BY THE STRENGTH OF THEIR ENEMIES: THE VIRTUE OF THE STEREOTYPICAL ANTAGONIST IN TERRY PRATCHETT’S ‘WITCHES’ NOVELS BY CATHERINE M. D. JOULE A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington (2021) 1 2 Abstract The comic fantasy Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) are marked by their clear and insightful approaches to complex ethical issues. This has been noted in academic approaches from the beginning, with Farah Mendlesohn’s chapter “Faith and Ethics” appearing in the early collection Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature (2000) and many others since touching on the issues Pratchett raises. However, this thesis’s investigation into the use of stereotypes in characterisation and development of the antagonist figures within the Discworld novels breaks new ground in mapping the course of Pratchett’s approaches across six Discworld novels. This argument will focus on the ‘Witches’ sequence of novels: Equal Rites (1987), Wyrd Sisters (1988), Witches Abroad (1991), Lords and Ladies (1992), Maskerade (1995), and Carpe Jugulum (1998). Unlike other sequences in the Discworld series, these novels have a strong metatextual focus on the structural components of narrative. In this context, stereotypes facilitate both the humour and the moral arguments of these novels. Signifiers of stereotypes invoke expectations which are as often thwarted as they are fulfilled and, while resulting in humour, this process also reflects on the place of the individual within the community, the nature of right and wrong, and how we as people control the narratives which define our lives and ourselves. In closely examining the role of antagonists in the development of an ethical thread through the sequence, I argue that the careful use of stereotypes in these texts serves as a key shorthand in engaging the reader in the philosophical bent of the novels. 3 4 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................ 2 Dedication ........................................................................................................ 6 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... 8 Introduction .................................................................................................... 10 Chapter One – Men Would Be an Island: Equal Rites .................................. 27 Chapter Two – Picking Up the Crown: Wyrd Sisters .................................... 55 Chapter Three – A Lady All in White: Witches Abroad ............................... 83 Chapter Four – Forgotten Sing-Alongs and Lullabies: Lords and Ladies .. 113 Chapter Five – No Actor Anywhere Quite Like an Opera Ghost: Maskerade ...................................................................................................................... 141 Chapter Six – No New Things Under the Sky: Carpe Jugulum ................. 167 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 193 Works Cited ................................................................................................. 205 5 6 Dedication For my mother who taught me to create For my father who taught me to wonder And for my brothers who have taught me the value of both 7 8 Acknowledgements I would like to wholeheartedly thank everyone who has helped me, advised me, and taken care of me over the course of researching and writing this Thesis. In particular, I would like to thank my supervisors Geoff Miles and Harry Ricketts who have been endlessly patient and supportive. I have thoroughly enjoyed our many discussions about Pratchett and the many tangents. Katie Magaña, thank you for your words of wisdom, your honesty, and for being an inspiration. Thank you, also, to the rest of the staff and students in the English Programme at Victoria University of Wellington for making me feel like I belong here. To my family, who have supported me in so many ways over the years, thank you so very much for helping to make my study possible. Ellis Dawson, Jevey Chamritski, and Kate Gill, you all have my deepest appreciation for the time we have spent watching things and sharing food: it has kept me sane. Stuart Rainey, I am deeply indebted to you for the lunches, movies, and car rides when I most needed them, thank you. Paola Andrea Rodriguez, and all my flat-mates and office-buddies over the years, I am grateful to you for both your tolerance and generosity. To all my dear friends who have kept my spirits up along the way, ensured my vitamin civ uptake, and explored the Dungeon Dimensions with me, I am forever grateful. Thank you to Tulane university for allowing me access to archival collections, to MPCA who welcomed me so kindly during my trip to the United States, and to everyone who hosted me. Finally, thank you to everyone who went before and has made my way easier, this thesis would not have been the same without you. 9 10 Introduction When Granny Weatherwax stands before the Count Magpyr and says, “‘Only animals can’t help what they are’” (386), she gives voice to one of the fundamental underpinning concepts upon which the Discworld novels are based: we have the power to choose what we are. Michael Dirda claims in Bound to Please that, “Like earlier satirists, Pratchett is, at least in part, a moralist and, because of his vast readership, one with clout” (260). Terry Pratchett’s entertaining, parodic, and often satirical Discworld series tackles moral issues with deep gravitas that tightly juxtaposes with the lighter comedy of parodies and puns. The Discworld series’ referential humour and use of well-known stereotypes and tropes enhance the implied reader’s engagement with these issues, as the novels encourage critical thinking and questioning. His ‘Witches’ sequence of six novels published between 1987 and 1998 deals particularly with morality as it relates to narratives, and narratives as they relate to people. In focusing on the often confused morality evident in this sequence, Equal Rites (1987), Wyrd Sisters (1988), Witches Abroad (1991), Lords and Ladies (1992), Maskerade (1995), and Carpe Jugulum (1998), this thesis explores the connection between the polar extremes of good and evil, and in what terms these are defined or implied in the novels. Each of these novels engages with ethical issues through the interrogation of seemingly superficial stereotypes, while the fact that they span both Pratchett’s early apprentice work and his later, much more technically sophisticated writing means that the degree to which ethical concerns are explicit and implied in the texts can be compared across time. Primarily, this thesis examines Pratchett’s use of stereotypes in the characterisation of the antagonists of the Witches sequence and the role they play in the development of the moral themes of each text. Exactly what is meant by ‘stereotype’, given that it serves as a key term for this thesis, requires some elaboration. Michael Pickering, in Stereotyping: The Politics of Representation (2001), sets out to define the stereotype and takes forty-six pages to do so.1 Furthermore, Pickering’s intensively 1 He explains: “In the first two chapters I want to ask what a stereotype is, what it consists of and in what ways it can be said, conceptually, to hang together in any coherent and consistent manner” (1). His in-depth study attempts to practically outline and engage with the issues of stereotyping and, in truth, the entire text is engaged in the task of definition. 11 specific delineation of stereotyping is deeply rooted in the sociocultural perspective, which focuses on social and cultural conditions in which stereotypes arise; their potential homogeneous application, which assumes stereotyping is applied without variation to a group; and the negative aspects of stereotyping, assuming that social harm must arise from stereotyping. This specificity of context renders it somewhat less useful to this thesis. In emphasising the divide between the concept of a category of thought and a stereotype, Pickering seeks to emphasise “stereotypes as elements of broad cultural practices and processes, carrying with them quite definite ideological views and values, [which] are not necessarily integral to our perceptual and cognitive organisation of the social worlds we live in” (3). The view of stereotypes as divorceable from the fundamental processes of cognition is unhelpful when discussing a text, as generalised consensus regarding meaning is integral to the worlds we create in fiction. Pickering and his peers who write about stereotypes as social/political scientists have distinctly different priorities to literary critics, and in dealing with characters within the boundaries of a text, the use of stereotypes to communicate should be recognised as both neutral and widely understood. Lee J. Jussim, Clark R. McCauley, and Yueh-Ting Lee, in the introduction to Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Difference, establish the difficulties in approaching stereotypes from a perspective which assumes their value. Rather than taking “the classic view of stereotypes as negative, inaccurate, and irrational” (Jussim et al. Stereotype Accuracy 19), this discussion will endeavour to take a more even-handed approach. A stereotype for the purposes of this thesis is a widely held assumption, expectation, or belief about a group of