Fantasy fiction often appropriates the topos of the library to reflect upon the generative power of literature and on our ability to tap into it. Since the publication of Jorge Luis Borges’ influential short story, The Library of Babel (1941), the image of the library as a universe in itself, as a repository of virtually boundless (if unfathomable and labyrinthine) knowledge has become a recurring feature in fantasy literature. This essay seeks to investigate how British author Genevieve Cogman and American author Scott Hawkins refer to this tradition in their respective novels The Invisible Library (2014) and The Library at Mount Char (2015), through an analysis of some specific elements. In both texts, the structure of the library is represented as an interdimensional core, a macrocosm from which other dimensions may develop (including our own): each alternative reality hinges upon the library, which is in itself boundless, albeit rigorously arranged. While Cogman chooses to highlight the library’s function as a portal to other worlds, thus staging a traditional quest consistent with the informing paradigms of fantasy fiction, Hawkins stresses its metaphysical quality, reflecting upon the idea of God and its viability in our contemporary culture. Furthermore, these conceptions are equally associated with an understanding of language which enhances the tropes of words as “speaking” things into existence. Whether enchanting or emanating from the library’s ordering force, the verbal tools devised by Cogman and Hawkins revolve around the idea that language is power, and that through language reality can be reshaped.
Wor(l)d-making Libraries: Fantastic Libraries as Creators of Alternative Realities
Camilla Del Grazia
Primo
2021-01-01
Abstract
Fantasy fiction often appropriates the topos of the library to reflect upon the generative power of literature and on our ability to tap into it. Since the publication of Jorge Luis Borges’ influential short story, The Library of Babel (1941), the image of the library as a universe in itself, as a repository of virtually boundless (if unfathomable and labyrinthine) knowledge has become a recurring feature in fantasy literature. This essay seeks to investigate how British author Genevieve Cogman and American author Scott Hawkins refer to this tradition in their respective novels The Invisible Library (2014) and The Library at Mount Char (2015), through an analysis of some specific elements. In both texts, the structure of the library is represented as an interdimensional core, a macrocosm from which other dimensions may develop (including our own): each alternative reality hinges upon the library, which is in itself boundless, albeit rigorously arranged. While Cogman chooses to highlight the library’s function as a portal to other worlds, thus staging a traditional quest consistent with the informing paradigms of fantasy fiction, Hawkins stresses its metaphysical quality, reflecting upon the idea of God and its viability in our contemporary culture. Furthermore, these conceptions are equally associated with an understanding of language which enhances the tropes of words as “speaking” things into existence. Whether enchanting or emanating from the library’s ordering force, the verbal tools devised by Cogman and Hawkins revolve around the idea that language is power, and that through language reality can be reshaped.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
