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ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY MAGIC IN FANTASY: NARRATIVE STRATEGIES FROM 1970 TO 2010 AGNIESZKA ANNA JĘDRZEJCZYK-DRENDA A thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Anglia Ruskin University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Submitted: March 2017 Acknowledgements To my examiners, Robert Maslen and Una McCormack, for a stimulating viva experience and the insightful comments that helped me shape this thesis. This thesis has been the longest, the most challenging and most rewarding quest of my academic life. Embarking on it would have been impossible without my truly fantastic guide, Farah Mendlesohn. Thank you for accepting me as your student, for introducing me to fantasy scholarship and for your continuous support and encouragement. A great thank-you to Sebastian Rasinger for becoming my second supervisor at a late stage of this journey and for reintroducing me to the seven beauties of linguistic analysis. To Audrey Isabel Taylor for being a fairy godmother to this project. Thank you for all your friendly advice and support, regardless the distances or time-zones, and for cheering me daily to the finish line. To Edward James and Brian Attebery for their advice and book recommendations. To Marek Oziewicz for his unwavering enthusiasm for this project and great support. To Sarah Herbe, Stefan Ekman and Aidan-Paul Canavan, for their friendship and willingness to discuss magic in fantasy for hours. To fellow SFF Masterclass and ICFA attendees for making fantasy scholarship such a great adventure. But most of all, to my dearest husband Krzysztof, for being by my side from the very inception of this project, for his love, emotional and financial support, and for continuously spurring me toward success. To my beloved son, Joey, for being a beautiful dream-come-true and for giving me the motivation I needed to shape this thesis. To his brother Johnny, for providing the final kick in the back that mummy needed to complete her doctorate. And finally, to my mum, for always believing in me and reminding me to her last moments that she was proud. 2 ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ARTS, LAW & SOCIAL SCIENCES DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY FICTIONAL MAGIC IN FANTASY FROM 1970 TO 2010 AGNIESZKA ANNA JĘDRZEJCZYK-DRENDA MARCH 2017 This thesis seeks to examine narrative strategies of magic in fantasy fiction published from 1970 to 2010. Very little work has been done previously on magic in fantasy, and none focuses on magic as a part of the world-building process or examines such a broad range of works. Taking magic as the main subject matter, I investigate fantasy novels to see what patterns of magic emerge. I examine magic according to the thematic conceptualisations that are at the foundation of magic world-building. I argue that these conceptualisations, which I call narrative strategies of magic, influence not only the process of world-building itself, but other narrative elements, such as plot and characterisation. I then investigate magic at its most basic narrative level, from the perspective of the magic event that takes place within the narrative. The magic act and the character of the magic-user are the two lenses through which the in-depth analysis is performed, in which I argue that the introduction of magic into the text has vital bearing on the development of the narrative. The thesis begins with a general investigation of magical parameters in fantasy and is followed by five thematic chapters, each devoted to a strategy of magic. First, I use the theory of intermediality to explore the music strategy and argue how music constructs magic. Second, I deploy the Dance and Movement Therapy theory to discuss magic depicted through movement. Third, I investigate one of the most recent developments in the construction of magic in fantasy, the narrative strategy of artisan skills. Fourth, the concept of knowledge and scholarly framework is applied to discuss more scientifically-oriented forms of magic. Fifth, I examine the concept of primordial language to uncover the complexity of linguistic magic. Key words: fantasy, narrative strategies, fictional magic, the magic-user, the magic act 3 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 8 1.1 The Aim of the Thesis 8 1.2 Why Fictional Magic 9 1.3 Short Definitions of Fictional Magic 10 1.4 Familiarisation and Narrative Strategy of Magic 10 1.5 Methodology 14 1.6 The Scope of the Thesis 16 1.7 Critical Position on the Fantasy Genre 17 1.8 Some Terminology 19 1.9 Thesis Structure 20 2 Magic 22 2.1 (Non-fictional) Magic as an Object of Study 22 2.2 Defining Fictional Magic 25 2.2.1 Magic and the Magic Act: Constancy and Temporality 28 2.3 The Magic Act 31 2.3.1 The Magic Act as Transaction 32 2.4 The Magic-User 33 2.5 Concluding Reflections 49 3 The Narrative Strategy of Music 52 3.1 Fantasy and Music: Werner Wolf’s Intermediality in Practice 52 3.1.1 On Thematisations 54 3.1.2 The Magic-User as Magician 61 3.2 Magic-Users: Duets and Choirs 68 3.3 The Magic Act: A Song 75 3.4 The Magic Act: Instrumental Music 77 3.5 Concluding Reflections 79 4 4 The Narrative Strategy of Movement 81 4.1 Nine Princes in Amber: Movement, Fantasy Sequence and DMT 82 4.2 On Circular Movement 89 4.3 On Cognitive Movement 96 4.4 The Magic Act and Emotional Engagement 97 . 4.5 Concluding Reflections 99 5 The Narrative Strategy of Artisan Skills 101 5.1 Fantasy, the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts Movement 101 5.2 On Artisan Skills 106 5.3 The Magic Act and Textile Skills 109 5.4 The Magic Act and Metal Skills 120 5.5 The Magic Act and Other (Artisan) Skills 131 5.6 Concluding Reflections 134 6 The Narrative Strategy of Academic Knowledge 136 6.1 Knowledge and the Academic Framework 136 6.2 The Wizard of Earthsea: An Early Example of the Academic Framework 139 6.3 Sympathy and the Magic Act 140 6.3.1 The Depiction-less Magic Act in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 149 6.4 The Magic Act and the Knowledge of Gems 157 6.4.1 Scrying Through Crystals as the Magic Act 160 6.5 Concluding Reflections 165 7 The Narrative Strategy of Primordial Language 166 7.1 The Primordial Language in Context 167 7.1.1 The Linguistic Discourse 168 7.1.2 The Mythic Discourse 170 7.1.3 The Theological Discourse 173 7.1.4 On Glossopoeia 175 7.2 Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Primordial Language Strategy 180 5 7.3 Prophecy as the Magic Act 183 7.4 Primordial Language as a Major and Minor Strategy: Variations 187 7.5 Concluding Reflections 190 8 Conclusion 193 Primary Bibliography 197 Secondary Bibliography 203 6 COPYRIGHT DECLARATION Attention is drawn to the fact that the copyright of this thesis rests with Anglia Ruskin University for one year and thereafter with Agnieszka Anna Jędrzejczyk-Drenda. This copy of the thesis had been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is bound by copyright. 7 1 – Introduction This is a study of fictional magic in contemporary fantasy fiction published between 1970 and 2010. It begins with an explanation of why I have chosen to examine fictional magic in fantasy and a discussion of the aims of the thesis, along with the key terms I will be employing. I then briefly explain my critical position on the fantasy genre, discuss the choices of my primary texts, and give an overview of the contents. 1.1 The Aim of the Thesis The aim of this thesis is to fill a gap in fantasy scholarship by investigating fictional magic in contemporary fantasy narratives published between 1970 and 2010. Fictional magic is a figment of imagination and a fantastic element which constructs the imaginary world. Although fictional magic may be inspired by historical magical practices, the two are not the same. In this thesis I follow in Stefan Ekman’s footsteps. In Here Be Dragons (2013) Ekman deploys a topofocal, or place-focused approach, in which he is ‘in favour of topofocal readings of fantasy, as a complement to traditional approaches, because setting is as important as character or plot’ (p. 2). In this thesis I adopt a magifocal, or magic-focused, approach to fantasy fiction because, in fantasy, fictional magic is as important as setting, character or plot. My secondary interest lies in the way that the reader is exposed to magic for the first time. In Rhetorics of Fantasy (2008) Mendlesohn investigates how ‘the fantastic enters the 8 text and the reader’s relationship to this’ (p.xiv). In this vein I want to investigate how fictional magic enters the text and how that first introduction of magic influences the narrative. 1.2 Why Fictional Magic? I have chosen to investigate fictional magic in fantasy, because it is yet an unexplored territory of fantasy scholarship. In The Magic Code: The Use of Magical Patterns in Fantasy for Children (1988), Maria Nikolajeva attempts to provide a survey of narrative techniques deployed in fantasy, with magic being a focal point. However, the initial question of magic and its patterns is lost in Nikolajeva’s thesis, because it gives way to a discussion on world- building in secondary worlds, along with an attempt to define the genre (p. 25). Lori M. Campbell, in Portals of Power: Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy (2010), investigates the idea of a magical portal as a multiple symbolic platform. However, the title is misleading to a scholar of the contemporary fantasy genre, because most of Campbell’s investigation encompasses texts that can be identified as fantastic rather than fantasy, like William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland (1908) and J.
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