Czy przyjemność jest antytezą bohaterstwa? O metamorfozach mitu bohaterskiego w literaturze popularnej na przykładzie postaci Cohena Barbarzyńcy z cyklu o Świecie Dysku Terry’ego Pratchetta
Is Pleasure the Antithesis of Heroism? On the Metamorphoses of the Heroic Myth in Popular Literature Based on the Example of the Character Cohen the Barbarian from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Novels

Author(s): Anna Szóstak
Subject(s): Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: This article is an attempt at answering the questions about the shifting functions and meanings of traditional typological categories in fantasy literature, and especially in its variation which, thanks to humor and parody in the fantastic details, has the ambition of recording and commenting on reality also in its depiction layer, related to the broadly-understood culture and its emerging paradigms, stereotypes, and conventions. Tracing these relationships on the example of a heroic character leads to very interesting findings and conclusions confirming that the convention of comic fantasy was for Terry Pratchett a sophisticated conveyor of subtle and very relevant philosophical observations regarding the mental, civilizational, and cultural psycho- and socio-sphere, as well as the transformations that occur in them. Thus, the subject matter of pleasure viewed in the context of the heroic myth gives rise to considerations about the sphere of values and meanings far beyond the discussion, which is based on the Epicurean model of life and the understanding of existence.

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