critique of consumerism which plays a significant part in protagonists’ detest with postmodern society. Secondly, this thesis tries to explore Neil Gaiman’s work on a postmodern literature scene with his usage of significant postmodern writing techniques and themes. Moreover, by exploring the essence of Gaiman’s writing, the thesis aims to draw a parallel of his novels with the protagonists. As it will be discussed later, the novels, same as Richard and Shadow, embody within themselves a particular fusion of the old and new. Additionally, the thesis will examine two seemingly contradictory phenomena: postmodernism and Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. Postmodernism declines pre-existing systems, the grand narratives, which monomyth could be perceived as, too. However, this thesis will attempt to demonstrate the symbiosis of the two notions in Gaiman’s novels. By outlining prominent features of postmodern writing and depicting the traditional hero’s journey, this thesis will aim to show that such contradictory techniques might go hand in hand.

Therefore, the first chapter will offer essential knowledge on the notion of postmodernism as it will present fundamental features of postmodernism that most of academics agree on while predominantly discussing features of postmodern literature typical subsequently employed by Gaiman in the discussed novels.

4.1 What Is Postmodernism

David D. Galloway likens the attempts to capture the concept of postmodernism to an endeavour of sightless Indians who try to describe an elephant by a mere touching of a single part of the animal (Galloway 398). Many scholars tried to define postmodernism, but since this subject is so organic, it depends where you take your stand. Indeed, postmodernism is still very much a loaded and controversial term. Over the course of the last century, many theories on postmodernism emerged: some of them in a stark contradiction. Nevertheless, this thesis will present commonly acknowledged views on this phenomenon. For instance, many theorists, despite the obscurity of the notion, are of the same opinion that postmodernism is a complex set of ideas encompassing various fields and disciplines; that means postmodernism is in strong opposition to a specifically defined style prior to it. Postmodernism is usually linked with revolutionary social, political and historical changes that emerged approximately after the WW 2. Upon these events, a significant shift in perception of art and culture appeared. Traditional approaches towards society started to fail humankind and a yearning for a novel viewpoint of the world at large enabled postmodernism to arise. Even though it is still a relevant movement in today’s society, it lacks a generally accepted and clear definition. Altogether, it can be viewed “as a set of critical, strategic, rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum and hyperreality to destabilise other concepts such a presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning” (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy n.p.) In the same manner, Stuart Sim claims that “Postmodernism is to be regarded as a rejection of many, if not most, of the cultural certainties in which life in the West has been structured over the last couple of centuries (Sim 7). By this, Sim elaborates on a crucial notion of postmodernism - refusal of phenomena which a leading postmodern thinker Jean-Francois Lyotard calls grand narratives. This term was firstly established in his seminal work on The Postmodern Condition: A report Knowledge. Lyotard understands grand narratives as a long- established totalizing thinking schemas, world-views or ideologies. Postmodernism seeks to dissolve these universal truths and encourages to denaturalise them; it presents these concepts in a new light questioning them with a significant mistrust. By this it can be understood that postmodernist thoughts and texts are based on a subjectivist and arbitrary approach and therefore they reject well-known, universally acknowledged features for the sake of promoting one’s unique perception and multifaceted realities.

Frederik Jameson, a Marxist critic, perceives postmodernism as a political phenomenon strongly linked with an economic sphere, namely with capitalism. Jameson focuses on the feature of pastiche in postmodernism, where he understands pastiche as an irony of an original, and criticises postmodernism for its apolitical attitude. For Jameson, the irony should have a political purpose and postmodern art just for art’s sake is the object of his disapproval. As it was mentioned above, postmodernism still awaits a definitive description, but it is important to note, that a certain elusiveness and obscurity in defying postmodernism makes it its own. Postmodern literature distinctly correlates with the key proposing ideas of postmodernism; Bran Nicol especially pointed out its evasiveness and indefinable nature (Nicol 16). Like postmodernism, its literature tends to resist clear definition and categorization. For this reason, it is a challenging task to classify a text as purely postmodern, since the category is diverse and slippery. Nevertheless, there are still distinguishing features that are regarded as typical for postmodern works; among these Hoffmann mentions pluralism, multiplicity, discontinuity or possibility of anything (Hoffmann 36). In a correlation with that, Linda Hutcheon, a chief postmodern scholar, accents dualism, double meaning and self- contradiction within postmodern works (Hutcheon 9). Hutcheon is also well-known for her historiographic metafiction point of view. Simply put, Hutcheon argues that historical events are narratives which include a fictional element. This idea suggest that we speak about past happenings in the same manner as we speak about a fictional story. In her book A Poetics of Postmodernism Hutcheon also stresses the issue of partiality, bias, inaccuracy and incompleteness of these narratives based on from whom and how these data stories are concluded. On that account, Hutcheon claims that history is always told by the majority and thus she promotes the idea of giving voice to minorities to see narratives from a different perspective. Lewis Berry in his Postmodernism and literature enumerates the following characteristics of postmodern literature: pastiche, temporal disorder, fragmentation, paranoia and vicious circles (Lewis 124). Furthermore, among other traits can be listed blurring of distinction between genres and the unity between “high” and “low” culture. By the same token, Theo D’Haen, a Belgian literary scholar, pointed out the connection between postmodernism and magic realism. D’Haen suggests that these two genres share crucial attributes including “self-reflexivness, metafiction, eclecticism, redundancy, multiplicity, discontinuity, intertextuality, parody, the erasure of boundaries and the destabilization of the reader” (D’Haen 143).

Among other significant literary figures, Umberto Eco further explores the idea of intertextuality, the reoccurrence of situations, and challenges the issue of originality, within a context of postmodernism: The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently. I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows that he cannot say to her ‘I love you madly’, because he knows that she knows (and that she knows he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say ‘As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly’. At this point, having avoided false innocence, having said clearly that it is no longer possible to speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her in an age of lost innocence. (Eco 68) Here Eco tackles the reintroduction of motives and themes which are significant for postmodern literature. Eco states that no experience is new in life and that all situations have already previously occurred; thus, it is impossible to create completely new experiences. Putting this notion into literary perspective, it suggests that no truly authentic stories can be produced since everything was already realized. Therefore, an artist can only recreate or reframe old narratives, place them in an unconventional environment or combine different narratives into a new one. As a result, postmodern literature bears a resemblance to an unconventional collage of various stories told before. Besides that, Eco also elaborates on a notion of several layers in a text which introduces a text as an imaginary staircase; it depends on the reader how far he is willing to step down in a text: a reader can perceive a text in different meaning e.g. as a detective story, as a historic novel or a meta-text. This idea suggests that postmodernism provides the reader with the possibility of understanding of a work from many different perspectives. Another significant view on postmodern literature was made by Brian McHale; in his seminal book Postmodernist fiction he presents postmodern literature with a correlation to ontology and various realities. He is concern about the idea of different worlds, shifting between them and the experience they provide in connection to one self. He claims that within our reality, we also encounter a different realm. McHale’s understanding of postmodern literature will be crucial for analysing Gaiman in regard to postmodern literature, mainly due Gaiman’s usage of several realms in his work.

On the whole, it can be claimed postmodernist writers aim to challenge the reader’s expectation by crossing conventional schemes as they try to reframe well-known narratives. It is important to note, that the aforementioned features do not solely serve the postmodernism genre. Dualism, irony or fragmentation can be detected in other genres, too. These writing techniques apply across the spectrum of literary genres; however, the aforementioned methods are often found in works considered postmodern by literary scholars. This thesis will now return to the work of Neil Gaiman so as to trace some of the significant postmodern moves he involved in his work.

4.2 Postmodernism in Neil Gaiman’s Work

This chapter will be dedicated to significant postmodern techniques which can be detected in Neil Gaiman’s books. Due to his inclination to rekindle mythologies, invoking classical tales, creating allusion to pop culture and mixing genres, Gaiman is by many considered to be a postmodern writer. Throughout his canon he echoed elements from myths (American Gods, Sandman, Neverwhere), folklore (Stardust, Snow, Glass, Apples), classic novels (Coraline, Study in Emerald, The Graveyard Book), or contemporary culture (Anansi boys); all while redesigning the original stories. The fragmentation of old narratives and a fitting implementation of certain schemes and characters add another dimension to Gaiman’s writing since his works are plentiful of intertextuality, symbols and archetypes. Consequently, by meticulously intertwining such features into his own stories; the resultant associations provide the power to enrich and deepen his writing. Thus, the strategy of decomposing existent works3 rightly classifies Gaiman as an author of postmodern genre. Moreover, a similar pattern of fusion between the old and new is not only found within the stories Gaiman writes. Similarly, to the creation of the novels, where Gaiman ingeniously blends contemporary society with old mythologies, this fusion can be traced within the very protagonists of the novel. As Gaiman depicts the characters in their everyday contemporary life, he subsequently involves mythology to be a determinant in their character shaping. By this Gaiman echoes his writing in his characters; e.g. Neverwhere being a contemporary novel is built upon foundation of mythology and legends. In a similar fashion, its protagonist Richard, embodies a representative of contemporary society, finds his life transforming due to the affairs in London Below, a place

3 As pointed out by Eco

11 of myth and thus these two notions blend within Richard in unison, same as in Gaiman’s writing. Now, let us outline Gaiman’s most notable postmodern acts before the thesis turns to the detailed examination of Neverwhere and American Gods. Sandman is considered by many to be the most postmodern piece of Gaiman’s oeuvre. That view is supported by his ingenious blurring of the boundaries of high and low art form, presenting a complex literary text published in the form of a comic book. He also presented in the story authentic historic figures4 and orchestrated their life in order to serve his narrative’s purpose. Nevertheless, the most prominent postmodern feature is Gaiman’s interweaving of Greek mythology5 and aboriginal folklore in his creation. Sandman is a centre of attention of a great number of academics who predominantly study the text from a point of view of a development of comic genre. Another significant point of scrutiny is to explore the aforementioned intertextuality in the piece. Gaiman proved himself highly successful when reinventing concepts from classic tales of The Jungle Book and Alice through the Looking Glass. In an episodic composition of The Graveyard Book Gaiman made a riff on Kipling’s well-known story about an orphan, while dressing it in a macabre coat, by opting for ghost parents rather than animal carers. In a similar fashion, he elaborated in his novel Coraline on Lewis Carolls’s motif of a curious girl who steps into a parallel world. Gaiman prides himself on an ability of skilful intertextuality, allusion and daring reinvention of the existing works. His new tales are masterfully executed as the perceptive reader will be rewarded with a nod from old stories. In his aforementioned theory, D’Haen describes the closeness of postmodernism and magic realism. Gaiman embraced the magic realism movement in the novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane. In this novel, he challenges the perception of time and space6 and seamlessly adds magical elements into a mundane life. Moreover, he blurs the line between an author and a narrator when he merges with the main character.7 The story is a homage to childhood and

4 Gaiman explores the relationship between Morpheus (Sandman) and William Shakespeare in stories: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Men of Good Fortune and Tempest. Gaiman here explain Shakespeare’s genius by striking a Faustian deal between Sandman and him; it is therefore Sandman who provides Shakespeare with the great brilliance to write phenomenal plays. Gaiman also modify the mention plays by revising them in an unconventional fashion. 5 Sandman, also called Morpheus, is a God of sleep in Greek pantheon 6 While the narrator talks with Lottie Hempstock, an eleven year old girl, he asks her “’How old are you, really?’ I asked. ‘Eleven.’ I thought for a while. Then I asked, ‘How long have you been eleven for?’ She smiled at me.” (Gaiman, 40) 7 The Ocean at the End of the Lane came into being when Neil Gaiman decided to create a short story for his wife about his own childhood

12 soaked with nostalgia whilst pondering about human existence. On the top of that, it is by many recognised as the most philosophical piece of Gaiman’s writing.

5 Postmodern Writing Techniques Significant for Character Transformation

The following chapter will exploit crucial writing aspects, including literary and linguistic features, of postmodern literature which are used in Neverwhere and American Gods and which contribute to building a crucial environment for the examined transformation journey of the characters. The aim is to describe these postmodern elements and their actualisation in the texts since they are crucial in the realisation of the world-creation of the alternative realms where the spoken character transformations take place. The thesis will namely explore intertextuality which is a significant part of the alternative world creation, along with the concept of duality which is a reoccurring motif in both novels. Furthermore, the exploration of the postmodern features also bears metatextual significance as the paper will try to show that Gaiman not only portrays postmodern situation in the novels, the contemporary society which proves daunting to the protagonist and this make the characters to yearn to escape to find identity. He does so simultaneously by obtaining a postmodernist approach to describe this postmodernist notion. Therefore, we can read Gaiman’s stories through a postmodern lens in two dimensions. First, he introduces postmodern themes of lost identity in the contemporary society, including motives of duality and fragmentation; and at the same time, he creates these stories by using key postmodern writings such as intertextuality, assimilation of genres etc. By this Gaiman enhances the postmodern essence of his writing, since metatextuality is one of the attributes of postmodern literature, too. Consequently, the novels are both postmodern regarding their writing strategy as well as in content depicted in the novel, therefore confirming Gaiman’s position on a postmodern backdrop.

5.1 Duality

One of the crucial postmodern traits as stressed by Hutcheon is duality. Duality is strongly presented in both novels: In Neverwhere the most notable example is a duality of a world– the inversion of the London Above and London Below. These are the places where Richard’s hero journey takes place: in London Above Richard lives his ordinary life without fulfilment or purpose; it is only in the alternative realm – the London Below where he undergoes trials that lead him to his self-awakening moment. London Above (real) is viewed through an uncanny lens transformed into London Below (alternative) and in a carnivalesque

14 manner: adding a twist to possessions of the London Above. The concept of the two opposing worlds will be discussed in a more detail in a latter chapter. As for the American Gods, duality is articulated through the appearance of coins with their two sides. The most important coins in the story – the silver and gold one – symbolise the opposition of day and night, Sun and Moon, life and death. Moreover, a case of duality is found within characters of the stories; the most notable example in Neverwhere is the Angel Isligton who is initially depicted as a saint angel but actually is the main antagonist of the novel. On the other hand, in American Gods a distinct sense of duality is embedded in the two-fold identity of numerous characters: the gods acquire a new personality due to adaptation in the evolving reality which is in opposition to their original nature. Therefore, we are, for instance, introduced to the character of Mr. Nancy who is in fact god Anansi. Furthermore, a character duality is in the form of the protagonist Shadow who over the course of the story obtains an alter ego Mike Ainsel in order to stay incognito; this camouflage is supposed to protect him from the impeding war.

5.2 Between Reality and Fantasy

Another important postmodern feature is a balance between reality and fantasy, this trait is strongly covered in both novels: the London Above symbolises a world of reality with its depiction of urban life, and on the other hand the London Below stands for a fantasy place echoing the real London in a macabre fashion. In American Gods is the notion of the reality/fantasy also explored mainly through contrasting troupes of gods: old gods represent fantasy while the new gods symbolise reality. It is important to note that the reality and fantasy contemplate each other and form a certain symbiosis: “Neither a magical, nor a realistic reading of the events satisfies on its own – it is precisely the interplay of doubts and hesitation between the apparently conflicting ways of viewing reality which makes the reading experience memorable” (Čipkár 112).

5.3 Introduction to Intertextuality

The following pages will deal with the depiction of intertextuality and its implementation in American Gods and Neverwhere. Higher attention to intertextuality is given since it is most prolific feature in the two stories which embraces the aforementioned elements and elaborates on them. Leading academics and culture theorists such as Julia Kristeva, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes and Gerard Genette questioned the ability of an artist to produce a positively original content. These motions lead to introduction of the idea of intertextuality – one of the most crucial strategies of postmodern literature which denotes a proposal of rewriting text and suggests text’s containment of references to other texts. The term itself was conveyed in the 60s by Kristeva in her treatise Word, Dialogue and Novel. It goes without saying, that the scholars somewhat differed in their perception and application of the term and they continue to so do. Initially, Kristeva suggested that intertextuality is “a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and transformation of another” (Kristeva 37). She claimed that a text is “a permutation of texts, an intertextuality in the space of a given text” she also subsequently commented on the utterances within the particular text taken from another text. (Kristeva 36). Kristeva elaborated this thought into a notion of a “cultural text” which symbolises a compilation where texts share cultural and literary traits as well as their influence and an ability transform one another.8 Therefore, Kristeva’s main hypothesis lies in a motion that every text, as well as every reading, is shaped by prior understandings. Kristeva’s vision of intertextuality was embodied into Gennete’s generated division of intertextual relationships (Genette 10). However, Gennete concept of text relations is strongly marked by his inclination to the term transtextuality. To him transtextuality manifests the interconnection of text parts and is “all that sets the text in a relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts” (Genette 13). Unlike Kristeva, he uses transtextuality as an umbrella term; thus, differentiating other categories that treats different types of textual relations which enables him to identify their correlation more distinctly. His work Palimpsets, Genette first dealt with explicit, hidden and implicit transtextuality; subsequently, he

8 This relationship between a text and another text Kristeva denotes as a vertical axis, while horizontal axis represents the relationship between the author and the reader.

16 established five chief categories of transtextuality which serve as a key to an interpretation of the relation between narratives, these are: paratextuality, architextuality, metatextuality, intertextuality, and hypertextuality. According to Genette, paratextuality includes headings, titles, prefaces, epigraphs, dedication and acknowledgments. The next term - architextuality, describes texts as a part of a particular genre or genres which follow shared features between texts of the same genre. Metatextuality, in Genette’s perception, is addressing one text by another. Interestingly, distinct boundaries between Genette’s metatextuality and metafiction are not clearly set; consequently, both of them deal with a commentary about a text in either primary or secondary manner (Genette 13). In addressing intertextuality, Gennette claims that it is “an actual presence of one text within another” (Genette 13), in the text it can be represented as onomastic, literary or cultural allusions or quotations. Last of the categories is hypertextuality which deals with a relationship of two texts: a primary and a secondary text. It outlines the transaction, modification and elaboration of the previous text into a new one. These transformations include parody, spoof, or translation (Gennete 15).

5.3.1 Examples of Transtextuality in Neverwhere and American Gods

Following the Gennete’s proposed typology, the thesis will now discuss each category. Due to a focus on the argument, only some aspects of the phenomenon will be discussed, namely those which are relevant in to the creation of the alternative worlds or to the character transformation.

Intertextuality

Since the revival of mythological figures bears the most significant part of intertextuality used in American Gods, it naturally provides most space for scrutiny. Gaiman uses intertextuality to implement old mythologies in his narrative. However, he does not only incorporate the myths, he recreates them into his own. Gaiman inspects new myths and puts them into a newly refurbished narrative: in American Gods he invites many significant characters from pantheons around the world and depicts their struggle to fit into a new environment – America in the postmodern age. Gaiman incorporates elements from Norse, Egyptian, Slavic, African, Indian, Irish mythologies combined with several urban myths, folktales and American phenomena such as Iktomi or White Buffalo. When Gaiman creates new characters, there is usually a core reference easily understood to the primary source of the

17 character. Furthermore, Gaiman also preservers the idea of America being a melting pot, a place where other countries come to unite – “They brought me, and Loki, and Thor, Anansi and the Lion God, Leprechauns and Kobolds and Banshees, Kubera and Frau Holle and Ashtaroth, and they brought you” (Gaiman: 107). This move suggests the correlation between the arrival of the old gods to the historic emigration to New World9. Imigrants were diverse in ethnicity, while bringing their culture into a new place. Thus, the Old gods epitomise multiculturalism and pluralism in the USA, as well as American cultural values and roots. Gaiman is faithful to the conventional image of the characters while depicting them in the story: from their indicative names, to other cultural pointers including the way they dress, speak and act. Rata for example observers the portrayals of Mama-ji, a representation of goddess Kali, dressed in a red sari, wearing a blue jewel on her forehead; or Mad Sweeny, a modern-day leprechaun with ginger hair (Rata 106). The goddess Eostre of the Down (Easter) is depicted as a cheerful, curvaceous woman with a forget-me-not tattoo (Gaiman, 329) living in San Francisco which perfectly suits her personality due to the hippie movement that took place there in a New Age era. Among other gods illustrated in the story and that are truthful to their origin and cultural stereotypes can be mentioned Czernobog and Zorya sisters from a Slavic pantheon; Mr. Wednesday who is in fact the all-father Odin followed by Low-key Loki Liesmith; Mr. Ibis symbolising Egyptian god Thoth or Mr. Nancy who represents African trickster god Anansi. On the other hand, the New gods stand for the modern movements in the world and the shift of human’s belief. They also bear evocative names and their behaviour corresponds with their ideological background. For instance, Mr. World represents globalisation; Mr. Town urbanization; Technical boy, resembling a spoilt teenager in a fancy limo with many gadgets, stands for technology; or Media who describes herself as “the little shrine the family gathers to adore” (Gaiman 189). Gaiman also draws parallels with Christian motifs through cultural allusions: a part where Shadow takes Wednesday’s vigil plays a riff on the fate of Jesus and his sacrifice. Shadow dies naked on a tree, having his side pierced while three women are mourning at the bottom of the tree. The women can be seen as The Three Marys who are present at the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Moreover, this scene shares the symbolism of “the

9 Gaiman confessed that the foundation of American Gods came across while he was in Iceland, learning about the voyages of Leif Erikson to North America; he pondered on the questions whether the new comers also brought their religious beliefs with them asking ,,I wonder if they left their Gods behind” (Wagner, 492).

18 sacrifice of a son”: both Jesus and Shadow were sacrificed by their fathers. What is more, the resurrection happens on Easter Day; in American Gods, it is the goddess Easter who brings Shadow back to life. Among other cultural allusions in the novel Rata lists landmarks (Disneyland, Golden Gate Park, statue of Liberty); historical events (Independence Day, The Civil War); American brands (KFC, McDonalds, Walt-mart, Chevrolet); or significant figures (Abraham Lincoln, Jackson Pollock, Gutzon Bulgrum) (Rata 108). It is important to note, that Gaiman brings into play all these references since they are identifiable due to Americanisation. Moreover, they help to anchor the story within the socio-historical context. Unlike American Gods, where reinventing pantheons was central to intertextuality, in Neverwhere the principal feature of intertextuality lies in a mirroring of an urban life of London into the parallel realm referred to as London Below. London Below is a fantastical alter-ego of the London we know, with its anthropomorphise of London properties and distorted time. Intertextuality in Neverwhere is most significantly represented by cultural allusions represented by Gaiman’s depiction of the Tube (the London underground system). It is a place where a prominent part of the novel takes place. Gaiman’s most notable manoeuvre is an anthropomorphism of the tube and its stations which provides numerous allusions to London’s heritage. Among these can be listed: Earl’s Court, one of the London neighbourhoods, becomes a literal miniscule version of a court in a tube carriage with an old Earl chairing this assembly surrounded by a jester and knights; Knightsbridge converted into Night’s Bridge, a place coated in darkness and nightmares. Next can be mentioned a persona of Old Bailey, an allusion to the Criminal Court of England and Wales, who is an elderly wise man with a passion for birds; or a character of the Angel Islington – a reference to a famous public house “The Angel” located in the London area of Islington. Moreover, at a station Blackfriars can be met actual friars in black cloths, and on the same note, literal shepherds are found in Shepherd’s Bush. Even the well-known sign Mind the Gap becomes transformed into a creature named Gap that sucks unwary tourists into the cracks of railways and feeds on them. Besides that, other cultural allusions in the text are represented by famous London sites e.g.: Harrods (the prestigious British shopping centre), Tottenham Court Road, British Museum, Tower of London, Big Ben and National Gallery. As Rata points out, in the text there are also found onomastic allusions, specifically in the name of Door’s family who are famous openers. Their names all bear relation to ancient architectural elements: Ingress, Portico, Porta and Arch. The names suggest their aristocratic origin as well as the ability to open portals and dimensions (Rata 90).

Biblical references are in Neverwhere as plentiful as in American Gods. For instance, Lutwack comments on the opposition of London Above to London Below echoing the Christian stratification of Heaven and Hell (Lutwack 39). In addition, this implication is strengthened by the presence of Angel Islington – the fallen angel. Islington is held captive in London Below for the doom of Atlantis, which draws a parallel with the imprisonment of Lucifer in Hell. Rata also observes the likening of treacherous Hunter to Judas Iscariot’s betrayal: she is asked by Richard whether she was paid “thirty pieces of silver” as a price for betraying Door and Richard (Rata 96). Gaiman equally draws inspiration from legends and myths: The Beast of London hidden in a labyrinth mirrors the role of Minotaur or Cerberus which, too, patrolled secret passageways. A correlation can be also seen with an urban legend of Black Swine from Hampstead popular in the nineteenth century (Boyle 56):

they say that back in first King Charlie’s day [...] before the fire and the plague, this was, there was a butcher lived down by the Fleet Ditch, had some poor creature he was going to fatten up for Christmas. Some says it was a piglet, and some says it wusn’t, [...] that wusn’t never properly certain. One night in December the beast runned away, ran into the Fleet Ditch, and vanished into the sewers. And it fed on the sewage, and it grew, and it grew. And it got meaner, and nastier. They’d send in hunting parties after it, from time to time (Gaiman 168).

Bethany Alexander observes Gaiman’s utilization of allusions as follows: “Neil Gaiman borrows rituals, deities, tricksters and fairy-tales from under every stone, roof or teacup” (Alexander 139). Indeed, Gaiman’s incorporation of conventional material and their alternation is a key element of his work. In like manner, Gary K. Wolfe highlights the importance of such borrowings: “this isn’t to suggest that his work is more derivative than that of other writers (if anything he’s far less predictable than most fantasy writers), but rather that […] he’s like a kid with his first chemistry set, seeing what happens if you mix this with that […]” (Wolfe 15). Precisely, this blending of Eastern and Western mythologies coated in contemporary time adds another layer of understanding to Gaiman’s work while the allusions give a friendly nod to those who spot them.

Paratextuality

The title of American Gods is a very suggestive name, referring to both New and Old gods. Gaiman included a reface called Caveat, and Warnings for Tavellers is addressing how to treat the text that follows. The novel also contains the dedication: “For absent friends – Kathy Acker and Roger Zelazny, and all points between”; and acknowledgments where Gaiman expresses thanks to all people who made the book’s materialisation possible. Moreover, it contains a postscript which, in a form of epilogue, follows Shadow on his journey to Iceland where he eventually meets Odin. It is important to note a role of headings in the novel. Each chapter is introduced by a citation from various works of literature; the purpose of these citations is to foreshadow a meaning of the particular chapter. Besides that, throughout the novel there are several interludes called Somewhere in America or Coming to America. These narrative fragments serve to report events of migration of gods to the New Land. Lastly, the book contains Interview with Neil Gaiman and an essay called How Dare You? which addresses the issue of a Brit writing about America. On the other hand, the title Neverwhere is a juxtaposition of words never and where which indicates towards the distortion of time and space in London Below. Moreover, it can be perceived that Neverwhere is a symbolic place of destination for those fallen through the cracks, a place where the forgotten and disposed live. The book also contains: an introduction to the text which addresses the unsatisfactory beginnings of the novel as a BBC series; dedication and acknowledgement. There are also two epigraphs introducing the novel: first of them is by G.K. Chesterton found in his novel The Napoleon of Notting Hill which alludes to the blending of reality and fantasy of alternative London.10 Next, Gaiman includes the traditional poem Lyke Wake Dirge which reinforces the Christian allusion in the text and also foreshadows Richard’s hero’s journey and his rebirth in London Below. It is in fact found once more in the novel: Richard hums this song to himself after defeating the Great beast of London. The book also contains a prologue narrating Richard’s departure from Scotland for London and his mysterious encounter with a former beggar who advises him to “watch out for doors” which also serves as foreshadowing of the story to come. A second prologue An Altogether Different Prologue, Four Hundred Years Earlier, recounts historical misdemeanours of Mr. Croup and

10 . Gaiman in an interview with Telegraph confessed that it was this book that sparked his imagination to write the upside world in Neverwhere,

Mr. Vandermar. Last, but not least, the novel contains an interview with Neil Gaiman and suggestions for discussions in reading groups. Architextuality

As said above, American Gods is a book which can be perceived in many ways. It might be viewed as a road novel due to the dynamics of the narration; or as a mystery story, detective story or Americana (a book celebrating America). Due to its postmodern connotations it does not follow the genre boundaries strictly and it melds all the genres together. Neverwhere is predominantly regarded an urban fantasy novel, concentrating on the issue of a city with added fantastical elements. Čipkár comments on the genre classification of Gaiman as follows:

Even though they usually occupy the shelves of the fantasy section in bookshops, we can certainly find all above mentioned genres in Gaimans novels. Romance is ever-presented and, as is the case with most works in the fantasy genre, everything is centred around an adventure […] the usability of the mythic method for the detective genre can be demonstrated by a number of stories […] (Čipkár 109).

Indeed, both novels contain elements of detective genres: readers are awaiting the revelation of who killed Door’s family; similarly, in American Gods they anticipate the unravelling mystery of disappearing children in a city where Shadow lives.

Metatextuality

Metatextuality is in American Gods found in the preface; the reader is provided with commentary on how to read this book, advising that this book is not a traveller’s guide: “this is work of fiction, not a guide book”. Moreover, it suggests that only the gods are real in the book, which sparks reader’s curiosity. Besides the preface, the book also contains an essay on the book called How Dare You? which addresses the issue of a British person writing a book about America. In Neverwhere metatextuality appears in the interview with Neil Gaiman where he answers questions about the story and its writing. In the preface Gaiman also tackles on the creation of the novel describing the unsatisfactory TV production of Neverwhere which eventually led to his writing of the novel.

Hypertextuality

Hypertextuality concerns a relationship of two texts. Rata argues that hypertextuality in American Gods is denoted by parody in the novel. “The old world mythology, with its corresponding values, is parodied, by iconic inversion, through the American versions of the (altered) Old World gods and traditions” (Rata 110). She lists the peculiar jobs which the old gods are allocated in the America: Odin – Mr. Wednesday, is a grifter, Queen of Sheba is a sex-worker, Czernoborg used to be a knocker working in a slaughterhouse, while the Zoryas sisters are fortune-tellers. Their parodied versions are also depicted by the life-style they lead: Czernoborg and the Zoryas sisters live in a shabby house which smells like rotten cabbage (as an indicator of their Slavonic origin); Mr. Ibis and Mr. Jacquel live in a mortuary house where they work. By this Gaiman draws a parallel between lives of immigrants in America and the fate of old gods: they adapt to a new society, while keeping their typical traits which expose them to mockery. As Rata puts: “They become caricatures of their old selves, coming together in a pastiche of discordant characters” (Rata 110). By the same token, in Neverwhere, too, parody is the main source of hypertextuality. The most notable example is the character of the Earl and his court. However, the noble Earl is depicted in a mocking almost pitiful manner:

[…] an immense, elderly man, in a huge fur-lined dressing gown and carpet slippers staggered through the connecting door to the next compartment […] he wore an eye-patch over his left eye, which had the effect of making him look slightly helpless, and unbalanced […] there were fragments of food in his red-grey beard, and what appeared to be pyjama trousers were visible at the bottom of his shabby fur gown (Gaiman 150).

Another character which is parodied in the novel is Marquis de Carabas - Richard’s mentor in the London Below, who is a reminiscent on the origin of the folk-tale Puss in the Boots. Like Perrault’s Puss, Marquis de Carabas is helping the protagonist through the initiation leading to acquiring knowledge or fortune. Throughout the novel he is depicted as a famously cunning trickster who exploits those who are at his mercy: traits also very much shared with the original Puss. His similarity is enforced by his appearance, too:

He wore a huge dandyish black coat, that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trench coat, and high black boots, and beneath his coat, raggedy clothes. His eyes burned white in an extremely dark face. And he grinned white teeth, momentarily, as if at a private joke of his own [...]. The man who called himself Marquis de Carabas walked restlessly up and down the alley. He was always in motion, like a great cat (Gaiman 47).

In a sense, hypertextuality might be seen as an elaboration and continuation of intertextuality. It not only alludes to the phenomena outside the text but modifies them and plays with their origin. Linda Hutcheon notes that “multiple conventions, extended repetition with critical difference, is what I mean by modern parody” (Hutcheon 7). Darrell Schweitzer perceives Gaiman’s writing in a similar view: “a writer can’t merely stand on the shoulder of giants. He has to do something interesting while he’s up there. A little tap-dance, maybe. Gaiman does at least that” (Schweitzer 116). This ‘tap-dance’ is exactly the alternation of the original source, the modification of primary text into a secondary text with its peculiar and specific nature, subtly drawing on the origin. Gaiman’s fusion of the old and new, creates a special space where the contrasting phenomena meet. By this paradox Gaiman highlights the differences and potential burdens the protagonists, same as the readers, have to bear. Apart from that, Gaiman’s implementation of hypertextuality has a societal undertone, since it captures the politics of the postmodern era where the old and traditional is ridiculed. As for the main protagonists who themselves live on the fringes of the society, they can relate to the rejection posed on the characters by a cynical society. However, Gaiman’s usage of alternative realms offers a revelation for the characters.

Above, all of the intertextual allusions create a conversation between the story and its inspiration, arousing the reader’s imagination and curiosity, while adding special value and depth to the novels. wore a huge dandyish black coat, that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trench coat, and high black boot, and beneath his coat, rag

6 Postmodern Society and Character Profiles Before Transformation with Emphasis on a Crisis of Identity

After scrutinizing postmodernism in a relation to literature, and to Gaiman specifically, from the outer perspective, i.e. how postmodernism is projected in the writing of American Gods and Neverwhere, the next chapter will be dedicated to the postmodern worlds designed within the novels. In particular, it examines how the postmodern situation is depicted in the stories, and especially what influence it poses on the protagonists. This chapter will be centred on the individual characters of Shadow and Richard in order to analyse what made them susceptible to character transformation in regards to postmodern society. Both Shadow and Richard became predisposed to personality change as a result of experiencing a crisis of identity in a postmodern world. This chapter will introduce some of the leading causes that can be instrumental to identity crisis in postmodern society and these causes will be traced in the protagonist personalities. Identity is in peril facing the postmodern world with its fractured and multi-narrative atmosphere. Besides, the identity in a postmodern world experiences a great shift from a community-based context to an individual one. Dan P. McAddams illustrates the postmodern world as “rife with images of discord and malaise” (Schachter 142). Furthermore, he stresses the lack of purpose and direction in the contemporary society which has an inevitable effect on the shaping of identity and personal fulfilment of its inhabitants. By the same token, Erik Erikson, whose expertise lies in the topic of identity, connects a crisis of identity with a persistent change in society. He describes two main features of identity: the sense of sameness and continuation; and an individual’s value to others (Schachter 142). However, these aspects are threatened by imposing highly demanding standards on members of postmodern society, mainly concerning their socio-economic status in an individualised world. Most notably alienation, anxiety, emasculation, loneliness and fear of exploring one’s purpose are believed to be a potential aftermath of postmodern context in regard to identity forming (Schachter 142). Similarly, Côte and Levin also identify one of the aspects of identity confusion to be an outcome of cultural contradiction, meaning that various social contexts are imposed on the individual, resulting in a fragility of the character. Men of today experience floating existence without an essence or a purpose which reflects in their behaviour. These symptoms, and the causes listed above, will serve as a key towards scrutinizing the personality of Shadow and Richard in relation to their postmodern existence at the beginning of the stories.

Richard Oliver Mayhew, the protagonist of Neverwhere, is a middle-class man, a member of generation X (Čipkár 100). Richard moves to London from Scotland but finds London monotonous and disheartening; mostly living through his days without any purpose or ambition, being dragged along about his girlfriend’s superior errands. Richard leads a humdrum life having no real stimuli. He is the embodiment of ‘existing but not living’ as he works in a dull job which he does not enjoy, but is not assertive enough to change it. Most of the time he spends either obeying his bossy fiancée Jessica who thinks him “the perfect matrimonial accessory” (Gaiman 12) or at work missing deadlines (Gaiman 14). Richard’s life confirms the claims of Schachter who argues that postmodern life makes people inactive and empty (Schachter 14). Richard does not thrive in life, he spends his days like a sleepwalker putting one foot in front of the other (Rata 84) without intention which revolves into Richard’s obliviousness to discover his purpose in life. Richard’s alienation is established immediately in the prologue which depicts his goodbye celebration. While all of his friends are enjoying themselves, Richard is “sitting and shivering on the pavement outside the pub” (Gaiman 1). Sitting there, Richard is approached by a woman who takes him for a homeless person because “I been homeless, so I know what it’s like … That’s why I though you was” (Gaiman 2). By this Gaiman suggests Richard to be a metamorphic homeless person in a society to which he does not belong, and also foreshadows Richard’s fate in the alternative world. At the beginning of the story, Richard moves from a little town to London: a geographical change of his homebase of Scotland to the metropolitan city of London corresponds with Côte and Lavin proposal of cultural contradiction resulting in an identity confusion. Since the individual in anchored in several contexts, he is likely to experience internal confusion and sense of detachment to his homeland. On the same note, Chang in his article (Chang 100) lists relocation or a change of a career as a potential contributor to identity crises; in Richard’s case moving to a place he found “fundamentally incomprehensible” (Gaiman 9) and his feeling of dissatisfaction about his profession are applicable aspects of his identity confusion. With regards to identity formation, Erikson highlights a great importance of a parental figure in identity development, as he attributes a lack of this figure in a childhood to be a contributor to identity shaping (Schachter 144). “[Richard’s] father had died quite suddenly, when Richard was still a small boy, of a heart attack” (Gaiman 57). The absence of a parental figure might result in Richard’s internal confusion and struggles to maintain fulfilling and balanced relationships. His relationship with Jessica is marked by a strong inequality between them. Jessica is a ruthless career woman who is the epitome of a London city life and who

26 dominates in their relationship. Her constant attempts to “harness” Richard (Gaiman 12) and his effort to please her underline Richard’s submission in connection to women. Jessica is often overcritical of Richard and lectures him as showed on the following exchange: “‘Now, when you meet Mr. Stockton tonight’ said Jessica, ‘you have to appreciate that he’s not just a very important man. He’s also a corporate entity in his own right.’ ‘I can’t wait,’ sighed Richard. ‘What was that, Richard?’ ‘I can’t wait,’ said Richard, rather more enthusiastically” (Gaiman 21). On the top of that, she is referred to as “terrifying” (Gaiman 12) and “the creature from a Black Lagoon” (Gaiman 18) by Richard’s colleagues. Despite this, Richard remains pliant and agrees to buy Jessica, at her suggestion, an engagement ring. Without surprise, Richard does not examine his own feelings towards Jessica and whether he truly wishes to marry her as he once again obediently follows her demands which conform to his passive nature. Richard’s appearance is described as “fresh-faced and boyish” with “rumpled, just woken up look, which made him more attractive” (Gaiman 2). Richard is not aware of his good looks and this is apparent in his timid attitude towards women. Additionally, his child-like looks go hand with hand with his tender-hearted and compliant nature; and are thus partly responsible for a disbelieving attitude towards Richard’s abilities and a tendency to question him or boss him around as “[…] was treating [Richard] as an irrelevance. He felt like a small child, unwanted, following the bigger children around” (Gaiman 125). Naturally, this influences his confidence and results in his submissiveness and underlines his role as an observer rather than a participant. For that reason, Richard is at the beginning of the story distant to the image of a hero but rather treated as underachiever and outsider. Moreover, at the start Richard is also portrayed as messy and disorganized as he “could be disorganised for Britain, if ever they made disorganisation an Olympic sport” (Gaiman 17). These attributes are not representative for a hero and enhance the ultimate shift in Richard’s transformation (Gaiman 19). As a whole, Richard is illustrated as a stranger who does not fit into the social groups of the London Above: he spends his leaving celebration away from his friends, not enjoying himself: “Inside the pub, Richard’s friends continued to celebrate his forthcoming departure with an enthusiasm that, to Richard, was beginning to border on the sinister” (Gaiman 1). His solitary nature continues in London where his life is divided between his demanding girlfriend and shallow friendships with his co-workers who think that he collects trolls only because he picked one from pavement and placed it on his desk (Gaiman 13). Even though Richard is busy working and has a fiancée and co-workers, they do not provide him with fulfilling connection,

27 and thus make him feel friendless and forlorn. Richard undoubtedly lacks deeper bonds and meaningful relationships which results in his feeling of alienation. Yet, one of the most significant traits of his persona is good-heartedness11 and a charitable nature, especially towards homeless people. As it was stated in the introduction to the novel, Neverwhere is strongly concerned with the theme of homelessness and its perception in society. Richard’s noticing of Door lying on the pavement and offering her a helping hand is an instrumental moment of the novel and marks the start, and simultaneously proves Richard worthy of the hero’s journey. These humanitarian qualities are emphasised through an allusion in Richard’s surname. Rata points a connection between the protagonist and Henry Mayhew, an author of London Labour and the London Poor, a treatise which is concerned about London’s most vulnerable citizens (Rata 90). Richard’s mindfulness is in a sharp contrast to the consumerism of postmodernism symbolised in his girlfriend Jessica and her life: “On the weekends […] Richard would trail behind Jessica as she went shopping […] he would accompany Jessica on her tours of such huge and intimidating emporia as Harrods and Harvey Nichols department stores where Jessica was able to purchase anything, from jewellery, to books, to the week’s groceries (Gaiman 12). Accordingly, Watson marks consumerism as one of the main aspects of the postmodern era: “Sunday no longer means a trip to church or chapel, but rather a visit to the cathedrals of consumerism. Shopping malls have become major sites of leisure activity, the pilgrimage is enough even without the act of buying” (Watson 21). Even though Richard is not a proactive supporter of consumerism, and he prides himself on having a thoughtful approach to others, a life shared with Jessica and his submissive behaviour pulls him into the market-oriented life, however tiresome he found it as demonstrated in a following quote:

[…] so [Jessica] gives [Richard] books with titles like Dress for Success and A Hundred and Twenty-five Habits of Successful Men, and books how to run a business like a military campaign, and Richard always said thank you, and always meant to read them. In Harvey Nichols’ fashion department she would pick out for him the kinds of clothes she thought that he should wear – and he wore them during the week, anyway … (Gaiman 12).

11 “The old woman took the umbrella, gratefully, and smiled her thanks. ‘You’ve got a good heart,’ she told him” (Gaiman 4).

But in spite of that, Richard differs from Jessica greatly when encountering Door. When Richard and Jessica are on their way to a highly important dinner they encounter a girl bleeding on the pavement. Despite Door’s despair, Jessica assumes that the girl is drunk, and is not willing to help her, stating “they will be late” and “if you pay them any attention […] they will walk over you” (Gaiman 24). For the first time, Richard does not obey Jessica’s orders and actually acts against her will by taking Door home. Richard shows an empathy towards people who are overlooked by a society which mostly values money and status: “They weren’t just people. They were People. Some of them were even Personalities” (Gaiman 185), utters Jessica about the rich and famous attending an exhibition of which she in charge of running. The opposition of rich and poor is a dominant theme of the novel and is mirrored in respective attitudes of Richard and Jessica to consumerism and homelessness. It can be stated that Jessica is an embodiment of a postmodern preoccupation with a socioeconomic status and superficiality manifested in her selfish ways, and her fascination with money and power. To the contrary, Richard does not share Jessica’s values and interests as is exhibited by his reluctance to accept a consumerist life style and his empathetic attitude towards people on the fringe of society. Hence Richard is a member of a society with whose beliefs he cannot identify. Schachter claims that a conflict of individual with the society he lives in is a major contributor to the identity cohesiveness (Schachter 149). Richard’s behaviour shows his dissent with shallow society, while proving his potential to become a complete and fulfilled person, given the right environment.

The protagonist of American Gods, Shadow, is first met in a prison where he is serving a sentence for a crime committed by his wife Laura. Like Richard, Shadow is instantly presented as a misfit, even more emphasised by his captivity. In prison, Shadow shows signs of alienation and introversion and acquires a role of an observer as he keeps to himself, with his books and his coin tricks (Gaiman 1). Both Richard and Shadow are in their early thirties, without children, and having a fiancée or as in Shadow’s case, a wife. In contrast to Richard, Shadow is depicted in a more masculine way; as a bodybuilder he prides himself with an extraordinary strength. This impression is underlined by most people’s first-time impression and amazement at his physical appearance, calling him “a big guy” (Gaiman 42). The physical difference is emphasised by Shadow’s “coffee and cream” skin colour, contrary to the depiction of Richard as having a typically British pale complexion.

Even though the characters seem, at first glance, to be entirely different: Shadow is a convict while Richard works in the London City, and their appearances are widely different, they share similar significant traits which position them as rejects in a postmodern society. After he learns about his wife’s fatal car accident, Shadow finds himself in a situation where he does not have any direction in life, has lost his home and all that is symbolised in Laura, he also does not have a job, in the words of Mr Wednesday: “There is nothing waiting for you there” (Gaiman 23). Despite the differences in their backgrounds and appearances, they share significant traits. For instance, they are both perceived as being rather ordinary: Shadow is labelled as “average Joe” (Rata 38) while Richard a “perpetual everyman” which emphasises their non-heroic initial state. Gaiman explains that “I wanted a hero who […] was a bit everybody” (Sommers n.p). By this Gaiman accomplished that a postmodern reader might relate to the experience of the protagonists and understand their life frustrations. Most importantly, they share significant characteristics which position them as castaways in postmodern society. Apart from the lack of direction in their lives, they are both friendless, with Shadow’s supposed best friend believed to be involved in an adulterous relationship with Shadow’s wife. Shadow also experiences a feeling of detachment and resignation in his life, having “the feeling that he’s plunged as low as he could plunge, and he’d hit the bottom” (Gaiman 1). By this Gaiman articulates life’s nihilism which is down to the postmodern era (Spencer 158). It might seem that Shadow’s desperate state was caused by the tragic news about his wife’s death. However, it is revealed that Shadow had been a burn-out before the tragic event took place as supported by Laura’s confession to Shadow about his presence seeming to be empty:

It’s like there isn’t anyone there. You know? You are like this big, solid, man-shaped hole in the world. […] sometimes I’d go into a room and I wouldn’t think there was anybody in there. And I’d turn the light on, or I’d turn the light off, and I’d realize that you were in there, sitting on your own, not reading, not watching TV, not doing anything (Gaiman 396).

Shadow’s behaviour corresponds to Spencer’s claim of apathy in the postmodern world as he lists it along with ambivalence, dissent, nihilism, disillusionment, ambiguity and uncertainty among features manifested in postmodern society (Spencer 158). Another example of Shadow’s apathy is when he learns about his wife’s death: “it occurred to him that he had

30 not cried yet – had in fact felt nothing at all. No tears. No sorrow. Nothing” (Gaiman 15). Laura even goes further and tells Shadow that he is “not dead […] but not alive either” (Gaiman 396) which confirms Schachter’s claim about the vacant personality of the postmodern era. On the same note, Shadow displays signs of disillusionment as he states that nothing surprises him anymore since his wife adultery (Gaiman 129). In respect to Côte and Levin’s claim concerning a cultural contradiction: both Richard and Shadow experience a cultural shift at the beginning of the novels: as mentioned above, Richard changes homeland in Scotland for the English capital, while Shadow undergoes a change as he re-enters society after his prison sentence. Moreover, Shadow’s life is affected by abrupt cultural shifts in his childhood. His accompanying of his mother on her ambassadorial travels in Europe have hindered his finding of a place of stability and contributed to his feeling of a estrangement. The cultural confusion is reinforced by Shadow’s ethnicity which remains unknown, as showed on this exchange: ““And what are you? A spic? A gypsy?” “Not that I know of, sir. Maybe.” “Maybe you got nigger blood in you. You got nigger blood in you, Shadow?”” (Gaiman 10). The ambiguity surrounding Shadow’s origin thus springs into an identity confusion and detachment. Later in the story, when he moves to little town Lakeside, Shadow also acquires the identity of Mike Ainsel, his alter ego. By creating an alter ego Gaiman stresses the postmodernist aspect of duality in the novel, as well as Shadow’s fragmentation of identity. “He knew everything about big Mike Ainsel in that moment, and he likes Mike Ainsel. Mike Ainsel had none of the problems Shadow had. Ainsel had never been married. […] Mike Ainsel didn’t have bad dreams, or believe that there was a storm coming” (Gaiman 291). Through this statement Shadow demonstrates a belief that he can obtain a new and integrated identity, even though it is an imaginary one. It serves as an escape from the daunting sense of his own identity crisis. Shadow’s relationship with Laura is marked by inequality in a similar way to that of Richard and Jessica. Laura confesses that she loved how Shadow adored her (Gaiman 396). Laura’s nickname “puppy’ for Shadow symbolises his faithfulness and also outlines Laura’s dominance over him. One of the most striking proofs of Shadow’s devotion to Laura is when he takes the blame for Laura’s crime and goes to prison for her. What is more, Laura was unfaithful to Shadow during his imprisonment, although Shadow never reproached her for that. The root of the imbalance in their relationships can be traced to their both having had fatherless childhoods.

Once again, Schachter’s theory that a lack of a parental figure and its influence on a shaping of identity explains the protagonist’s issues. Shadow has never met his father (Gaiman 183) and his identity is unknown to Shadow throughout his life since his mother refused to speak about him: “Tell me about my father. – He’s dead. Don’t ask about him. - But who was he? – Forget him. Dead and gone and you ain’t missed nothing. I want to see picture of him. – I ain’t got a picture” (Gaiman 516). Only through an ordeal does Shadow discover the true identity of his father and gains crucial knowledge. Unlike Richard, whose mother passed away when Richard was an adult, Shadow had to face a loss of his mother as a teenager, an experience which can deeply traumatise and shape the identity of a teenager. “In the hospital bed his mother was dying again, as she’d died when he was a sixteen-year old […] his nose buried in Gravity Rainbow12, trying to escape from his mother’s death into London during the blitz” (Gaiman 515). The absence of parental figures is according to Schachter’s (6) claim, connected to a problem of authenticity and as a result to have a great influence on development of an identity. Shadow’s nickname also originated in his childhood where he took a role of an outsider, too: “Why do they call you Shadow? […] I never knew what to say to the other kids, so I’d just find adults and followed them around, not saying anything” (Gaiman 330). Shadow has remained introverted, not saying much up to his adulthood. Shadow exhibits caring and loyal temperament, with a selflessness and shyness around women, too. He also shows calmness and devotion which are traits which play a crucial part in his ordeal which he undergoes during the hero’s journey.

Côte and Lavine point to a rapid social change and progress (Côte and Lavine 159) to be a source of the individual’s fragility and the cause of troubles in order to maintain stability in a postmodern world. This claim confirms the argument of this thesis: Richard and Shadow are feeling unfulfilled in their wearisome postmodern life, they only discover their full identity in the alternative reality; the mythical, raw, traditional world which offers them to embrace their roots. Berzonsky stresses the issue of identity in postmodern life: “the quest to achieve the sense of identity is important because we live in a relativistic, postmodern age of continual social, political, economic and technological change” (Berzonsky 127). The preoccupations of the postmodern era and its demands on the individual trouble the unity and authenticity of self. On top of that, one’s values and opinions are deeply dependent on the social net around oneself; resulting in an “incohesive and unstable society” (Berger 16).

12 Gravity Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon is a key postmodern novel

To summarise, the characters of Richard and Shadow both demonstrate an identity crisis in their life on the backdrop of postmodern society. Especially, they struggle to find their purpose and “true calling” which causes their apathy and submissiveness. This situation requires a change of their life; some people opt to find their meaning in a wilderness, completely shunning society, others choose an escape to another world. Peter L. Berger investigates and subsequently draws a comparison between a postmodern society and a traditional one. According to him, a traditional society offers a place of stability and rigid fundamental values. It is therefore no wonder that people feel daunted and empty. An answer to this condition might require places which are built on beliefs of tradition, shared meaning and homeland. Glenn Ward claims “that personal identity is stable in a pre-modern society because it is defined and maintained by long-standing myth and predefined systems of roles” (Ward 118). The traditional society might offer a sanctuary for those who long for experience of the genuine and meaningful, or those who yearn an escape from the lack of roots and purpose in a postmodern era. Thus, the next part of the thesis will explore the alternative realms found in Neverwhere and American Gods and their structures since they symbolise a refuge for the characters, and the answer to a postmodern identity crisis. After all, it is only there, where protagonists’ self-awakening journeys take place and where their identity is found.

7 The Alternative Worlds

The alternative worlds described in Neverwhere and American Gods serve as an opposition towards the postmodern primary worlds, since they are typified by their fantasy and mythical substance. Through this medium it offers the protagonists sanctuary from postmodern life and provides them with a certain primitiveness and meaning in opposition to postmodern affairs.

This chapter will briefly comment on the setting of each alternative world, as it is here where the desired character transformation takes place. It will also explore the coexistence of the postmodern world alongside the alternative one. Alternative worlds are a perceived backbone of fantasy literature; Peter Hunt explains the existence of alternative worlds as “places that are very precisely described or mapped, emphasising the gap between the real and unreal worlds” (Hunt 11). The contrast of the real and fantasy worlds is a key feature of the novel and reflects on the politics found within both stories. The ontologies in Neverwhere are founded upon mirroring and duality. The London Above is depicting as a real-life London well recognised by the readership, while London Below is its echo with a macabre undertone which inhabits the deserted and unwanted population who are likened to those who “fell through the cracks”, including people as well as objects. This world thus represents a society which is oppressed by the London Below. The opposition between the London Above and London Below is expressed by Marquis de Carabas as follows: “Young man understand this: there are two Londons. There’s a London Above — that’s where you lived— and then there’s London Below —the Underside— inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world” (Gaiman 126). As it was noted, the realm is designed on the premise of actual London; Rata points out that old cities that have a vast history often serve as alternative realms in literature, among these cities can be listed Berlin, Prague, London, Paris (87). Hunter even confessed that she visited these alternative realms which are drawn on other metropolitan cities: “I fought in the sewers beneath New York with the great blind white alligator-king” and “I fought the bear that stalked the city beneath Berlin” (Gaiman 228). The society in London Below is founded upon traditions and myths, moreover it exhibits strong hierarchy as it is divided into baronies and fiefdoms which provides Richard with a sense secureness. Moreover, the isolation and disconnection that is typical for the society in London Above, contrasts sharply with Richard’s perception of shared community as he comments: ’’There was something deeply tribal about that people”

(Gaiman 111). On that account, the place of London Below offers Richard an opportunity to overcome his alienation and to find a sense of belonging.

American Gods realms are distinguished by the ‘normal’ and “back stage” worlds. In the normal world the old gods go about their everyday business in their American version of themselves; however, in the backstage the gods gather to unveil the uncovered forms of themselves. For that, the backstage symbolises truth and authenticity, which are void in the real world. As Shadow joins this meeting he cannot hide his astonishment as “he was unable to combine the things he was seeing […] into a whole that made sense” (Gaiman 144), while he witnesses a transformation of Mr. Nancy to god Anansi:

Mr. Nancy, an old black man with a pencil moustache, in his check sports jacket and his lemon-yellow gloves...at the same time, in the same place, he [Shadow] saw a jewelled spider as high as a horse...and simultaneously he was looking at an extraordinarily tall man with teak- coloured skin and three sets of arms...and he was also seeing a young black boy, dressed in rags, his left foot all swollen and crawling with black flies; and last of all, and behind all these things, Shadow was looking at a tiny brown spider, hiding under a withered ochre leaf (Gaiman 144).

As it was explored in the previous chapter the postmodern environment has a vast effect on the identity crises. This is linked to Richard and Shadow’s struggle to reach their full potential since the postmodern era suppresses their ability to explore their life purpose. On the other hand, when finding themselves in the alternative realm, both protagonists unlock their potential to rediscover themselves. This is accounted to the alternative substance of the world which presents the protagonist with a certain tribe-wise sense and archetypal pattern of behaviour which contrasts with the lack of social structures of the postmodern context. These places thus serve as a sanctuary for those who feel rejected by their primary environment and serve through the possibility of exploring the deeply embedded patterns of humanity which helps them to find direction within their existence.

8 Postmodernism Meets the Hero’s Journey

The aim of this chapter is to introduce a theory of monomyth proposed by Joseph Campbell, a leading figure in the field of narratology, and to scrutinise how Gaiman implements this mythical pattern onto postmodern novels. Furthermore, it will aim to trace protagonists’ development through the hero’s journey which ultimately leads to the rediscovering of their identity. The theoretical part will be mostly dependent on the reading of Campbell’s seminal work The Hero with a Thousand Faces which depicts a hero’s journey. Campbell’s theory is based on certain archetypal figures that are arranged into a pattern which is found across mythologies. This theory has its roots in psychoanalysis represented by Carl Gustav Jung who firstly introduced archetypes as “symbols shared by all humanity” (Herman, Jahn, and Ryan 26). Archetypes are thus projections of psyches that are “more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals” (Jung 4). Campbell elaborated on Jung’s theory as he situated the archetypes in a frame and, as a result, developed a basic structure of events, dubbing it the monomyth. These cyclical schemas of episodes form the hero’s journey is illustrated by Campbell as follows: “the hero ventures into a region of supernatural wonder, where fabulous forces are encountered and a victory is won, as a result the hero returns from the supernatural world with a power to bestow boon on his fellow man” (Campbell 28). A similar thought of shared projections was expressed by Vladimir Propp who dedicated his work to repetitive structures of wonder tales. He identified elements or functions reoccurring in folktales which are “defined from the point of view of their significance for the course of the action” (Propp 20). Hence, both of the theorists believed that throughout cultures, there are inherited aspects of behaviour and defined roles which are recognisable in storytelling and therefore serve as blueprints for narratives.

In its essence, the Campbellian monomyth is composed of three great parts: the departure from a status quo, towards the secondary world where a hero encounters various challenges in the process of the initiation that unlocks possibilities of their character. The last section of the journey concerns the return, hero’s re-entering the primary world in order to restore the initial situation. These three parts form “the nuclear unit of the monomyth” (Campbell 23). The three great parts are subsequently divided into several subchapters. Originally, Campbell created seventeen stages or scenarios, which the hero experiences;

36 however, it is customary that not each of the seventeen steps is to be realised, and even for the steps to be taken in non-chronologic order under individuation of each narrative.

Despite the fact that Gaiman is recognised for his mythmaking abilities in the contemporary era, he shows ambivalence towards Campbell’s theory:

I like Campbell – but, I sort of met him second. And the truth is, the stuff that I’ve always enjoyed most of all is the primary influences. It’s always interesting to see what people say about things. But I tend to be more interested in the actual myth. I think I got about half way through The Hero with a Thousand Faces and found myself thinking if this is true – I don’t want to know. I really would rather not know this stuff. I’d rather do it because it’s true and because I accidentally wind up creating something that falls into this pattern than be told what the pattern is (Ogline and Gaiman, n.p.)

His confession thus confirms Campbell’s argument that these images and occurrences have an everlasting essence and are deeply embedded in our collective consciousness. In the matter of Neverwhere and American Gods, these inherited attributes are fragments of old human roots and impregnated behaviour and so they act as guides for a confused, unfulfilled postmodern person, as they symbolise “life principles” (Vogler 15) and therefore enable the protagonist to reclaim their identity.

Before the thesis submerges into the exploration of Richard and Shadow’s hero’s journeys, it is important to comment on the relation between the myth and postmodernism. The very connection of postmodernism and myth might appear as being controversial due to Lyotard’s refusal of “grand narratives” in postmodern context. The argument might therefore seem contradictory, since it was presented that American Gods and Neverwhere are postmodern novels and yet they simultaneously employ a complex mythology which is one of the examples of grand narrative. Yet, Jódar comes to the point where he fuses the two contradictory phenomena as he claims that the monomyth functions as a “transgeneric hypertext” according to Genette’s terminology (Jódar 166), with its skeletal structure that serves as a guideline for narratives. Still, this thesis postulates that the relation of the postmodern and mythology in the novels is complementary in nature. It further argues that issues of fragmentism, burn-out, and alienation, typical anxieties of the postmodern era, might be answered by returning to the archetypes rooted in human nature, which are sadly suppressed by the postmodern way of life.

By embracing the “principals of life” one can reclaim identity back and find the purpose of their existence. This view is shared by Evan Smith, who scrutinises Mordernist relations to myth, he argues that ‘cultural catastrophe of WW I” is mirrored in artists’ urge to seek monomyth as “unitary pattern” (Smith 1). Therefore, the myth serves as a means of reconciliation for a broken society while offering “unitary harmony” (Jódar 167). Like Modernist, the postmodern era with its own preoccupations, might recover through the seeking of the myth. This claim is also supported by Susana Onega who comments on the application of myth by postmodernist authors:

[…] repeatedly attempted to transcend the gap between self and world […] by a return to myth. Through the application of dualistic logic that recalls the findings of the New Physics, Jungian psychology and the mythical tension between chaos and cosmos, these novelists use parody, pastiche and metafictional undermining of realism-enhancing mechanism to suggest the fragmentation and isolation of the self, while simultaneously attempting to transcend this isolation and fragmentation in mythical and archetypal terms (Onega 187).

Onega thus articulates the void in postmodern society that can be healed by embracing the roots of human behaviour and therefore proving that these archetypal patterns are ageless and can be used in contemporary society.

As for Gaiman, his engagement of mythological patterns in postmodern novels comes as no surprise. The novels, although they incorporate old myth, are redesigned to reflect on contemporary politics. It almost seems that the nature of the books echoes the fates of Richard and Shadow: they both find themselves in a contemporary society but show an inclination to live in a world that offers them mythological sense. Moreover, Gaiman’s seamless efforts to unify seemingly incompatible ideas do not go unnoticed. Bethany Alexander comments on his skills by praising him: “here is no need to choose between religion and science, reality and fiction. What might seem jarring or contradictory becomes a harmonious fusion in Gaiman’s work” (Alexander 136).

Now the thesis will focus on the monomyth and its parts, depicting the achieved stages with emphasis on the character alternation which they bring.

8.1 Departure

8.1.1 Call to Adventure

The story typically starts in the primary world, in the case of these novels, it is the everyday normality of Richard and Shadow that is depicted at the beginning. As it was discussed in a previous chapter, the ordinary world is a burden for the protagonist as their potential is suppressed by the conventions of the society in which they live. The state of the ordinary world is commonly disrupted by a herald who challenges a hero, intentionally or unintentionally, to undertake a quest. Their appearance announces a change which will take place and proposes the adventures and dangers which are about to happen (Campbell 47), thus positioning a protagonist into “a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood” (Campbell 46) In Neverwhere the herald figure is represented by Door who unknowingly drew Richard into the underside. This act was sealed by Richard helping her when he found her wounded on the pavement. Shadow’s call to adventure is more straightforward – Mr. Wednesday directly offers him a job as an errand boy which would ultimately lead him into his adventure. It is important to say, that Mr. Wednesday intended this to happen, while Door did not have any plan to involve Richard in the difficulties of her life. However, the role of herald who announces the change falls to Sam Fetisher, Shadow’s fellow prisoner, who warns him that “storm’s on the way” (Gaiman 10) and by that foretells the events which awaits Shadow.

8.1.2 Refusal of the Call

This step articulates the hero’s reluctance to participate in the adventure; this feeling is emphasised in the case of the unwilling hero. While in their primary worlds, both Richard and Shadow are marked as outsiders who do not possess the attributes commonly associated with a hero, they are thus presented as “unwilling heroes” (Vogler 34). The unwilling hero is distinguished by exhibiting signs of passiveness and an inclination to be doubtful of themselves. What is typical for them is that they do not actively create the story but the story happened to them (Vogler 34). In a case of Shadow and Richard, even though they were unfulfilled by their life in the ordinary world, they did not seek actively for a change but rather the change found them. Rata perceives Shadow’s situation as that “he needs to find his identity,

39 although he is not aware of it” (Rata 5). This is also applicable in Richard’s case, as they both float in their life, and are paralysed by their passivity and oblivion. Refusal of the call is manifested by Richard’s parting ways with Door by seemingly returning to his middle-class life. In the case of Shadow, he firmly declines Wednesday’s job offer while he states: “I don’t like you. I don’t want to work with you” (Gaiman 25). However, consequences of their refusal prove to be magnifying their state of despair: After Door’s leaving, Richard’s metaphorical alienation from society takes on a literal form since he was no longer recognised by people and in essence he becomes invisible, a fear that was long embedded in Richard’s personality: “As a child, Richard had had nightmares in which he simply wasn’t there, in which, no matter how much noise he made, no matter what he did, nobody ever noticed him at all” (Gaiman 59). On the other hand, Shadow’s rejection of Wednesday’s job offer is instantly followed by Wednesday’s revelation of Shadow’s best friend’s death. Shadow learns that not only his wife, but his best friend too were victims of the car crash, as they shared their journey together (Gaiman 36). In addition, he does not even have any job to which he can return. These repercussions eventually force the protagonists to accept the calls and embark on their journeys.

8.1.3 Supernatural Aid

This step of the journey is characterised by the provision of some valuable artefact or knowledge by supernatural helpers. “For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero’s journey is with a protective figure” (Campbell 64) with the intention of keeping the hero from harm and to lessen the perilous threats that await him. In Neverwhere the protective figure, or a Mentor according to Vogler (71), is represented by Marquis de Carabas who is an intertextual reference to the Puss in the Boots, a classical folk tale character. Similarly to the Puss in the Boots, Marquis de Carabes takes on a symbol of maturation of a hero and “implies an initiatory movement of transformation in a young man” (Jódar 182) and thus oversees the reclaim of his identity. Still, Marquis is not the only element of supernatural aid to Richard. Besides the rats who are useful to Richard on his first moments of being lost in the bowels of London Below; the most prominent aid is provided by a rat-speaker Anaesthesia. She escorts Richard on his way to Floating Market, however she falls victim to darkness while crossing the mysterious Night’s Bridge. For all that, Anaesthesia leaves behind a quartz bead from her necklace in Richard’s pockets (Gaiman 104), an artefact which ultimately helps Richard to finish his ordeal

40 and gain a key to all realities (251). Above all, The helpers met by Richard bears similarity of an outsiders to him, thus Richard feel recognised by them and relate to them. In the matter of American Gods, Shadow also obtains supernatural aid on more than one occasion. In the first instance, Shadow accidentally receives a golden coin by Mad Sweeney, the contemporary leprechaun. This coin proves to be magical as it is believed to be taken from the Sun. The magic powers keep Laura13 in a not-dead state of being and thus enable her to protect Shadow on his journey and visit him in a crucial moment of his ordeal. After abandoning the first coin, Shadow meets Zorya Polunochnaya who provides him with another coin - a silver one which symbolises the Moon. “You were given protection once, but you lost it already. You gave it away. You had the sun in your hand. And that is life itself. All I can give you is much weaker protection. The daughter, not the father. But all helps” (Gaiman 100). The gesture of throwing the coin away also mirrors Shadow’s surrendering of life because Laura was the main purpose of his life and now is gone. This coin thus encapsulated life – one that Shadow sacrificed and a one that consequently is responsible for reanimating Laura after her funeral. Just as important, coins also accentuate the theme of duality in the novel – the opposition of gold and silver, day and night, Sun and Moon. In addition to this, it foretells Shadow’s position as the master of two worlds, and of the two coins that belonged to him. Last but not least, it is noteworthy, that all the artefacts – the necklace bead and the coins are eminent in their animative potential. Richard is left with the bead after Anaesthesia’s passing on the Night’s Bridge. At a later time, the bead proves to be an item that enables Richard to overcome his urge to commit suicide and thus to finish successfully his ordeal. In the same fashion, the coins Shadow acquired mirror the death theme presented in Neverwhere. As it was said above, Shadow’s tossing a coin into Laura’s casket is a metaphorical death of Shadow, his resignation on his life. Simultaneously, it grants an almost living Laura with the ability to protect Shadow.

8.1.4 Crossing of the Threshold

Crossing of the threshold is a pivotal part of the process, the stepping into adventure while overcoming doubts and signalling commitment to the journey. Hero is about to enter a new land of “darkness, of unknown, of danger” (Campbell 71) and thus embracing the

13 Shadow, not aware of a true nature of the coin, tosses it into Laura’s casket on her funeral.

41 challenges ahead since there is no way back. Richard crosses the threshold when he follows Door’s enigmatic instructions which lead him to Marquis de Carabas and consequently finding himself in London Below for the first time. Crossing of the threshold in the case of Shadow is twofold. In the first place, he enters the alternative realm in a metaphorical sense when he agrees to Wednesday’s job offer and seals the deal with a mead – the magical drink of gods (Gaiman 40). Secondly, he physically crosses the threshold as he sets a foot in the halls in Valhalla, joining the old gods in the “backstage” a place where they extricate themselves from their contemporary versions and unveil their origin forms. Even though Campbell claims that at this stage of the journey the hero is free of weakness and doubtfulness, Vogler points out that initial reaction to the unknown might be (even more so in case of unwilling heroes) shock, reluctance and even deeper disbelief (Vogler 130). Vogler skilfully articulates the particularity of the dilemma: a desire to leave a familiar world but feeling vulnerable in an unfamiliar one. In other words, the hero struggles to live within the old world where he cannot relate to the way of life and as a result yearns to escape this world; yet in the unknown world the hero lacks protection of the old society and this consequently causes trauma to them. Richard’s first encounter with London Below goes along these lines as he exhibits a bewilderment by the new world, as it is depicted on this exchange with Marquis de Carabas when Richard questions Marquis’ sanity: “’I know this is a personal question. But are you clinically insane?’ ‘Possible, but very unlikely. Why?’ ‘Well,’ said Richard. ‘One of us must be.’” (Gaiman 53). Even at this phase of journey Richard clings to his life in London Above: “I want my life back. And my flat. And my job” (Gaiman 202) which verbalises Richard’s fear of the unknown and also ratifies his conformist way of life prior to the experience of the Underside. Shadow exhibits a similar reaction when entering the alternative realm; in the same manner as Richard he blames his perception of the events and questions the sanity of the situation: “I don’t really believe […] I don’t believe any of this. Maybe I’m still fifteen. Mom’s still alive and I haven’t even met Laura yet. Everything that’s happened so far has been some kind of especially vivid dream” (Gaiman 152). Both Richard and Shadow doubt their senses and they do not trust in the reality of the situation. This confusion between reality and fantasy is an overriding theme in postmodern context. Schachter, as stated above, moreover claims the inability of distinguishing between real and unreal is to be one of the key features of a postmodern identity crisis.

8.1.5 In the Belly of a Whale

According to Campbell the next step in the monomyth is a phase named “in the belly of a whale” (Campbell 83) which symbolises a rebirth of a hero to the new world after “he is swallowed into the unknown, and would appeared to have died” (Campbell 83). Richard undergoes this stage on the sinister Night’s Bridge which is an epitome of depression where darkness takes a toll of a human life from those who dare to cross it. Jódar points out that “the hero has to suffer a personal loss in order to prove his worth.” (Jódar 170) However, instead of Richard being harmed, his companion Anaesthesia falls victim to the Night’s Bridge (Gaiman 104) leaving him an artefact that plays a crucial part in the ordeal. For Shadow this stage is held during his visit of Eagle Point – a place he lived with Laura prior to his imprisonment. Shadow returns to the city since his wife’s funeral takes place there (Gaiman 52). The funeral fulfils the notion of hero’s personal loss which denotes his worth as well as it signals a milestone between hero’s old and new life. With this step Campbell closes the Departure section which is followed by a second part of the monomyth – the Initiation.

8.2 The Initiation

8.2.1 The Road of Trials

The first step of the Initiation part signifies a path of numerous challenges imposed on the hero as he “moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials” (Campbell 89). The first act in the road of trials for Richard compromises his visit to the Floating Market, an outlandish moving trade-fair, where the people of the London Below gather to sell and exchange various goods. After that, he experiences negotiating with the old Earl and his cronies, and also obtains an Angelus in the British Museum – a magical portal which transports him and Door to Angel Islington. All of these smaller tasks test Richard and lead him towards his ultimate trial – the ordeal. In case of Shadow, his trials are spread through his travels across America. Shadow plays checkers with the Slavic god Czernobog and, after winning, Czernobog is entitled to “get to knock [Richard’s] brains out” (Gaiman 91) with a sledgehammer. Furthermore, Shadow is also kidnapped by Technical boy but is fortunately saved by his wife Laura. In a similar fashion

43 to Richard, these occurrences prepare Shadow for facing the final trial – the vigil he pursues for Wednesday.

8.2.2 Meeting with a Goddess/Woman as a Temptress

The next stage is dubbed Meeting with a Goddess and Campbell explains it as follows:

woman [...] represents the totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to know. As he progresses in the slow initiation which is life, the form of the goddess undergoes for him a series of transfigurations...she can always promise more than he is yet capable of comprehending (Campbell 106).

Richard’s encounter with the goddess is blended with a “woman as a temptress”, the next step in the Campbellian monomyth. This fusion is illustrated by a vampire-like figure Lamia, whose character is based on Greek mythology; as a vampire she is believed to entrap children and youths with the intention of sucking their blood. True to her origin, Lamia in Neverwhere tempts Richard and tries to take his life by a mean of a kiss (Jódar 173). Fortunately, Richard is saved by his Mentor, Marquis de Carabas who interferes, and therefore keeps his duty of overseeing Richard’s journey. Campbell argues that “woman as a temptress” tests the hero by forcing him to overcome his own pleasure and to prioritise the purpose of the journey. The hero is required to “think of himself as pure” and to withstand the temptation in order to persist in the task (Campbell 113).

As for Shadow, in his story too, the Goddess fuses with the image of temptress. However, Shadow encounters this notion of temptation twice. First, Shadow is being seduced my Media, from the deity of new gods. Nevertheless, Shadow resists the temptation by simply switching the TV off. In the second instance, he is tempted by the goddess Bast, who, contrarily to Campbell’s claim, succeeds in Shadow’s seduction, albeit mystically, since she and Shadow make love in a parallel realm. Shadow’s failure to resist the seduction might suggest his straying from the hero’s path, but it actually proves to be the opposite. The spiritual connection, the boon of love, established between Shadow and Bast, subsequently plays a key role during Shadow’s vigil due to Bast’s role as a guardian there.

8.2.3 Atonement with the Father/ Apotheosis/ Ultimate Boon

Atonement with the Father symbolises a culmination of the trials prior to this moment and a crucial point where the hero is confronted with his greatest fear (Campbell 120). Although, in many literatures this step is depicted as an encounter with a father, it is not required of the hero to encounter solely the father figure. In Campbell’s perception the father is a metaphorical idea of a great power over the hero. In this stage, the hero is required to overcome his fear and to prove his worth. This instance evolves into Apotheosis, a point of transcending of life where a hero experiences a crucial change which is symbolised by his rebirth (Campbell 142). After that, the hero is granted the Ultimate Boon, the reward of the journey, which stands for the last part of the Initiation.

Richard is asked to participate in an ordeal, the ultimate trial, in which he has to obtain a Key to All Realities which is held in the custody of the Black Friars. The said Key is the ultimate boon (Campbell 159), despite Richard’s unawareness of its powers. Initially, the key was requested by Angel Islington as a part of his cunning plan to escape from his imprisonment. However, to come into a possession of the key, one must tackle the three challenges that protect it. The last and most difficult of the challenges, the ordeal, falls to be carried out by Richard and marks the apotheosis of the journey. During the ordeal, Richard is confronted with his alter ego, as he witnesses himself as a beggar who questions his own sanity and is on the edge of committing suicide. This version of himself thus fulfils the ultimate power over Richard, and indeed is the source of his identity discomfort: the fear of seeing himself ostracised from society and his confusion of the real and unreal. At the start of the trial, Richard witnesses a homeless version of himself in a deserted tube station where he is subjected to the disapproval of a little girl from London Above who asks: “Why do people like that stay alive?” (Gaiman 244). This encounter echoes Richard’s conflict with the ‘real world’, in the society of London Above which he left, where negative stances are taken towards people who do not fit the standards of contemporary, materialistic society, in contrast to the homeless and different. During the second part of the ordeal, Richard meets other Upworlders from his life: his ex-fiancée and his colleague Garry who tempt him to end his life by verbalising Richard’s dreads by suggesting: “Become an incident at the Blackfriars station. To end it all. Your life is joyless, loveless, empty sham. You’ve got no friends” (Gaiman 255). Therefore, Richard’s terrors and doubts from the primary world, in this case the postmodern society of London

Above, are confronting Richard through his ordeal. Besides that, Jódar proposes an interesting argument where he draws a parallel between Richard’s fears and the Jungian prototype of a shadow which states that suicide “is the only escape from a materialistic world where there is no place for fantasy” (Jódar 172). Fortunately, Richard overcomes the torture thanks to the necklace left to him by Anaesthesia on the fatal crossing of Night’s Bridge. The bead from the necklace serves as an artefact from the fantasy world and helps Richard to defeat his demons by reminding him where he belongs. By overcoming his materialised nightmares and finishing the ordeal, Richard experiences “his own metaphorical death and has been reborn as a new hero” when he overcomes the temptation to commit suicide and enters a carriage full of collected dead bodies of people who failed the ordeal before him. (Jódar 172). During the task Richard exhibited extraordinary qualities, especially bravery and mental sanity, which proves his worth as a hero. Moreover, it proves Richard’s rightful place of belonging, in London Below, the place of fantasy. After the ordeal, his spiritual transformation is noticeable in his appearance, too, since he “looked different somehow” (Gaiman 254). When he is reunited with his companions, Hunter and Door, Hunter ponders on his changed looks: “trying to work out what had changed. […] He looked less boyish. He looked as if he had begun to grow up” (Gaiman 254).

In the case of Shadow, the Atonement with the Father takes on a form of a literal confrontation with Shadow’s father. It is only through the vigil when Shadow is presented with the information about the identity of his father – information of which Shadow had been deprived of throughout his life. In a similar fashion to that of Richard, his vigil is the climax of the prior trials which will determine Shadow’s future. At the beginning of the story, when Shadow took on the job offer from Mr. Wednesday, one the key duties asked by Shadow to perform, was to hold Wednesday’s vigil if necessary. During the vigil Shadow is hanged from Yggdrasil, the tree of truth, for nine days and nights. During this time Shadow experiences delirium and literal death as he descends into the underworld. There, he faces nightmares in a similar fashion to Richard. Shadow’s vigil contains the extraction of his soul and a metaphysical examination of his character:

Every lie [Shadow] had ever told, every object he had stolen, every hurt he had inflicted on another person, all the little crimes and the tiny murders that make up the say, each of these things and more were extracted and held up to the light by the jackal-headed judge

of the dead. Shadow began to weep, painfully […] he was a tiny child again, as helpless and as powerless as he had ever been (Gaiman 525).

During the vigil, Shadow also experiences visions of dead children with their eyes peeling and a mammoth ridden by an elephant-man. These hallucinations resemble scenes typical of magic realism which is also closely connected to postmodernism. Moreover, both Shadow and Richard, receive over the course of their journeys lucid and transcendental dreams that foretells their future as they depict scenes of their victory. Besides, these episodes contribute to the postmodern undertone of their quest. Nevertheless, Shadow learns through the vigil the truth about the identity of his father and also about Mr. Wednesday’s plan to start a war between the gods for his own gain. In a contract with Richard, the ultimate boon does not appear in a physical form but is represented by gained knowledge. The evolution of looks is also remarked on when Laura notices that “he is utterly alive” and that “he had changed” (Gaiman 499). Upon completing the physical and spiritual transformation in the form of the ordeal/vigil, Richard and Shadow’s attitudes alternate greatly; they reclaim their position as the hero of the narrative as they both operate from their newly gained position. Richard slays the Great Beast of London and assists Door in her revenge, and Shadow, after being resuscitated by Easter, puts a stop to the impending war by revealing Mr. Wednesday’s trickery to the remaining gods. Therefore, both characters overcome their passiveness and start to show an active approach to life as depicted in Shadow’s thoughts: “He was alive. He never felt this. Ever” (Gaiman 499). This feeling of being alive might be also connected to their metaphorical (in Richard’s case) or literal (Shadow’s) experience of death. Above all, by immersing in the ordeals, Shadow and Richard come to face their darkest fears; by overcoming them they acquire a better understanding of themselves and could thus seek their true identity.

8.3 Return

The return signifies the last part of the journey. After fulfilling the ordeal, Richard and Shadow acquire the title of master of the two worlds proposed by Campbell which grants them: “freedom to pass back and forth across the world division […] permitting the mind to know the one by virtue of the other” (Campbell 212). For Richard it is the understanding of London Above and London Below, while in Shadow’s case it’s the ‘ordinary’ world coexisting with the world ‘behind the scenes’ which Shadow does not only understand, but to which he also rightfully belongs due to his partly divine origin.

Campbell acknowledges that the initial reaction to the return might be reluctant, as the hero does not want to leave the special place for the ordinary world and for that reason performs refusal of the return (Campbell 179) which parallels with the “refusal of the call”. Nonetheless, the cyclical pattern of monomyth suggests the restoration of the initial situation. This implies that Richard’s fate would be fulfilled in the London Above. However, upon Richard’s returning to London Above, despite his improved social status after his return, he displays great discontent with the “real world”. The restricted fantasy and recurring feeling of monotony makes Richard opt to return to London Below as he uses his freedom to live, the last step of the monomyth. He chooses to dwell in London Below since this is a place where he is provided with purpose and the feeling of belonging. This move of declining to restore the initial state is by Jódar viewed as a subversion of the mythological pattern which is reflecting the discourse of contemporary society (Jódar 168). Peksen comments on Richard’s decision to stay in London Below as follows:

instead of meaninglessly fast-moving and fast-changing consumerist society where life consists of a series of obligation, he chooses to remain in a world where time is not an issue, survival is the sole objective and the only business transaction is bartering of needs and favours (Peksen 85).

In the case of Shadow, he too Richard refused to fully restore the initial situation. However, unlike Richard, he does not stay in the alternative realm but decides on isolation: “Shadow had had enough of gods and their ways to last him several lifetimes. He would take the bus to the airport, he decided, and change his ticket. Get a plane to somewhere he had never been. He would keep moving (Gaiman 627). Slabbert claims that his choice conforms to the novel’s theme of eternal return (152). Moreover, Shadow’s reluctance to opt for either world goes hand in hand with postmodern refusal of closure. Even though, the monomyth in both cases fails to restore the initial state, it nevertheless, serves as redemption for each protagonist, allowing them to find purpose and feeling of worth on their journey. In essence, the restoration of the initial situation is not only undesirable but also unnecessary as the objective of their transformation is achieved in the alternative world; moreover, upon their re-entering of the ordinary worlds, the original issues would arise again as they were strongly connected with the environment of the primary word.

This chapter aimed to scrutinise the development of Richard and Shadow on the pattern of Campbellian monomyth, the aim was to outline character change in comparison to their

48 initial state in the primary world and their condition after completing the hero’s journey. This thesis claims that, through the monomyth, Shadow and Richard rediscover their purpose in life and dispose of their postmodern difficulties described in the previous chapter. Upon accomplishing their journeys, they undertook a process of individualisation which enabled them to dive into unconsciousness and to embrace archetypes that lead them to recognition of their true self. Despite the different opinions on their exit from the alternative worlds, both, Richard and Shadow, after fulfilling their journey exhibited a feeling of contentment and meaningfulness which they greatly lacked in the primary world. Michelle Magwood described postmodern dilemma as ‘a profound loss of faith, […] and atmosphere of doubt” (210.) In contrast, the answer to this bleakness might well be found in myth and fantasy worlds, where chaos and noise are transformed into harmony. Last but not least, in a similar fashion to Richard’s and Shadow’s figuring as mediators between the fantasy and reality, Gaiman too, as pointed out by Slabbert (152), fulfils the role of someone who bridges the contemporary society and myth in his works. Since readers can relate to the protagonists and feel the burden of the contemporary society on their shoulders, Gaiman “heals” the readership by designing a creative and alternative world. By inviting his readers to join the characters in leaving the mundane life and entering the fantasy world, he offers an imaginative escape from their postmodern existence.

9 Conclusion

The main concerns of this thesis were the protagonists of Neil Gaiman’s novels, Richard (Neverwhere) and Shadow (American Gods). The thesis aimed to asses the characters of Shadow and Richard against the backdrop of a postmodern world and depict their development and character transformation over the course of the novels. For that, it firstly introduced key features of postmodernism to provide an over-view of the era of the writing of the novels, as well as to draw attention to the significant politics of postmodernism which reflect in its way of life. Secondly, it tried to situate Gaiman in the postmodern literature scene by outlining his use of postmodern writing techniques in the novels. The thesis argued that Gaiman’s employment of intertextuality, namely his implementation of mythology and legends, played an important part of the creation of the alternative worlds. Moreover, by exploration of the writing techniques used by Gaiman in the novels, the thesis discovered a certain similarity between the protagonists and novels. The thesis states that the characters of Richard and Shadow epitomised Neil Gaiman’s writing as they, too, represented a fusion of the old and the new within themselves. After that, the focus of the thesis shifted to the exploration of postmodern life and its correlation with identity crises. It described some of the leading theories on identity crisis in the postmodern era and scrutinised the character of Richard and Shadow against the backdrop of these claims. In consequence, the thesis argued that the societal context has a significant effect on the shaping of the characters’ identities and, on that account, the thesis found that both Richard and Shadow did not lead their lives to their full potential as the postmodern atmosphere made them feel supressed and abandoned. Moreover, the thesis claimed that the protagonists would thrive in the right environment; for that reason, the following chapter was dedicated to the depiction of alternative worlds created in the novels and their opposition to the primary postmodern worlds. The thesis pointed out several reasons why the fantasy realms offered the characters sanctuary through the means of stability and by embracing inherited narrative patterns. The last part of the thesis examined Richard and Shadow’s character development within the frame of the famous monomyth by Joseph Campbell. It analysed crucial steps taken in their journey which eventually led to the rediscovery of their identity. Besides, it evaluated the state of the protagonists' identities in contrast to their initial situation in the ordinary world and it reflected on the protagonists’ decision not to re-join the primary worlds after reclaiming

50 their identities. It concluded that the protagonist indeed showed more content in the alternative worlds and thus they did not desire to be part of the postmodern society any longer.

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