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The Book as a Passage between Reality and Fantasy World －A Study on the Fantasy Novels of M. Ende and C. Funke－

  • Journal of Humanities
  • 2015, (58), pp.305-335
  • Publisher : Institute for Humanities
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : July 3, 2015
  • Accepted : August 5, 2015

Sangwon Ahn 1

1성균관대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to analyze and compare two German fantasy novels: Michael Ende's The Neverending Story and Cornelia Funke's Inkheart. In both narratives, the ‘book’ plays a very important role. In the novels, the fantasy world and the real world are mixed by overlapping or clashing. It is the book that serves as a passage connecting the two worlds. The protagonists of the novels are book readers. While reading, they experience a peculiar fantasy world from the book. However, in both novels the fantasy world and the real world are related to each other in different ways. In the Ende's work, Bastian, a boy, goes into the story of the book. The reader becomes a hero in the fantastic story. It means that in the reader's imagination a fantasy world turns into a vivid reality. Bastian discovered “the true will” of love through a fantasy world tour. Then he returns to reality. In contrast, in the Funke’s novel, the fictive characters in the stories are called to the real world. Through the existences that came from the fantasy world, the order of the real world is interrupted, and the world falls into chaos and crisis. Maggie and her father must restore the order of the real world through a series of adventures. It is confirmed in these novels that the fantasy elements are caused by the blending of reality and the fictional world. In order to communicate lively with the fictional world in the book, the imaginative absorbed reading is required. In this sense, the protagonists of The Neverending Story and Inkheart are excellent readers. Therefore, these novels could be also a kind of homage to the reading culture which gradually disappears in the digital video era today.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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