Bewitching Writing
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Bewitching Writing An Analysis of Intertextual Resonance in the Witch- sequence of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Aalborg University November 2006 Written by: _____________________________________________ Dorthe Andersen Supervisor: Jørgen Riber Christensen Total amount of keystrokes: 181492 = 75,6 normal pages 1 2 Contents: Introduction __________________________________________________________ 5 Problem__________________________________________________________________ 8 Terry Pratchett ___________________________________________________________ 8 Choice of texts ___________________________________________________________ 10 Methodological approaches_________________________________________________ 11 Definitions __________________________________________________________ 13 Intertextuality____________________________________________________________ 15 Forms of transtextuality ___________________________________________________ 18 Analysis ____________________________________________________________ 23 Off-stage ________________________________________________________________ 25 Titles ________________________________________________________________________26 Equal Rites _________________________________________________________________26 Wyrd Sisters ________________________________________________________________26 Maskerade __________________________________________________________________28 Carpe Jugulum ______________________________________________________________28 Forms ________________________________________________________________________29 Punctuation _________________________________________________________________30 Footnotes___________________________________________________________________32 Comments ____________________________________________________________________36 The Stage and the Lines ___________________________________________________ 37 The Discworld _________________________________________________________________38 The Opera House _______________________________________________________________40 Opera______________________________________________________________________41 Masques ___________________________________________________________________42 Word games ___________________________________________________________________43 The Cast ________________________________________________________________ 47 Names _______________________________________________________________________47 Being a witch __________________________________________________________________50 The power of three ___________________________________________________________51 The feminine ________________________________________________________________53 Language Use _________________________________________________________________55 Forn languages ______________________________________________________________55 Speech in writing ____________________________________________________________57 The Function and Purpose of Transtextuality ______________________________ 59 Transtextual functions_____________________________________________________ 61 Types of hypotexts ________________________________________________________ 63 Texts ________________________________________________________________________64 The formulaic__________________________________________________________________65 Human folly___________________________________________________________________66 Grand narratives________________________________________________________________66 The Fantastic Pratchett________________________________________________ 69 Fantasy _________________________________________________________________ 71 Pratchett and fantasy______________________________________________________ 73 3 Conclusion __________________________________________________________ 75 Bibliography_________________________________________________________ 81 Articles and books ________________________________________________________ 83 Internet resources ________________________________________________________ 84 Interviews ____________________________________________________________________85 Correspondence ________________________________________________________________86 Appendix ___________________________________________________________ 87 1. Page 25 of Maskerade ____________________________________________________ 89 2. Danish Summary _______________________________________________________ 90 4 Introduction “Now, how did I start out? It was to have fun with some of the cli- chés. It was as simple as that.” (Pratchett in Young 2005) 5 6 Reading has always been my drug of choice, and since I happened on the works of Terry Pratchett I have not looked back. My feelings on said occasion can best be likened to Mr Groatberger’s reaction upon reading Nanny Ogg’s Joye of Snacks : “A word caught his eye. He read it, and his eye was dragged to the end of the sentence. Then he read to the end of the page, doubling back a few times be- cause he hadn’t quite believed what he’d just read.” ( Maskerade , 15) Terry Pratchett’s writing is both complex and multi-layered. The storylines in the novels are themselves entertaining, yet beneath the surface various references to numerous other works throng. The books can be read by young and old alike, revealing different degrees of intricacy along the way. It is this jungle of multiple layers and meanings which caught my eye, and which I wish to investigate here. This web of hints, asides and references is called intertextuality. In fact Pratchett has provided a description of the concept: “All books are tenuously connected through L-space and, therefore, the content of any book ever written or yet to be written may, in the right circumstances, be deduced from a sufficiently close study of books already in existence.” ( The Last Continent , 23) On the Discworld books, especially magical ones, lead separate, secret lives, making the library a place you enter at your own risk. However, beyond the surface of mere shelv- ing lies the L-space: “All libraries everywhere are connected in L-space. All libraries. Everywhere.” ( Guards! Guards! , 171). This is where all books are connected, and li- braries interact. This study then, is going to be an expedition into the perilous realm of L-space, pursuing the links from Pratchett’s work to other texts, their functions and pur- poses. Pratchett has stated that his reasons for writing originated in a wish to have fun with clichés, as the initial quote shows. As will become clear through the analysis, he em- ploys both clichés, figures of speech and metaphors to good advantage in the stories. By rejuvenating the ways in which we regard these sometimes fixed images or myths, he manages to make his reader both laugh, cry (well, at least tears are involved) and recon- sider previous assumptions about some of the thematic treads of the stories. Terry Pratchett does not have a very high opinion of literary criticism, as evidenced in the Unseen University’s library: “[The Librarian] waited patiently as a herd of Critters crawled past, grazing on the contents of the choicer books and leaving behind them small piles of slim volumes of literary criticism.” ( Guards! Guards! , 191) 7 Perhaps this distaste is a result of experience, as his books, while widely popular among readers, have not received much critical acclaim in reviews and academia (Butler, James and Mendlesohn 2004:viii). This is the case for much fantasy writing, which has often been relegated to a secondary position within the world of literature. Recent years have seen a number of works on Pratchett, however, and it is to this body I dare make a con- tribution. Hopefully, the end result will provide evidence to the qualities and nuances of fantasy in general, and Pratchett in particular, so that I might be forgiven dragging the Discworld under the microscope of literary investigation. Problem The chief point of interest fuelling the investigations in this paper is intertextuality. However, that alone is an immense field and hence unmanageable. Therefore, the focus has been narrowed down to the point of interaction between the genre of fantasy and intertextuality. The fantastic, like any other genre, has its own characteristics and typical traits. I have chosen to look at a specific range of novels within the Discworld works of Terry Pratchett, a fantasy writer. His books utilize a lot of intertextuality, in different forms. The problem which this thesis seeks to solve, then, is this: What form and function does intertextuality have in Terry Pratchett’s work, and can a set of categories be made? In what ways does his use of intertextuality conform to the fantastic genre? Terry Pratchett This thesis is dedicated to investigating the works of Terry Pratchett. Who is he? Before diving into the wondrous world of his writing, an introduction is in place. The small author-introductions given in the books are both annoyingly uninformative, and amus- ingly introductive to Pratchett’s universe. The discerning reader may, of course, sieve some facts from the text: “Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 and is still not dead. He started work as a journalist one day in 1965 and saw his first corpse three hours later, work experience meaning something in those days.” (Maskerade , 1) The information given here is correct, even as the tone introduces the playful atmos- phere and attitude found in the Discworld. Terry Pratchett grew up in a small village in Buckinghamshire. He discovered fantasy and became a fan, inhaling magazines and books, and even attending several