Fantasy and Reality at Crossroads: Exploring Mythical and Mortal Worlds in Select Novels of Rick Riordan
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Date
2024-12
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Avinashilingam
Abstract
Rick Riordan’s children’s fantasy adventure, Greek mythological retelling series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a major popular fiction sensation, has captured a place in mainstream status in the world of literature. A deep dive into the plot and narrative structures of the first five novels in the series, The Lightning Their (2005), The Sea of Monsters (2006), The Titan’s Curse (2007), The Battle of the Labyrinth (2008), and The Last Olympian (2008) using the theories of Julia Kristeva’s Intertextuality, William H. Gass’s Metafiction, Linda Hutcheon’s Historiographic
Metafiction, Jean Francois Lyotard’s Incredulity towards metanarratives, the conventional models – Gustav Freytag’s ‘Freytag pyramid’, Northrop Frye’s criticism of myth, John Gardner’s ‘Fichtean Curve’, Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium, Vladimir Propp’s narrative structure, Joseph Campbell’s ‘monomyth’ or the Hero’s Journey, John Clute’s structure of fantasy, and Christopher Vogler’s ‘Mythic Structure’ and character functions as identified by Vladimir Propp, Joseph Campbell, Christopher Vogler, and A. J. Greimas’s concept of actants, help to illuminate the elements of fantasy in the plot of the select novels with the potential to be transcribed into the reality of readers, thereby cementing it’s significance among readers of all age groups. The realistic themes represented in its mesmerising armoury of fictional, mythical world like social justice, diversity and inclusivity, ecology, dark themes such as the death and loss of loved ones, psychology, emotions, and contemporary concerns of growing up cements it’s status as a narrative self-portrait and a reviser of grand narrative traditions. The study demonstrates a subversion of the conventional structural and narrative models in the select novels that provide authentic voices which are reflective of true life. It highlights the transformative power of children’s fantasy literature, suggesting alternative ways of thinking through aesthetic and social advocacy that instils the message of living with the awareness of one’s culture.
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English