On the Idea of the Secondary World in Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi

• Authors: Bartłomiej Błaszkiewicz

Abstracts

EN

The paper seeks to explore the concept of the secondary world as developed in Susanna Clarke’s 2020 fantasy novel Piranesi. The analysis is conducted in the context of the evolution of the literary motif of fairy abduction between the classic medieval texts and its current incarnations in modern speculative fiction. The argument relates the unique secondary world model found in Clarke’s novel to the extensive intertextual relationship Piranesi has with the tradition of portal fantasy narratives, and discusses it in the context of the progressive cognitive internalisation of the perception of the fantastic which has taken place between the traditional medieval paradigm and contemporary fantasy fiction.

Keywords

EN

fantasy; secondary world; fairy abduction; medieval; C.S. Lewis; Susanna Clarke

• Publisher: Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw
• Journal: Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2021
• Issue: 30(1)
• Pages: 111-132

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Bartłomiej Błaszkiewicz

Identifiers

DOI

10.7311/0860-5734.30.1.08

Biblioteka Nauki

2049071