Vol.6, No 1, 2008pp. 95 - 107
UDC 821.111-312.9.09 PULLMAN P. ;
821.111-93-31.09 ALMOND D.
'EVERY ONE OF THESE GHOSTS HAS A STORY':
THE FUNCTION OF STORYTELLING IN PHILIP PULLMAN'S
THE AMBER SPYGLASS AND DAVID ALMOND'S
KIT'S WILDERNESS
Danijela Petković
Faculty of Philosophy, Niš, Serbia
In Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, the last novel in His
Dark Materials trilogy, the heroine, Lyra Belaqua, meets her Death,
leaves her soul behind and enters the Land of the Dead. Once there, she
frees the dead from their eternal prison of nothingness and enables them
to rejoin the land of the living and be 'out in the open, part of everything
alive again'. This astonishing feat, in many aspects comparable to Christ's
celebrated victory over Death, is achieved through - storytelling.
David Almond's novel Kit's Wilderness, on the other hand, is
much less ambitious in scope, but equally poignant and compelling in its
portrayal of the life-saving, life-affirming power of storytelling and
art in general. The paper analyzes the different ways in which these two
authors emphasize the power of creativity to give meaning to human life
– the task especially relevant in this day and age, when the value of
life is denied on a daily basis. Also, The Amber Spyglass and Kit's
Wilderness are examined in the larger context of the genre/mode they
belong to: young adult fantasy and magic realism respectively. In contrast
to common dismissal of fantasy as self-indulging escapism, it will be argued
that these particular novels do not utilize the conventions of fantasy
in order to encourage their young readers to escape from the 'real' world,
but to communicate some very real, universally human, existential experiences.
The didactic-socializing aspect of young adult literature will be taken
into account as well, in an attempt to demonstrate that both novels, while
employing the conventions of fantasy, actually convey explicit messages
of crucial importance for the life here and now, firmly grounded in the
belief that, as Pullman puts it, 'for us there isn't any elsewhere'.
Key words: storytelling, fantasy, magic realism, death, life
'SVAKI OD OVIH DUHOVA IMA PRIČU':
FUNKCIJA PRIPOVEDANJA U ROMANIMA ĆILIBARSKI DURBIN FILIPA PULMANA
I
KITOVA DIVLJINA DEJVIDA ALMONDA
U romanu 'Ćilibarski durbin', poslednjem delu trilogije 'Njegova mračna
tkanja' Filipa Pulmana, junakinja Lajra Belakva upoznaje svoju Smrt, rastaje
se sa dušom i dospeva u zemlju mrtvih. Tamo oslobadja duhove iz zatvora
večnog ništavila i omogućava im da se vrate u zemlju živih, i da budu
"napolju, na otvorenom, ponovo deo svega živog". Ovaj neverovatan podvig,
koji može da se uporedi sa Hristovom slavnom pobedom nad smrću, postignut
je - pripovedanjem. S druge strane, roman 'Kitova divljina' Dejvida Almonda
je manje ambiciozan ali podjednako dirljiv i ubedljiv u demonstriranju
moći pripovedanja, i umetnosti uopšte, da spasi život. Ovaj rad analizira
kako oba autora naglašavaju moć kreativnosti da osmisli ljudski život
– a taj zadatak je posebno važan danas, kada se vrednost života poriče
svakodnevno. Zatim, oba romana se analiziraju u kontekstu žanra tj. modaliteta
kome pripadaju, a to su omladinski fantastični roman i magični realizam.
Nasuprot popularnom odbacivanju fantastike kao samopovladljivog eskapizma,
dokazaće se da se ovi romani ne služe konvencijama fantastike da bi ohrabrili
svoje mlade čitaoce da pobegnu iz "stvarnog sveta' već, naprotiv, da
bi preneli neka vrlo stvarna, univerzalno ljudska, egzistencijalna iskustva.
Takodje će se uzeti u obzir i didaktičko-socijalizujuća strana omladinske
književnosti, u pokušaju da se dokaže da oba romana korišćenjem konvencija
fantastike zapravo prenose eksplicitne poruke od vitalnog značaja za život
ovde i sada – jer su oba čvrsto utemeljena u verovanju da, kao što
Pulman kaže, "za nas ne postoji nijedno drugde".
Ključne reči: pripovedanje, fantazija, magični realizam,
smrt, život
